Will the centenary of the Great War focus on respect for the fallen?
Or will it be an occasion for jingoistic echoes of empire? There must be suspicions about the latter when British Future, a think tank tasked with setting a strategy for the commemoration, talks about engaging the "anxious middle of our society" who are not "securely confident about Britain today", and especially at a time when Scotland will be voting on its future in or out of the United Kingdom.
A survey by British Future and the marketing and brand department of the Imperial War Museum revealed a high level of scepticism among males in Glasgow about the proposed commemorations. This is undoubtedly down to the influence of family memories of the 200,000 Glaswegians who were sent to the war: nearly 18,000 were killed.
Some of the £50 million Great War centenary budget will be spent sending a limited number of schoolchildren to visit the battlefields in France and Belgium. In the interest of education, I suggest that every young person in Britain is given a free download of the final Blackadder TV series. This black comedy captures almost perfectly the madness and futility of the slaughter in the trenches. It is also time that Scotland examined the role in the Great War played by Edinburgh-born Field Marshal Douglas Haig. War leader or war criminal? He certainly faces charges of inhumanity and lack of imagination in strategic matters.
Finally, an apology from the British Government to the families of the men who died in vain would be appropriate.
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