Why Second World War jingoism is now offensive – Yorkshire Post Letters

I SAW another tired reference to the Second World War in your letters section recently. The author – Dick Lindley – suggested that the UK government should send the French government the bill for us “rescuing them from the Nazis”.

I wonder how the author would feel if Russia, as Soviet Union’s successor state, were to issue us a bill for their help in defeating the Nazis, as their actions did more than push the Wehrmacht out of Soviet territory and contributed to the defeat of Nazi Germany.

I also wonder how our American and Canadian friends would feel about the claim that “we” rescued France from Nazi Germany? Stealing credit from this country’s friends does us no favours at all and will only hamper the “global Britain” brand. Finally, isn’t it time that the British moved on from the Second World War, as every other country in Europe, and no doubt further afield, has managed to?

From: Gordon Lawrence, Sheffield.

I’M afraid Ken Cooke, like a few of your Remainer correspondents, keeps getting lost in a jungle of anti-Brexit bias.

Ken defines patriotism as “doing one’s best for one’s country”, and from that flawed definition, and via some fatuous reasoning, concludes that most Remainers are the true patriots.

The Oxford Dictionary defines jingoism as extreme patriotism favouring war, militarism and is derived from an overzealous enthusiasm for an aggressive foreign policy in the late 18th century.

Are these hardcore Remainers happy to identify people who campaigned for another referendum as jingoists, when their only sin was to object to the undemocratic road Brussels was travelling on?

I was one of those so-called jingoists. In fact, I voted to stay in the EEC in the 1975 referendum – the institution was a relative docile animal, merely a customs union, and we were promised that it would remain that

way. I, like millions, fell for it.

From: Brian Lavery, Barlby, Selby.

THE biggest sponsors of global terror are Britain from its Empire days and America.

We invaded India, Africa and South East Asia, using cannon fodder recruited from the working class, and stole natural resources to build western industrial complexes.

To this day, armament companies dictate foreign policy. The wars in Iraq, Libya and Syria have dragged on for 20 years based on lies like “weapons of mass destruction”. The largest beneficiaries are the armament barons. They thrive on perpetual enemies – “Russia is a threat”, they sell more arms to NATO, “China is a threat”, they sell nuclear submarines to Australia.

Wake up before it is too late or our children will have no future.

From: Edward Grainger, Botany Way, Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough.

NOT long after Donald Trump became President he received a briefing from representatives of the Security Services concerning the on-going threat faced by America and its allies, including Britain.

As a result Trump was clear in his assertion that Britain faced a particular terrorist threat due to the high number of extremists living in various parts of the UK often undetected. When are we going to recognise this?

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