Honesty and humility, not hubris please

This weekend, amongst the nationalism and nostalgia, social distance conga lines and rebellious street parties, I have been thinking about my dad and mum - who unlike most of the people hijacking VE Day to spout about sovereignty, actually experienced the war. Nicknamed the black cat on account of his dark hair, green eyes, quiet demeanour and brilliance at morse, semaphore and codes, dad was with the 8th Army in the Western Desert (Tobruk and El Alamein) and after North Africa, fighting his way up through Italy. Meanwhile my mum was working in London, travelling by trains frequently delayed, derailed or cancelled by bombing. Anxious to keep her, her boss arranged lodgings for her to avoid the perils of travel but when she arrived one day to find the office razed to the ground for the third time, she decided to stay in coastal Essex, taking a job in the War Department – and hoping that dad would return in one piece.

Which he did, bringing back a set of aluminium saucepans (mum was actually hoping for a piano accordion but recognised the practicality of the alternative), his campaign decorations and the British Empire Medal for bravery. The Signals Corps tried to keep him after VE Day with the offer of a commission but he turned it down and became a successful telecoms engineer until his untimely death at 55. Like so many veterans he never talked about his wartime experiences except for an occasional silly joke, but he returned with an aversion to being in crowded, dark and noisy places (cinema trips with my mother became a pre-war memory) and a lasting affection for Italy, humming opera while he shaved, remembering bits of the language and taking many trips there and to other places in Europe once we kids were off their hands - and payroll.

I don’t know where my mum and dad were on Victory in (not over) Europe Day in 1945, but I am absolutely sure they believed that the hard won peace was too precious to squander, ever again. They were both born in 1918, as WWI came to an end, managed through the Depression and then the difficult times following WWII. No rose tinted spectacles for them, but they were always positive, hardworking and independent.

Our Prime Minister imagines himself as a latter day Churchill. Boris Johnson should refresh his selective memory, stop talking about blitz spirit, 'taking things on the chin' and invoking jingoistic messages, turning the global challenge facing us into yet another British theatre of war and creating enemies not allies. He and other politicians would do well to recall Churchill's famous Zurich speech of 1946, in which he said, "We must build a kind of United States of Europe. In this way only will hundreds of millions of toilers be able to regain the simple joys and hopes which make life worth living. The process is simple. All that is needed is the resolve of hundreds of millions of men and women to do right instead of wrong and to gain as their reward blessing instead of cursing."

I make no apology for this political post. We are facing an extraordinary time, where we need all the business, scientific, economic, intellectual and practical skills we can muster. Businesses who operate the way our government is doing would rightfully go to the wall. It is a time to end the vacuous nudge theory slogans, the drip feed of rumour and counter rumour, the mind numbing waste of money through inefficient procurement, over promising and manipulating reality by spurious comparisons. Saying that the rate of British deaths due to Covid 19 is not the highest in Europe because we are no longer in the EU - leaving Italy to top the list - is utterly shameful.

Yes, of course this country can achieve great things – we see it daily through individuals and companies who take action themselves, in the face of incompetence, an obsession with dealing with favoured organisations and a total lack of leadership. Time for honesty and humility - consign hubris to the past.