As the idiot teenagers protested this weekend, on MarchforEurope, one remark made widely by new media wags was that 100 years ago 100,000 teenagers died for democracy so that today 40,000 teeangers could march against democracy. It may appear a funny quip but it just happens to be untrue.
At the start of World War One Britain had universal male suffrage so was sort of a democracy. Our leaders were generally aristocrats and the King still had some power. We had a two house assembly of which one was elected.
The Germans also had universal male suffrage and a two house legislature ( the Reichstag and the Bundestag). Both its houses were elected. Its leaders were generally toffs and the Emperor had some real power. In short, the war was a quasi democracy vs a quasi democracy. The two countries had been vying for Imperial power for a good many years, the Dreadnought race being just one example. In short it was a contest between two Imperialist powers.
Overwhelmingly "our lads" from Britain and Ireland signed up to fight for King and Country in a sense of patriotic duty. So too did the German "lads". The teenagers who died fighting on the Somme did so as patriots, a word many of last weekend's marchers would, in their ignorance, no doubt regard as almost the same as xenophobes.
That contrast is a fair one worthy of discussion. I do not regard having an affection for one's country as somehow shameful. I have never regarded the Union Flag as being a symbol of far right groupings and thus something to be ashamed of, that idiot mindset and abandonment of our flag, was the preserve of the idiot liberal left. I see nothing but honour in the desire to protect one's homeland.
World War One has always struck me as an utterly pointless war. That does not mean that I don't respect and honour those who fought on both sides (perhaps with the exception of corporal Hitler) as they largely believed they were doing the right thing and acted accordingly.
On this occasion, let's not demonise the Germans by rewriting history. To say that our lads on the Somme died fighting for democracy is just not true.