War Memorials

[J Peasemould Gruntfuttock]

Just heard on the news this morning that the Government wants to bring in a law banning 'climbing on war memorials', with a penalty of 3 months' imprisonment and a £1,000 fine. They say this is because they want to stop protesters 'disrespecting the memory of those who died in two World wars' (can't remember the exact words, but it was some sort of bollocks along those lines).

This country is one big shit show, with people struggling to survive, choosing between heating their homes or eating, home ownership is beyond the reach of an enormous number of people, rents are stupidly high, jobs just don't pay enough and our NHS is fucked. Children leaving school today have a horrible future ahead of them. This, apparently, is what people fought and died for, and the Government apparently couldn't care less, just as long as they and their rich mates are OK.

I think the Government would be a bit more honest if it said, "We don't want the plebs disrespecting the memory of our war dead - that's our job".

[TrenterPercenter]

I think the Government would be a bit more honest if it said, "We don't want the plebs disrespecting the memory of our war dead - that's our job".

This is what they are saying non?

[lauraxsynthesis]

I've never seen anyone climb on a war memorial at a protest myself, but I wonder if this would apply to that Churchill statue that has had some creative interventions over the years.

I've certainly seen pissed up boys on a Saturday night climbing some town centre cenotaphs but it sounds like this isn't what the law is aiming at. More culture war nonsense. And presumably part of a succession of legislation aimed at ending the right to protest all together - nothing within a mile of a war memorial, within a built-up area etc.

[Pink Gregory]

and thus with the withering of the last generation that were conscripted, they are reconstituted into a big boot with 'lest we forget' stamped onto the heel.

it's *fucking* revolting, going around in your little Peugot Bipper with all tommies and poppies and spitfires vinyl-stickered onto them.  Vulgar anti-virtue signalling in the extreme.

[Butchers Blind]

More grasping tory bollocks in election year.

[touchingcloth]

We should implement something like those lèse-majesté laws what they have in Thailand. Flogging for anyone who farts on a poppy, decapitation for anyone who cum-tributes a Lee Rigby.

Interestingly, they're planning to specifically decriminalise this

[idunnosomename]

So what constitutes climbing anyway on something like this. Arent the steps part of the monument? What if you sit on the plinth?



I ate a sandwich on that once. Not right up there with the howitzer like, but still.

[Senior Baiano]

If you think about it, the Ingram-Moore's spa is kind of a war memorial

[dissolute ocelot]

There's always some kid climbing on this in Princes St Gardens, Edinburgh. Will they be hauled off to jail too?



Or because the bear's Polish will it not count?

[seepage]

I can understand commemorating the men and horses, but not the machines of death; everyone can probably imagine what a BFG might look like

[superthunderstingcar]

Why are protesters so keen on climbing on war memorials anyway?

Or...

Will the police be allowed to 'Gotcha' protesters by suddenly designating the bit of pavement they're quietly standing on a war memorial?

[Pink Gregory]

they're just *really* after David Gilmour's son

[idunnosomename]

I can understand commemorating the men and horses, but not the machines of death; everyone can probably imagine what a BFG might look like

well its a war memorial innit. It shows war. It wasnt very nice. Theres a dead bloke round the back.

Alternative was mannered classical whimsy like this. machine gun corp, well thats a lot like David innit, in the buff.


By criminalising any activist engagement with memorials tory cunts show they dont really care about any meaning other than authority though

[dissolute ocelot]

Police spend 6 hours trying to arrest the guy on top here:



Ashford in Kent has an actual tank as a memorial; reportedly kids used to climb on it but it seems to have been discouraged (any Ashfordians here?) Will they also arrest kids sitting on the barrels of historic cannons and anyone sitting astride an artillery piece trying to re-enact Cher's Turn Back Time video?

[shoulders]

This country is one big shit show, with people struggling to survive, choosing between heating their homes or eating, home ownership is beyond the reach of an enormous number of people, rents are stupidly high, jobs just don't pay enough and our NHS is fucked. Children leaving school today have a horrible future ahead of them. This, apparently, is what people fought and died for,

The worse things get and the more people see their living standards and surroundings declining, unfortunately a % cling on to the symbols of pride even if they are increasingly hollow. Since Iraq successive governments have leaned into it, not realising the damage this causes.

