Why the story of the 'Blitz' inspires today

Steve McQueen’s new film, ‘Blitz’ brings alive a story of a profoundly brave community, but also lessons for today’s society.

Although born 13 years after the end of World War II, the Blitz has been a profoundly defining impact on my life.

Physically, it provided the playground of my childhood, playing on the bomb sites (which were called ‘debris’ - ‘Mum, we’re playing on the debris’- and there were debris 10 yards either side of our terraced house in Poplar).

Culturally, what became termed ‘the Blitz spirit’ has been a source of inspiration for my Cockney identity, serving to provide meaning and significance to our work through the Modern Cockney Festival, celebrating the culture, heritage, and identity of the ‘non-posh Londoner’.

The film shows the community’s values in action, of resilience and defiance, resourcefulness, underpinned by an irreverent wit.

Across the UK once powerful assets for ordinary working people - their cultures and shared sense of identity - of inspiring stories and narratives, underpinned by shared values now sit under-used or untapped.

Yet, these assets - based on positive inclusive values - can today help individuals and communities stand up to adversity and tackle social prejudice, create a greater sense of community and togetherness to tackle the growing social polarization in our society, and be more open to understanding one another.

The Oscar-winning film director’s latest offering tellingly reveals how the heroic story of the Blitz wasn’t exclusively a white one. The brave and significant contribution made by Commonwealth service people and Britain’s black community that was here 250 years before Windrush, are rightly celebrated.

I look at a Luftwaffe photo with its aerial view of their dropping bombs on the East End of London, with my Dad’s and his parents old house, in the top right corner of the shot, visualising how they were probably fearfully awaiting their fate, in their backyard’s cold, damp, dark Anderson shelter, not knowing whether they were going to live another day, at the mercy of a Luftwaffe bomber’s split second timing of when it released its bombs triggering the difference between life and death.

I reflect now on today’s world, full of its own fears, how it needs to respect and harness a ‘Blitz spirit’ not in a nostalgic way, but instead informing a narrative that generations later we still can pull together, respect one another, regardless of backgrounds, cultures, and beliefs, and face up to our common foes, whether it be the Climate Crisis, aggressive autocratic regimes, or our society painfully pulling itself apart.

For me, Cockney’s powerful legacy is of a constantly regenerated story, with every new wave of arrivals from around the globe leaving their imprint on an evolving culture, along with its positive stories and heroes - from the Matchgirls strikers to the ‘Battle of Cable Street’ and now, thanks to McQueen’s rekindling, of the ‘Blitz spirit. A memory and legacy not taught in our schools, while media stereotypes of right-wing racists with Cockney accents prevail, and social prejudice and injustice persist against working people.

I for one will wake up to a new day, determined not just to survive, but keep fighting for a better life for our community, and our children’s children, still here thanks to the remarkably bravery or ordinary people in an extraordinary situation of the Blitz.

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