Nazi vs. Veteran.

Veteren wins!

Whatever. It's not like anything really bad happened back then anyway.

Can't Hallmark do anything?

When can their glory fade ?
O the wild charge they made!

answer: 65 years.

Gyrfalcon: Yep, why commemorate the fact that a bunch of annoying Yanks prevented most of Western Europe from having to speak German and salute an ugly flag in an uncomfortable manner.

what makes you think that the Germans would have started the germanification of western Europe?

jonnypeh: Gyrfalcon: Yep, why commemorate the fact that a bunch of annoying Yanks prevented most of Western Europe from having to speak German and salute an ugly flag in an uncomfortable manner.

what makes you think that the Germans would have started the germanification of western Europe?

History. You fail.

June 6, 1944 is the most important day in history. I don't know why it's not a paid holiday. Most of the world's current troubles can be traced back to England. The government there could do at least one decent thing.

We have remembrance Sunday as our main war memorial (originally marked the end of WW1 but now encompasses all conflicts).

How many remembrance days should we have? One for the start? One for VE day? One for VJ day? One for D-Day? One for Start of WW1, one for End of WW1? How about the more modern conflicts too? They should get their own days!

It's a lot of money to pay for veterans to go to these things and ultimately you have to draw a line. Using the 'but they bailed out the banks!' argument is asinine. You use that as justification for large (if comparatively small) spendings on lots of 'good causes' like these you suddenly find yourself having to fund a few thousand things that are 'only' £500K on an annual basis and the government goes massively over budget.

If veterans want to attend and are struggling financially, get funding from the Royal British legion. That's what they're set up for.

radioman_ Most important day in history my arse. 30 million dead Russians would like a word. Switch off the History channel and pick up a book.

I knew we should have stayed out of that war.

Lest we forget.

Iron Chef Scottish: radioman_ Most important day in history my arse. 30 million dead Russians would like a word. Switch off the History channel and pick up a book.

boo whoo :( poor commie pigs

The UK government paid for the trip in 1944, a time when a lot of these gentlemen would honestly have rather not visited the Normandy Coast.

At most the reunion trips would cost about L500,000 for all surviving UK vets to attend.
If government does not want to pay maybe the Queen could write a check?

Wow, that's kinda douchey.

Iron Chef Scottish: radioman_ Most important day in history my arse. 30 million dead Russians would like a word. Switch off the History channel and pick up a book.

I wonder what it would take for morans to finally learn the difference between 'Russians' and 'Soviets' and stop feeding Putin's jingoism? Yes, Russians (as an ethnicity) were the largest minority in the soviet union and even more (as a 'nationality') so if you accept the questionable concept of the 'Russian federation', but they should hardly get credit for everything done by the Soviet Union as this neglects the efforts made by tens of millions who were not Russians.

That is, except for the bad stuff. Give the Russians all the credit for the bad stuff.

Sid Deuces: At most the reunion trips would cost about L500,000 for all surviving UK vets to attend.
If government does not want to pay maybe the Queen could write a check?

£500K a year. Then there becomes questions about why korean war veterans don't get money spent on them, Gulf war veterens etc. There are millions of things the government *should* pay for because they're good causes, can they afford to pay for all of them? No. Therefore you have to limit what you can spend and you have to be fair in how you approve spending to avoid "but you gave..." situations.

As I said in my other post, there are charities around set up to pay for these trips.

I agree with the UK. I mean, WW2 veterans were pretty good back in the day, but what have they done lately?

radioman_: June 6, 1944 is the most important day in history. I don't know why it's not a paid holiday. Most of the world's current troubles can be traced back to England. The government there could do at least one decent thing.

I agree that is one of the most important days in history, but not the very important. Nor is England blamable for all the ills in the world. They're to blame for a whole lot of them, but not all. Personally, I find that Marx, Engels, and Lenin are far more responsible for most of the crap in the world today.

In this case, this fitful ignoring of their veterans' and this momentous occasion is just plain farked up by the British government. I wonder if the people who turn this sort of thing down can sleep at night, then I ask myself if they're even human enough to require sleep?

Geez what would it cost to load them on a few buses and send them across? $50 each?

Not exactly sending them to the other side of the world or anything...

what the story actually says is that the MoD will not pay the travel expenses of veterans who want to travel to france to join the rememberance being held there.

which i disagree with but isnt exactly the end of the farking world. this is my new game, read fark headline and then try to guess what the truth is before reading the artical. daily mail stories are generally easier than others.

I, for one, welcome our old Nazi-killing veteran overlords.

/Yes I know that's what the operation was called
//It would still be awesome to write a cheque to Overlord
///Glad this finally got re-greenlit

Bomb Head Mohammed:I wonder what it would take for morans to finally learn the difference between 'Russians' and 'Soviets' and stop feeding Putin's jingoism?

As a pedant I approve of this post. But God help you if ever in your life you have said "England" when you really meant "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".

Bloody ungrateful sob's. If it were not for those men (and woman), many of us would not be here today, and the English, and possibly the Americans, would be speaking German and stiff arm saluting a portrait of Hitler. The G.D. "Royal Family" better get their inbred asses over there if they know what's good for them. They are not exactly popular as it is.

