Sunder Katwala

How should we mark the Great War’s centenary?

It seems strange now to recall that, it was not so many years ago, around the time of the millennium, that some in Whitehall were talking about how to scale down Remembrance Sunday. One theory was that marking the centenaries of the start and end of the Great War could also mark an appropriate moment to bring the solemn Cenotaph ceremonials to a gentle end. The assumption was that Remembrance would gradually lose its resonance and relevance once the generations who fought the Great War had all passed on. Such thinking did also reflect the mistaken New Labour view of the Dome era: that Britain would be able to face the future more confidently if it let go of the historical baggage which could weigh us down.

That is not how things turned out. If anything, Remembrance seems to be gradually growing in resonance, with little sense among the children and grandchildren of the wartime generations that this doesn’t mean anything relevant to them. And perhaps, paradoxically, because recent military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan have been politically contentious, they seem to have renewed a sense of connection with the armed forces who, as in the Great War, do not make the political decisions about war and peace that put them in harm’s way.

As Prime Minister David Cameron speaks at the Imperial War Museum today, to set out the government’s thinking about the centenary of the Great War, he will spark a broader civic debate about how to mark this national moment. As a solemn moment of commemoration will, naturally, be very different in tone to the celebrations of the Queen’s Jubilee and the Olympic Games, but could prove as important in bringing people together.

The public want to see special efforts to mark the centenary, and to ensure we learn about it too.

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