Today I watched on television the various events to commemorate the D-Day landings. They were quite moving but many young people in Britain today have little understanding of why that event was, and is, so important to us today.

There are many, many, reports and comments on this the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings and I need not cite them here. However, I wish to highlight how history, and a particular historical event, can be ‘hijacked’ to promote a particular point of view. Immediately below is an article in the ‘Metro’ free newspaper of today, 6 June 2014. The spelling and grammar is reproduced exactly.

‘Disrepect’ on D-Day

‘It feels disrespectful to the many Scots, English, Welsh and Irish, who fought bravely and gave their lives, that on the anniversary of D-Day Scotland is considering breaking away from a union which has served well Scotland, its people and the world.

Operation Neptune, the largest amphibious operation ever, was a magnificent example of what the British can achieve together. It was planned by the British, commanded by Adm Sir Bertram Ramsay (whose family were Scottish) and equipped by the British (who provided 80% of the vessels) and Americans.

The combined coordination of English, Welsh, Scots, Irish, Americans, Canadians and other nations ensured success.’

William, Coldstream’

This letter to a ‘free’ newspaper ‘The Metro‘ demonstrates the ignorance (in the original sense of the word) of the writer in pursuit of a political agenda. The implication is that  if Scotland was then independent it would not have stood side by side with England, Wales, USA and Canada to fight for freedom and democracy.

Of the six ‘nations’ mentioned by name three of the six (America, Canada and Ireland) were, and are, independent nations. To suggest that Scotland would not, in similar circumstances, have supported the fight against Nazism is an insult to almost all ‘non-political’ Scots.

NOTE: Although Ireland did not fight as a nation against the Axis many Irish people found on the side of the Allies.