Our Dad, a WWII vet, took the whole family to the ceremonies in Normandy several years ago when most of us kids were still in school. That's a family vacations I'll never forget. Very moving. During that same trip, we also traveled to one of the concentration camps. I would have rather gone to Venice or some other fun destination, but I'm glad I saw things first hand. The farkisn "something seen can not be unseen" comes to mind.

I'm glad and proud that the Americans and Canadians will still be attending.

log_jammin: so why has this not ruined the economy before now?

Because they've been following his advice.

Though I think they should pay for veteran's travel... while they still can.

JerkyMeat: England Labour, the worlds douchebag....

Even the Germans will join the commemorations and remember the fallen on both sides.

FTFY.

The money was used to replace a carpet in the Queen's palace instead.

log_jammin: so why has this not ruined the economy before now?

Um... you seem the state of the economy recently? It didn't ruin it but there isn't a whole lot of money the government can afford to spend on things that don't try to stimulate the economy and get people jobs.

Somacandra: FTFA: To compound the farce, the American and Canadian governments are sending top-level delegations to mark the momentous date.

B-B-B-But Obama HATES our veterans?!?! Fox News told me so!

I suggest you do a little research on Obama's plan for wounded veterans to pay for their own medical care for injuries they received on the battlefield. (new window) Or is CNN controlled by Faux News and the neocons now?

Jamieboy: If it were not for those men (and woman), many of us would not be here today, and the English, and possibly the Americans, would be speaking German and stiff arm saluting a portrait of Hitler

It's more like: If it were not for the Soviets we'd be speaking German, if it were not for those men (and woman) we'd be speaking Russian.

Though even this is a gross simplification.

/ Plus, it's highly unlikely that the Nazis could have invaded America

The key point in the article is this line:

"This is on the bureaucratic grounds that the MoD supports official events only for 25th, 50th, 60th and 100th anniversaries. "

In other words, the MOD does support certain anniversaries but is not a cash machine for annual or arbitrary junkets. As the Daily Mail is clearly made of money, maybe they should be funding everything out of their own pockets rather than begging their readers to fork out. A million quid should cover all the veterans plus travel and security so that high profile politicians, and royal family members can attend.

drxym: As the Daily Mail is clearly made of money, maybe they should be funding everything out of their own pockets rather than begging their readers to fork out. A million quid should cover all the veterans plus travel and security so that high profile politicians, and royal family members can attend.

Well put.

Gyrfalcon: Yep, why commemorate the fact that a bunch of annoying Yanks prevented most of Western Europe from having to speak German and salute an ugly flag in an uncomfortable manner.

Riiiiight.

Switch off discovery channel for a while and learn the facts. Everybody knows it was the Spanish who turned the tide.

Iron Chef Scottish: Most important day in history my arse. 30 million dead Russians would like a word

Well, fark'em if they can't take a joke.

log_jammin: abigsmurf: Um... you seem the state of the economy recently? It didn't ruin it but there isn't a whole lot of money the government can afford to spend on things that don't try to stimulate the economy and get people jobs.

your argument makes zero sense.

It makes no sense that when you have no money, you should cut down on spending? No wonder we're in the situation we're currently in.

radioman_: June 6, 1944 is the most important day in history. I don't know why it's not a paid holiday. Most of the world's current troubles can be traced back to England. The government there could do at least one decent thing.

The world was paradise before the English, oh wait...

1000Monkeys: It's more like: If it were not for the Soviets we'd be speaking German, if it were not for those men (and woman) we'd be speaking Russian.

Though even this is a gross simplification.

/ Plus, it's highly unlikely that the Nazis could have invaded America

It's actually pretty unlikely the Germans could've invaded Britain too. The RAF won the battle of Britain meaning they wouldn't have been able to defend a land invasion, the war in Africa dealt heavy damage to their tank corps and the Russians had decimated their army.

D-Day was an inside job by the Bush Administration.

/in before the 911 truthers

drxym:
As the Daily Mail is clearly made of money, maybe they should be funding everything out of their own pockets rather than begging their readers to fork out.

Such a gesture might even make amends in some small way for the fact that the Daily Mail was such an ardent supporter of both Hitler and Mussolini right up until we went to war with them.

It's not like the French ever commemorated it.

If Hitler had not insisted on invading the Soviet Union, eventually Britain would have to had to surrender or they would have been invaded...they made it out of the Battle of Britain by the skin of their teeth.

TFA: The total cost of all the British veterans and their carers - the youngest are well into their 80s - travelling to the event is expected to be around £500,000

That's it? America should just teach the cheap ass British government a lesson and very publicly pick up the tab for it. I'd rather increase the national debt a little for that than to give all of those failed AIG execs 100 million in spa treatments and bonuses that they don't deserve.

abigsmurf: How many remembrance days should we have? One for the start? One for VE day? One for VJ day? One for D-Day? One for Start of WW1, one for End of WW1? How about the more modern conflicts too? They should get their own days!

It's a lot of money to pay for veterans to go to these things and ultimately you have to draw a line. Using the 'but they bailed out the banks!' argument is asinine. You use that as justification for large (if comparatively small) spendings on lots of 'good causes' like these you suddenly find yourself having to fund a few thousand things that are 'only' £500K on an annual basis and the government goes massively over budget.

We know that at the very least that US, Canadian, French, and German officials will be in attendance. You can't honestly tell me that half of the G8 will meet and there won't be other discussion occurring at the event.

I hope all of you that are bashing the British Government have another page open donating to the charities to send these guys.