Bread, Circuses And Patriotism

Is it me? Or is it slightly barking to be spending £50million on a "national commemoration" of the First World War?

Even if the UK could afford it, what exactly is the point? I suppose the old adage about patriotism being the last refuge of a scoundrel could provide some of the answer.

Do we need anything further to remind us that this war was a catastrophic waste of countless lives? Or that war (remember Iraq? remember that Afghanistan has been going on for 11 years?) solves nothing?

The main cause of the Second World War? The First World War.

And here is David Cameron: "This was the extraordinary sacrifice of a generation. It was a sacrifice they made for us, and it is right that we should remember them." 

Perhaps it is enough to remember that this generation was sacrificed by its own military and political leaders.

Perhaps it is also worth remembering that the First World War was 100 years ago. What about the Boer War, the Crimean War? Should we still be commemorating them? And their careless, cruel and incompetent "sacrifice" of more young lives?

If this is the best that the UK government can come up with to re-run the "bread and circuses" effect of the Olympics, it does feel a lot like that scoundrel's last refuge.