Cameron's new publicity stunt

Arrrggghhhhhh wrong link....lol

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2216074/First-World-War-Centenary-Children-school-visit-trenches-mark-100-years-outbreak-First-World-War.html

£50 million!!!! Reasonable to encourage remembrance but this is OTT!

A commemoration in 1918 when the war ended would be more appropriate but then, of course, he might be out of office.

They are just desperate to think of something to make them look good.
Teacher will be really fed up about this I should think.
Just think how many extra computers you could put into schools for that

And he wants everyone to have a privileged upbringing. The most expensive education in Britain - or even in the world - and he can't understand a 3 syllable word. I wonder if he could manage 'idiot '.

Once upon a time young people in this country could aspire to a University Education . I don't know what the hell he was talking about yesterday. Some can't even get into college or the 6th form because of the mess up with the English exams [why are they having to resit them; why can't they be re marked??]. As for getting on the property ladder...

Silly man!

The IMF have downgraded UK's recovery to dismal and have advised the government to actively consider growth strategies, - that hasn't been mentioned yet by "call me Dave". Perhaps he will encourage developers to build thousands of Etons with huge rowing lakes for the whole of the UK's children? Of course he will have to up the resources to each school by about a squillion

Four members of my family died in WW1, including my maternal grandfather. We are already planning a family visit to northern France in 2015, the centenary of the year three of them died. My DGC, who will be 8 and 5 will learn about the war and their family's sacrifice in a quiet reflective family situation. Much better than in a school junket to France.

I hope the BBC will re-run the long series on WW1 that it made in the 1960s. I recently bought it and watched it - and found it compulsive watching. Also the 1980s serialisation of Testament of Youth, Vera Brittain's (Shirley Williams mother) story of her service in the VAD and the loss of her only brother, fiancee, and two close male friends. There are other television programmes that could be rerun, Oh What a Lovely War, Journey's End, Blackadder etc.

What I would like to see is a long and thoughtful look at what the war did to our society, the generation of children who grew up without fathers, the women, married and unmarried, without husbands and the loss of so many brilliant and gifted young men, like Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke etc, whose lives were truncated so young.

Nothing I have mentioned would require money. Cameron's plans are just political posing and mishmash photo opportunity education and commemoration..

I agree with sentiments expressed by FlicketyB and Absentgrana entirely.
If schools still held proper assemblies at the start of the school day, then these anniversaries would be honoured every year and children would grow up knowing of these events. Perhaps schools could be provided with appropriate project material via the internet too.

FlicketyB I booked tickets at our local theatre some time last year to see Journey's End, a play I had already seen a couple of times over the years. This was an award-winning production and I thought Mr absent would find it worthwhile. He was a bit iffy when I gave him an outline of what he was about to watch, but totally mesmerised by the mixture of humour and horror once the play got going. The curtain call was magnificent and so clever. With a backdrop of names of dead soldiers that looked as if they were carved on a memorial, the actors all stood stone still with a bright spotlight "flattening" them so that they looked like statues. No one applauded but simply stood in silence. Many people had tears on their cheeks, including the children in the audience.

Hate to say it, but the plans for this commemoration were in the pipeline LONG before Mr C came in to Number 10! Remembrance of the "War to end Wars" is important, but what I saw about the areas to be covered raised a smile. The Battle of The Somme lasted a very long time. Visits to the battlefields for all Secondary students would be good if properly undertaken Too many times I have seen teenagers racing round WW1 cemeteries with clipboards (on one occasion with ipods blaring) and teachers at the gates having a quick five minutes. If it done sympathetically it will be worthwhile, but the cost of commemoration is far too high as the loss of life was.

Oh gawd! 'ere he goes agin.
He probably had his 'sincere' face on when he suggested it.

I too think a rerun of the WWI series would be good and FlicketyB's idea of looking at the effects of the war on our society is an excellent one.

Since I visited Fromelles and the environs where my grandad fought I find anything to do with WWI makes me want to cry. I'm just reading Pat Barker's trilogy based on WWI which I think is excellent. It's made me reread some of the poetry and again the tears run. And yet wars still continue; wars that will never be 'won' but young lives will continue to be 'sacrificed'

I am of the opinion 'whoever' was the incumbent Prime Minister, Cameron, Miliband or Clegg, the centenary would have been remembered. It is silly to to think otherwise.

The centenary will be acknowledged in many countries and it is right we take part. Obviously this is a personal opinion but I don't believe that the occassion can be forgotten about nor ignored. I am of the belief that whether it is 100 years or last week those who gave their lives for us to speak freely deserve to be remembered with respect.

I liked the part where Cameron spoke of his visit to a war grave at Gallipoli whilst in Turkey. He read an extract from the war memorial:-

"Those heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives,you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.

Therefore rest in peace.

There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side in this country of ours.

You, the mothers who sent your sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears, your sons are lying in our bosom and are in peace.

After having lost their lives on this land they become our sons as well".

So many men, so many countries at least we can remember their sacrifice surely.

Attaturk's words in fact. They are also on a memorial in Wellington NZ.
I don't have a problem with remembering the dreadful waste of WW1. My grandfather was gassed there and died in middle age of the after effects (I think). I would have a problem with a load of nonsense about glorious sacrifice etc.
But when the country is so short of money, and school budgets are feeling it this year, giving this ring fenced money to schools will surely be seen as a poke in the eye.

My daughter teaches about the First World War and the children make War Diaries, so it's very much still part of the curriculum [and very moving some of the diaries are, too]. I'm sure they watch Blackadder sometimes, as well. Whenever Michael Morpurgo does a reading of either War Horse or Private Peaceful the theatre is packed with local schoolchildren [I think they study both books for English].I missed Journey's End when it came to Nottingham last year; annoyingly it's not doing the rounds this year. Have just noticed that a film has been made of Private Peaceful as well. Oh, The BBC series about WW1 is probably the first series of it's kind that I can remember, and I don't think it's ever been bettered.

I don't think anyone was suggesting ignoring the anniversary or overlooking the men sacrificed willy nilly by incompetent generals and self-important politicians, but I have already seen seen the idea described as celebrating the beginning of World War I. I think David Cameron's attitude was very Rupert Brooke – "swimmers into cleanness leaping"– rather than Wilfred Owen – "What passing bells for these who die as cattle?".

I agree, absent - it has to be commemoration, and far from celebration. I loathe that Rupert Brooke poem, welcoming war as a purification!

DC in cleft stick isn't he. This country has been busily glorifying the war in Afghanistan for years now. The attitude of the country towards the army has noticeably changed. So he wants to commemorate WW1 while not ruffling the pro-army feathers. Double bind. I'd keep a low profile in his shoes.

It is right to remember all those who died in WWI but it is also right that those in positions of power today learn from the consequences of those in positions of power at the time who really did send men to their deaths and failed to support those who returned.

Have they learned anything? From those who return from Afghanistan with physical and mental health problems, it seems not.

Paying lipservice makes me very angry and upset. The Politicians should realise - and I'm sure that some do - that those thousands of names on the numerous memorials were real people with homes, families, hopes and dreams. When seeing so many names it's so very hard to take this all in. But this politicians and those planning the commemorations must do. And also, for my part, I think religion should be kept well out of it.

Rupert Brooke having died at the start of the war and Wilfred Owen seeing what a bloody war it turned into, I believe.