Michael Gove and the rewriting of history.

As we face potentially fout years of British Unionist using the First World war as an attempt to envoke British Nationlism it has become clearer how the Tory ked government mean to pursue this 

Michaek Gove " Gove's interpretation in the Daily Mail on Friday, backing Culture Secretary Maria Miller's plans to ensure the centenary commemorations  ensed up as nothing but a jinogoistic tirade

In an extraordinary denunciation, Gove said "left wing academics", and series like the satirical Blackadder, sought to damage patriotism and portray the war as a shambolic game played by a bumbling elite.

I imagine Cove is particularly irked with the final scene in Blackadder 4 surely the most poignant in comedy history.

He wrotes

"Our understanding of the war has been overlaid by misunderstandings, and misrepresentations which reflect an, at best, ambiguous attitude to this country and, at worst, an unhappy compulsion on the part of some to denigrate virtues such as patriotism, honour and courage.
"The conflict has, for many, been seen through the fictional prism of dramas such as Oh! What a Lovely War, The Monocled Mutineer and Blackadder, as a misbegotten shambles – a series of catastrophic mistakes perpetrated by an out-of-touch elite.
"Even to this day there are Left-wing academics all too happy to feed those myths."

And made it plain that it his version of history  he wabts to be taught in schols

The Government wants to give young people from every community the chance to learn about the heroism, and sacrifice, of our great-grandparents, which is why we are organising visits to the battlefields of the Western Front.
The war was, of course, an unspeakable tragedy, which robbed this nation of our bravest and best.  But even as we recall that loss and commemorate the bravery of those who fought, it’s important that we don’t succumb to some of the myths which have grown up about the conflict.

What myths. That Thousands were sent over the top to attack  impregnable defences by Generals whom declined to visit the front line fore fear that the carnage would affect their judgement?

If you just want to see the carnage of the First World War just go and lok at the local War Memorial and I bet that there are more names on the 1914-18 conflict as the 1939-45 one.


Millions died because of the stupidity of our Generals and even more the action of our politicians throughout the Nations involved


On 31 July  I will be remembering Jean  Jaurès  the leader of French socialist was assassinated in a Parisian café, Le Croissant, 146 rue Montmartre, by Raoul Villain, a 29-year-old French nationalist

. Jaurès had been due to attend a conference of the International on 9 August, in an attempt to dissuade the belligerents from going ahead with the war.Villain was tried after World War I and acquitted but was killed by Spanish Republicans in 1936.

If we are to honour the memory of those who died in the first World War let us also honour the memory of those who tried to prevent it in the first place.