Dear Editor, Chris Upton has made a number of claims in his articles which are arguable, but worst so far (Post November 11) is his objection to wearing a poppy which contained the comment that “If the Second World War was about anything... it was to defend the cause of freedom.”
This is “newspeak” and manufactured myth making. War was declared on National Socialist Germany because it invaded the non-democratic republic of Poland. Great Britain, and France, knew that after invading Austria, the Sudetenland, Bohemia, and Moravia, the Nazis had ambitions to control the continent.
That was backed up by intelligence received that the Luftwaffe and Panzer Armies were designed with a war of continental conquest – subsequently proven – aim. For Great Britain it was, therefore, a war of self defence, and had it been otherwise we would not have accepted an ally in the USSR – the most evil (and least free) nation on earth. The danger of Mr Upton’s rewriting of history is that it encourages the invasion of “backward” countries to enforce our (present) view of “democracy” and “freedom”.
It does not take into account that other cultures may not have the same values, and would anyway take time to reach them.
Being made to accept something is not the best motivation, an argument spuriously used (nobody is forced to wear a poppy) in his article. Our Judeo-Christian values, with which Dr Upton may be in accord, would be better served by preventing them from being watered down, and sublimated into a political correctness which views humour with abhorrence, and results in “freedom” being that some groups are “more equal” than others.
Councillor Peter Douglas Osborn
Weoley (Con)
Birmingham
