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Writer's pictureMatt Dean

80 Years On And What Have We Learned?

Today is the 6th June - D-Day. The day that thousands of young men from the UK, US and Canada, supported by many more young men from all over the globe, men of different backgrounds, cultures and skin tones, risked or sacrificed their lives and futures so that Europe could be free of fascist, authoritarian tyranny. 


80 years on, it is essential that we remember the catastrophic results of the apathy and inaction which led to a war so violent and horrific, that it’s unimaginable to all but the very few who remain. 



We are blessed that we have never experienced anything like the chaos, fear and slaughter committed between 1939-1945. In the forefront of our minds on a day like today, ought to be our unwavering desire to never, ever let anything like that happen again. 


But, unfortunately, we are forgetting. We are allowing the same ideologies to take hold and sow fear, mistrust and radicalism within our communities.


In 1944, Operation Overlord launched to once and for all defeat Nazi Germany. The Nazi’s weren’t the only tryants on earth at that time, nor were they the first or indeed to be the last. Although we don’t like to admit it, our own nation was losing it’s grip on an empire that had been taken with equal brutality and bloodshed. Stalin’s Russia and Mao’s China would slaughter millions of their own people and wars would continue to rage in the name of Democracy/Capitalism versus Communism/Socialism. 


But for many, WW2 symbolises a battle for the type of world we hope we can one day achieve, a world where people are treated equally, where freedoms are protected and true democracy can be upheld. 


What we have seen since 2016 is that we are a long way from achieving true democracy, and as we look back at the carnage and sacrifice of 6th June 1944, I'm going to assume that’s what the majority of us still want...right?



 


True democracy is something that we must continue to fight for. To obtain it, we must have truth, integrity and principle in our politics and politicians. We must go into general elections and referendums with the fair assumption that we are going to get balanced and honest arguments from all sides, in order to make the best decisions for ourselves, our communities, our countries and our world. 


We can’t make the best decisions about anything based on lies, corruption and someone else's self-interest. But that’s exactly what happened during Brexit and is exactly what’s happening to British politics. Want to know what our politics is going to look like in the not too distant future? Look across the water to the USA. The writing is on the wall and we’re about to shoot ourselves in the right foot whilst we’re still hobbling on the self-inflicted, Brexit wounded left. 


If you like me, woke up on 24th June 2016 and couldn’t believe the referendum result, that so many of your national brothers and sisters had fallen for the lies and misinformation of the Brexit campaigners, and you were left angered by the lack of character and leadership evident in combating it, I implore you not to allow apathy and inaction to lead us down even darker roads in future. 


It is not overly dramatic at this point to state that it was ultimately apathy and inaction that led to the rise of Adolf Hitler. D-Day need never have happened. Brexit need never of happened. Trump need never of happening.


Brexit was never about heavy handed EU governance, immigration or more money for the NHS. It was and is about the US exploiting the UK, and removing the EU from the picture makes that easier. It is about rogues and charlatans taking office and further feathering their own nests with the privilege. Look at the pandemic PPE scandal if you need reminding that “conservatism is about putting yourself before the many” as selfish toff Jacob Rees-Mogg so helpfully reminds us.  It's the same players who sold the Brexit lies who are claiming they can fix it with their "tough on immigration" rhetoric and and insubstantial populist "policies" as they shift ever further to the right.


So many of our politicians are on the corporate American payroll. Prior to their political careers they are bankers and hedge funder managers, post politics they are consultants, advisors and guest speakers.


There are too many to list here but what they have in common is that they are weak, they are greedy and they are liars. They don’t care about what’s Best For Britain, or what’s best for you, they only care about what’s best for themselves. American democracy is corrupt and so is ours, and yet all the while, the politicians, who are reshaping Britain in a way that suits themselves and their US paymasters, are blaming immigrants and people in your community who have absolutely nothing to do with rising costs, an underfunded NHS, national security or inflation.


We are once again being lied to and distracted by the people who are ACTUALLY responsible for the cost of greed crisis, Brexit, PPE corruption etc. etc. and we cannot let them influence and threaten our politics and freedoms again.


The Nazi’s used the dehumanisation of the Jews as the victims in their power grab and now in both the US and the UK, it is migrants who are, for want of a better phrase, in the same boat. 


Trump’s ascent in America has emboldened the far right, racists and fascists across Britain. The links are direct and clear, particularly between Trump and Nigel Farage. Farage sees himself as the UK answer to his American Idol. The Apprentice. He wants to distract you with small boats while he gets in bed with his equally racist American paymasters. They want you looking the other way while they make their power grab. 


I’m not saying that Farage and Reform will win the election, of course they won’t. But they are being empowered all the time by the gains their US counterparts have made in the US. They want what Trump had and they will follow his playbook to the letter to try and get it. 



Brexit was achieved with lies and those same media outlets will lie to you again to get what they want, which is power, money and influence at your expense. They need you to vote your powers away, just like Hitler did. 


You might think that this sounds dramatic but it’s all there to see. We don’t live in a true democracy, we live in a brittle and fragile one. We must fight firstly to keep what we have so that we can endeavour to make it better. 


There are no short-term fixes and democracy won’t be lost or saved at this election, but where we go from here is crucial. Assuming Labour win, we must hold them to account as the party of the workers. They must show the principles and character not shown by the disgraced Tories. We must remember that our elected politicians are there to represent us, not themselves or whoever is paying them. They are accountable to us and we must ensure they do what is best for us, our communities, our country and our planet. 


Donald Trump and Nigel Farage have no solutions, they are part of the problem.  


The Republican Party is now the home to the far-right, misogynists, white supremacists, Christian extremists and the bizarre Cult of Trump. It is a direct threat to the American constitution and what passes as democracy in America. 


The Reform Party is a vehicle for Farage’s ego and more frightening still, he will model it and shape it in the image of what now passes as the Republican Party. Reform is the type of party that appeals to Tommy Robinson and that should tell you everything you need to know.


These people are not lovers of freedom and democracy, they are merchants of fear and tyranny. They are driven by their own inadequacies and insecurities, they derive their power by exploiting weakness in others and manipulating the truth. They will stop at nothing to get what they want and as we’ve already seen, once they have it, they will not give it back.  


These people are not what your fathers, and grandfathers were fighting for, they are exactly what they were fighting against. 



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