Read on Twitter
they actually did do this https://twitter.com/IJasonAlexander/status/1283517765156921345
In the build up to the Blitz there was a considerable amount of public whinging and moaning about government overreach. More relevant was the utter lack of care dedicated to public safety by the government with regards to air raids.
The government initially didn't have any plan for how to protect working class civilians who couldn't escape to shelter in the country. Shelters for those in communal housing were badly built and often dangerous.
For many, there was nowhere to sleep. The few shelters constructed weren't big enough. People wandered the streets, in bombing raids. Abandoned by their government. They took their self-protection into their own hands.
We have lovely depictions of tube stations being converted into shelters in movies et al. This was at first expressly forbidden by the government. But people disobeyed. They bought tickets, and they hid underground for the night.
People then began to occupy other deep shelters in public buildings. Churches, libraries. The government took credit for all this - called it British Resolve, Blitz Spirit. It was in truth action borne out of desperation and abandonment by government. Much the same as now.
We have so much in common with our ancestors and behave in much the same way. As we see now, some people got back to normal safely, others developed chronic psychosomatic and nervous conditions. Some of us go to the beach, some of us quarantine our mail.
Toilets were only installed in these shelters because committee groups of citizens demanded them. Like today, during the Blitz, the government was disdainful, behind, and it cost thousands of lives, needlessly.
People weren't 'heroic', they had no other choice but to exist in a terrible time, like us. Some people fled. Some people remained. Some people didn't want to turn their lights off. 'What's the point? Die in the dark?' Some people did everything right and died anyway.
Talking about 'Blitz spirit, British Resolve' is as offensive to the memory of the people who lived then as 'Get Britain Back To Work' would be now. Imagine people telling your story of 'bravely returning to the factories amid coronavirus', when the truth is you were forced to?
The replies to this cod-history are so telling as well. Everyone thinks the one picture they saw of one beach or one street, without context, tells a story of a nation or a people. We are as nuanced, complicated, self-preservationist, weak and resilient as we ever were.
And this time we're living in shares a great deal with that of the Blitz. To say 'how different we are' could not be farther from the truth. We were all abandoned by a negligent government, and everything that's been done to protect us was community-lead, or came far too late.
P.S This was stuff I had in the back of my head from years of being a pedant and history lover, but before I launched into a tirade, I did some fact checking. This article from 2011 (no longer updated, so sorry if stuff wrong) had the good stories. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/britain_wwtwo/blitz_01.shtml#four
Fuck Winston Churchill.
Goodnight.
Goodnight.
A little P.S about masks.
What we hear ‘the government issued every citizen with gas masks during WW2’. This isn’t untrue, but again, it is far from the whole story.
The gas masks were filled with asbestos, they were deadly, and often inadequate.
What we hear ‘the government issued every citizen with gas masks during WW2’. This isn’t untrue, but again, it is far from the whole story.
The gas masks were filled with asbestos, they were deadly, and often inadequate.
One company in Blackburn was tasked to produce 38million for the population. But there were issues with production and distribution. (Sound familiar?) People panicked and would reportedly do whatever they could to get ahold of one. It was messy.
That story reminds me a lot of the PPE tales of woe today. Government announce big ambitious thing that makes them look active and progressive, and the reality is a botched mess that kills people.
Anyway. Keep calm. Carry On.
Anyway. Keep calm. Carry On.
Stop voting Conservative.
