This is not a nation Britain’s brave wartime soldiers, sailors and airmen would recognise - editor’s comment
In the throes of a global pandemic - a national and international public health emergency - Her Majesty set about reassuring us that she could see in our generation the same character, resilience and fortitude she saw in our wartime forebears.
She told us from the heart that she believed we would defeat coronavirus, just as this nation’s most courageous generation defeated tyranny and fascism, because she can see in us now what she saw in people then.
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Hide Ad“Our streets are not empty,” she said. “They are filled with the love and the care that we have for each other. And when I look at our country today, and see what we are willing to do to protect and support one another, I say with pride that we are still a nation those brave soldiers, sailors and airmen would recognise and admire.”
One month later and the statue to the greatest leader this nation has ever had, Winston Churchill, is hidden beneath a steel box. The Cenotaph - a free nation’s thank you to the Glorious Dead to whom we owe our liberty - ensconced in steel for its own protection.
That is not a nation those brave soldiers, sailors and airmen would recognise; one that hides its story through fear? I do not think so.
Moreover, now is not the time to distract ourselves with worrying about protecting sacred sites of national importance. The death toll from Covid-19 has eclipsed that of The Blitz, the economic ruin runs far deeper.
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Hide AdAnd so it is time for loud voices and courageous characters to help remove that distraction by calling for, and helping to ensure, calm so that in the first order of business, we can return as a nation to saving as many lives as possible from coronavirus.
Then we can we begin a national conversation geared towards finding a way forward that protects the welfare of each and every person in the land, providing equal prospects, whilst ensuring the history of this great nation stands intact, offering life lessons - be that in the streets or in museums - to us all in perpetuity.
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Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.
Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.
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Hide AdAnd that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.
Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.
If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.
Sincerely. Thank you.
James Mitchinson
Editor
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