In the 90s it was possible to have an ITV documentary on at prime time panning Princess Diana and the ghoulish sycophanting narcissism that followed her death. There was a mainstream comedy sketch that openly mocked the Army.

Jingoism a disorder but it is one happening en masse as it is such an effective prop to shore up people's miserable existence trudging from Costa to Greggs to Tesco and back along decaying dog shit filled streets, derelict civic amenities and open sewers for waterways.

[shoulders]

Btw I passed through Castleford today

[Pink Gregory]

The worse things get and the more people see their living standards and surroundings declining, unfortunately a % cling on to the symbols of pride even if they are increasingly hollow.

The 'pride' seems so desperate.  Hundreds upon thousands of young men barely older than teenagers shot and bayonetted for marginal gains in a massive, epoch-defining colonial conflict that was ultimately left unresolved and led to a second that still has an unbreakable grip on global society today.

What's there to be proud of?  Fantasy 'chivalric' attitudes for armchair generals and aspiring boot boys. 

I work in a commemoration/war memorial adjacent role (trying not to doxx myself) and I'm somewhat uneasy about the idea that one day I might be required to pass some kind of loyalty test.

[Zetetic]

I ate a sandwich on that once. Not right up there with the howitzer like, but still.

My then girlfriend and I were moved on by the police from eating a pork pie on a (non-martial) ground-level grave in Andover, so there is precedent.

[gilbertharding]

Police spend 6 hours trying to arrest the guy on top here:



Ashford in Kent has an actual tank as a memorial; reportedly kids used to climb on it but it seems to have been discouraged (any Ashfordians here?) Will they also arrest kids sitting on the barrels of historic cannons and anyone sitting astride an artillery piece trying to re-enact Cher's Turn Back Time video?

I know Ashford. Yes, there's a WW1 tank in one of the squares, and it is supposed to be a war memorial. It has a roof over it now, but is open to the sides. There was a report published a few years ago warning that it might collapse within 20 years. Apparently at one stage during the last 100 years it was used as an electricity substation.


In my old home town there's a Crimean War Memorial, which, when I was a kid, consisted of a big empty plinth with the names of battles written on the side. There used to be a massive Russian gun on the plinth, but that had been taken away and melted down in 1942. Then one day in the 1991, a glass-fibre replica of the gun was put there. As far as I know, no-one has tried to climb on it.

Imagine if war memorials really worked. There wouldn't need to be war memorials.

[The Mollusk]

I work in a commemoration/war memorial adjacent role and I'm somewhat uneasy about the idea that one day I might be required to pass some kind of loyalty test.

Listen if you can't handle being urinated on or having obscenities spray painted on you then you shouldn't have taken that human statue job!

[Pink Gregory]

Listen if you can't handle being urinated on or having obscenities spray painted on you then you shouldn't have taken that human statue job!

it's me, I'm the unknown soldier

[superthunderstingcar]

it's me, I'm the unknown soldier

Neil Innes considers etc.

[PaoloTramezzani]

There's always some kid climbing on this in Princes St Gardens, Edinburgh. Will they be hauled off to jail too?



Or because the bear's Polish will it not count?

Wojtek the Polish war bear is a god damn hero and I reserve the right to climb all over his memorial until my dying breath, as he would mine.

[touchingcloth]

Is an old fuckfaced gammon going drunkenly on and on about the Blitz Spirit and are brave boys a war memorial? Because I climb on few of those, I can tell you.

[Cuellar]

Warm emorials I call them

[Zero Gravitas]

If someone were to affix a plaque to the cliffs of dover, would that instantly transform the entire nation into criminals?

[touchingcloth]

If I ride the captain's mouldering old corpse do I get:

A) charged with climbing a memorial

B) charged with elder abuse

C) charged with defilement of a corpse

D) released with time served

?

[Sebastian Cobb]

Ashford in Kent has an actual tank as a memorial; reportedly kids used to climb on it but it seems to have been discouraged (any Ashfordians here?) Will they also arrest kids sitting on the barrels of historic cannons and anyone sitting astride an artillery piece trying to re-enact Cher's Turn Back Time video?