Oedipus Lex

- This is the last in a series of eleven and a half posts leading up to Remembrance Day. The following was written as a guest post for eminent legal blogger Charon QC and can also be found on his website -

It is with honour and a sense of trepidation that I have been asked to write this short piece on Remembrance Day. As I sat at my computer I wondered how I could possibly do justice to such a theme, I can’t but I can at least try and explain what it means to me…

Let us put the charity aside for a minute and concentrate on the topic. We can ignore the tub thumping jingoism, grim faced politicians and the donations of profits from memoirs; what does that red flower mean? To me it is apolitical and I think this is the most important point to remember. I admire and support anyone wearing the white poppy, really I do, but I think it misses the point slightly. Remembrance Day and the symbolism that goes with it is not about the rights or wrongs of wars it is about the wrongs, it is about the people who died in them not the causes they were killed for. I will always avoid using phrases such as ‘Died for his country’ or ‘made the ultimate sacrifice’ because, for me, this implies that all the wars in which our young have died have been worthy of sacrifice; some have but we need to be very honest and admit that the overwhelming majority have not been.

War is hell. It is horrific and is the ultimate example of our failings as a society. Those that died were victims; they may not have been innocent, they may have been brave, they may have been guilty, they were often stupid and quite possibly they were the vilest individuals to walk the earth. However, that does not make them any less a victim of something that was not of their own doing, they were sent to face the forefront of scientific, processed, mechanical destruction and they did not return.

Every red poppy I see on a lapel encourages me. It means you remember people like my great-great uncle Walter who died in the trenches; you remember Mac, Stew and Cocky who were killed in Afghanistan last year and Steve who killed himself after numerous tours. For me Remembrance Day is just that, it is to remember. It is to think of those that are not here today to be with their families or who never had the chance to have a family. It is not just to think of those that died from our own countries; think of the lost of in Baghdad, Basra, Helmand, Belfast, Freetown, Berlin, Oman…

What Remembrance Day is not is a time to celebrate our martial prowess and we should be very careful of that. They are not ‘our brave boys’ they were boys, just boys. Do not turn this into a circus or pantomime but use it as a time to be thankful that you are well and your family are with you. Be grateful it is not your son or daughter that has been killed to sate another man’s ego but think of those who have. And never, ever believe the old lie: Dolce et decorum est pro patria mori…