For the first time in my life, there will be no large Remembrance Sunday parade at the Cenotaph in Westminster. In fact, due to the various COVID-19 restrictions in place across the UK, the ceremonies traditionally associated with this day will be muted.
In some ways, this seems to be appropriate considering the situation we currently find ourselves in. We are at war with this virus, and the country needs to be on a war footing if we are going to win. Being in lockdown or living under restrictions is irksome ... and getting more so the longer it goes on. However, the alternative is worse. The prospect of the NHS being overwhelmed - and the death rate rising - is unacceptable ... so we have to learn to live with the restrictions just like our forbears had to live with far greater restrictions in order to win their wars.
I’m hoping that besides remembering the dead of the two World Wars and the other conflicts of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, today we will be able to remember those who are in the frontline in the current war against COVID-19, some of whom have paid the ultimate price. I‘m not just including the people working in the NHS, but also those who are supplying food and essential services, everyone working to care for the elderly and vulnerable, the members of the emergency, transport, and armed services, the scientists striving to find a cure or treatment for the virus, the country’s educators, and those who are providing these people with support. If I’ve missed anyone else who is working to help defeat the virus and its effects, it is an error of omission rather than commission, for which I apologise.
I hope that next year we will see a return to a traditional Remembrance Day parade, and that our leaders decide to include representatives of those who have helped to defeat COVID-19 within the ranks of the people who take part in the march past.
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