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Eighty years ago, the start of the second world war saw Nazi Germany invading
Poland. Six years later, up to 85 million people were dead. I’m in Poland this
weekend to commemorate the start of the bloodiest war in human history.
An entire generation of brave men and women around the globe sacrificed
everything to defeat the singular evil of Nazism and fascism.
We should be proud of Britain’s role in winning the war, but also in helping to
build the peace that followed. A whole generation – both here and around the
world – were determined that never again must we repeat the horrors of the
1930s and 1940s. This laid the foundations in the years after 1945 for more than
seven decades without another world war. And it is now to today’s generations –
inheriting the better, safer world envisaged in 1945 – that future peace and
prosperity is entrusted.
With the numbers of those who remember that dark period dwindling by the day,
fewer survive to tell their story and to warn current generations of the lessons
from history. Worryingly, these warnings are increasingly pertinent. For the first
time in more than 70 years, it seems the lessons of the second world war are
genuinely at risk of being forgotten or, worse still, being rewritten.
The EU and Nato, so instrumental in preventing another bloody world war, are
facing unprecedented attacks – often from leaders of the very nations that helped
create them. Support for democracy is at a record low across the western world,
and the values that define liberal democracies are under siege – from the rule of
law and the independence of the judiciary, to a free press and a vibrant civil
society.
by Donald Trump, the global poster-boy for white nationalism. Politicians across
Europe are following his example by seeking to exploit division to gain power –
from Matteo Salvini in Italy to Marine Le Pen in France.
I am not saying we are reliving the 1930s but the warning signs are there. If we
act now we can ensure a different path
Mainstream political parties on both left and centre-right have a crucial role to
play and a huge responsibility to show genuine leadership. Both must reject,
outright, the scapegoating of vulnerable communities for short-term political
gain and rid our political dialogue of this divisiveness.
All this will require the UK to work more closely with other countries, not less.
Instead of pursuing Brexit and poisoning our relations with the rest of the
continent, we should be exercising our soft power and showing leadership in the
fight against the far right.
ARTICLE 25 preparadorsecundariaingles@gmail.com
I’m proud to be mayor of the most outward-facing, international and tolerant city
in the world, with strong links across Europe and the globe. But I also know that
without the sacrifices of those from all continents who fought in the second world
war, London’s history could have been very different. So we have a special
responsibility to honour the memory of all those who sacrificed so much to
protect us all those years ago – by defending the ideals they died for and ensuring
the more peaceful and stable world they built lasts for generations to come.