VE Day

Today we celebrate 80 years since the end of the Second World War in Europe.

I know that it will mean different things to different people, not least for the last of that great generation who faced down the Nazi threat first-hand.

Many will be thinking of loved ones. I will be remembering my Grandad, who served throughout the war in Africa and Europe, and the other WWII veterans I have been privileged to meet over the years.

For growing numbers of younger people, the war may well be distant history, yet no doubt still recognised as a central part of our national story, a part of how we proved who we really are as a country.

It is too easy to forget that Britain didn’t have to go to war. One lesson Hitler took from WWI was that fighting the British overstretched German resources and he feared British entry into his war. We could have forgotten the treaties we had signed, the commitments we had given, and allowed Europe to fall into the hands of genocidal Fascism.

Instead Britain, supported by the nations of its empire, were alone in WWII in going to war not because we were attacked or to make territorial gains of our own, but on the basis of our principles, at a time when victory was far from certain. We stuck it out, even when all seemed lost, in our darkest days four words defined us: we will never surrender.

That willingness to commit to doing what is right, regardless of the cost or the circumstances, is the finest quality of our nation.

I have thought much of this over recent months, since my visit to Ukraine.

Today war has returned to Europe, America is retreating into isolationism, and we are once more left with a choice. Do we stand with our allies, whatever the cost, and once more prove that might does not equal right or do we secure ourselves on our island, forget our treaty commitments, and hope that war in Europe does not come too close to home?

It’s a genuine choice, but as we make it there is one lesson we cannot forget from all the sacrifices made to secure victory 80 years ago today. ‘Freedom’ is never truly ‘free’.