GENERATION CHANGE

It was a very emotional business watching, via television, and listening, to D-Day veterans speaking from the beaches, towns and cemeteries of Normandy. In fact, the recent 70th anniversary probably brought something very special to an end, for although there will be other commemorations and special days which will help keep the 1944 landings within the scope of public recollection, none will be quite like the most recent example. In 30 years' time, remember, there will be no veterans alive to take part in the centenary anniversary.
Thus this period signals the beginning of the end of the pre-War and War-time generations, with their old-time memories and different outlooks.
Some decades ago I recall a debate opening up in the columns of our newspaper on how many more years there should be a service of remembrance for the victims of the R101 airship crash, and I think the general feeling arrived at was that 60 years was probably long enough. D-Day anniversaries have already out-lived that, demonstrating among other things how average lifespans have lengthened and how one batch of generations is coming to an end while another is already in the business of taking over.
This, I believe, is what is happening. The pre- and War-time generations are slowly disappearing and new generations will henceforth see the War represented by TV programmes, films, or books full of black and white images, rather than the presence of folk who actually took part.
This generational change-over is also contributing to a gear change in political opinion. Think of the old boys on the beaches. They welcomed allies, and they all took part in a common cause. And allies certainly rallied to the cause - from France, Norway, Belgium, Poland, Czechoslovakia, from Holland and Hungary, the USSR and the Balkans; and from India, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, Australia. And from America, and a host of other countries.
Indeed, during the last War the UK was awash with foreigners, and as far as I can remember, the UK was happy to see them, was grateful for their sacrifices, and made them feel at home. How long did this state of affairs last? Well, the welcome mat was probably beginning to be pulled away by the late 1950s, and step by step, grumble by grumble, it has been slipping away ever since.
Now the newer generations - bright and shiny, loaded with tablets (both kinds) and lattes, comfort zones and cars, and with a strident knowledge of their rights - want fewer foreigners over here (even though they themselves want to retain the right to travel and even live over there, if they choose to do so), and rather than co-operation, seem to be seeking greater isolation.
To this particular member of one of the pre-War generations, still with a bit more slipping away left to do, this seems not just a shame but also a sleepwalk into a more threadbare and difficult period. In future, we will still need our allies and we will need co-operation, just as my generation and one or two of its predecessors needed a League of Nations, then a United Nations, then a NATO, and then a European Community.
But the old order passeth, and we shall see. We shall see.