Abend - Sonnenuntergang hinter der Dresdener Hofkirche by Caspar David Friedrich. Both spires have been reconstructed since 1945

Sixty-five years ago today, the citizens of Dresden – the Baroque capital of the German region of Saxony – were going through what must have been the ultimate terror. After two nights of bombing, they found themselves in the middle of a firestorm, where the air in the city was hot enough to burn skin and the thirsty flames consumed the oxygen from miles around, making it a hellish inferno.

I have always believed that war makes the unthinkable thinkable and cast no blame on the RAF, USAF, Churchill or Arthur Harris for the decision to bomb the town. The historical revisionism of some (funding by the government in this instance) – to try and prove that Dresden was known to be an insignficant target and bombed for the sake of its cultural value, is as pointless as it is regressive. We mustn’t forget that London, Coventry and other British cities suffered equally.

Among my favourite artists is the German romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich, whose contemplative landscapes include several interpretations of Dresden, his native town. Every time I look at them, they seem to reflect nostalgically on a landscape since destroyed; even though Friedrich could never have imagined what would happen to the landmarks he knew so well. In that context the picture seems to be a representation of how time, technology and politics change all of us – not only in the course of our lifetimes but from one era to the next.

I’m certainly not here to say that it was right or wrong to bomb Dresden – it was necessary to fight a total war in order to rid Europe of one of its most evil regimes. But it is right to remember Dresden and everything – lives, culture, art, human spirit and endeavour – that was lost 65 years ago.

And to understand that in 1945 it only took two nights to obliterate 700 years of Saxony’s history. Now it would probably take two hours.

I spent yesterday at the University of Nottingham starting out on my PR diploma, which if I pass it will allow to become a full member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. It was a fairly intense day of discussion and critical analysis of what has always been to me an entirely practical pursuit- I have no formal PR qualifications or training at all having gained degrees in music and then journalism.

As part of the opening session, we watched a short segment from a TV programme called The Century of the Self, which first aired in 2002 and for reasons of copyright hasn’t seen any further broadcast since then. It is the story of how the theories of Sigmund Freud were taken up by later members of his family, including his daughter Anna Freud and nephew Edward Bernays and used to control the masses in a new way that defined 20th century history.

In particular, Eddie Bernays used the idea that we all have dangerous and primal instincts contained within ourselves than can be exploited to control thinking, break taboos and change behaviour. He became a key member of the American administration in the First World War as the champion of pro-war propaganda and after the war took the very same ideas and launched a new venture, which he called “counsel in public relations“.

It’s all on YouTube and it is really is gripping viewing for anyone interested in how democracy and consumerism has developed during the past 100 years. Matthew Freud, the great-grandson of Sigmund, PR guru and wife of Elisabeth Murdoch, was also involved in the production. Some of the commentary slightly over-states the accepted academic view of the importance some of the featured individuals had – but that only serves to demonstrate what good self-publicists they were!

Nancy Astor

It is 90 years ago to the day that Nancy Astor became the first woman to take her seat in the House of Commons. It’s fair to say that her political career was a good deal less significant than her electoral achievement – given the accounts of the time, not something that can entirely be explained away by the difficulties she faced in a house full of men.

Ninety years on, we have 125 women out of 646 members of parliament, which is better but represents only one fifth of parliament representing more than half the population. Needless to say, the worst offenders are we Conservatives, with just 18 out of 193 seats (less than one in ten), then the Liberal Democrats (one in six) followed by Labour, which actually does rather well with 98 out of 349 (two in seven). 

There are those who say that all of this is the fault of women for not coming forward in greater numbers, that women don’t want to be MPs. I suspect the truth is that women don’t feel an environment that continues to be male-dominated is an attractive prospect and while they would like to be active in politics, they take the decision to do something equally constructive in another field of life.

I don’t think that helps parliament or the country. We have come a certain distance in statistical terms since Nancy Astor but depressingly little has changed in the corridors, stairways and offices where the real power to make decisions lays.

There have been so many eloquent thoughts expressed about Remembrance that it is difficult to add anything further.

But this year is the first ever year of Remembrance without a living First World War veteran in the UK. It is an almost impossible thought – so many soldiers of that generation died in 1915 and 1916 and are nearly 100 years gone. Others such as Harry Patch and Henry Allingham are still fresh in our minds, having lived a brace of years for which they knew they owed immeasurably to their long-gone friends.

Inevitably the focus now shifts to the Second World War and preserving the thoughts of those that fought in a conflict that was in some ways very similar and in others totally different to the Great War.

Thanks to them, two successive generations have been spared the ordeal that a war for survival brings to a nation. Those on the home front in the Second World War and fighting abroad lived in an environment where life became a great deal cheaper yet more valuable, where everyone lived for each moment, minute and day and where the prospect of death was never far away. People did things that they would never normally do, made sacrifices of staggering bravery and selflessness and the prosperity of the 1920s might as well have been the 1720s.

It’s a difficult situation to imagine and my generation is lucky to not have experienced it. We owe a debt of opportunity to past generations that we have been able to live our lives in a way that war meant none of them ever could. And to our forces who currently serve in Afghanistan and elsewhere, we owe a similar debt as they fight while our lives with the opportunity given to us by our grandparents proceed without the ordeal of war.

Two minutes is the very least each of us can spare.

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar – back in 2005, the 200th anniversary was marked with a particular fine pair of Trafalgar crowns issued by the Royal Mint, although generally it was kept quiet by the Labour government so as not upset the French or Spanish.

Trafalgar was a significant naval victory but it also marked the date of Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson’s death, the manner of which ensured his place in history as a national hero and a symbol of the best exemplars of leadership and courage. By common consent, Nelson was an inspirational leader, who knew how to get the best out of the men at his command and who gained their trust to execute some very unlikely victories through unorthodox tactics.

Today we’d call him a natural leader, an influencer, an risk-taker and innovator and he would probably have been running an investment bank in the City of London. He would have been generously remunerated in advance of the banking crisis on account of him having made a great deal of money for investors. Unfortunately, his non-traditional methods would have resulted in him making some mistakes, requiring his bank to be re-capitalised at government expense.

Nelson won some great victories but also made mistakes as a commander, some of which cost lives. The bankers have kept Britain’s economy afloat for nearly 20 years but have made mistakes that have cost the nation billions of pounds.

One has a monument 150ft high in the middle of London, the other extracts ire from the most even-tempered man on the Clapham Omnibus. Yet they have more in common than you would think.

Incidentally, many members of Nelson’s illegitimate line are buried in Brookwood Cemetery. He himself is in St Paul’s Cathedral.

Part of the Staffordshire treasure

When I was seven years old, I learned in school about the Sutton Hoo treasure, which was found in 1939 in Suffolk under confusing circumstances complicated by impending war. It fired my imagination about history and turned me into someone who became an avid watcher of archaeological documentaries and Time Team.

So I find it exciting when objects that are many hundreds of years old see the light of day and add to our knowledge of who we are, where we have come from and how our future might develop.

The news that a large stash of Anglo-Saxon gold has been discovered in Staffordshire is of particular interest politically as well. It will be crucial where this treasure ends up.

We talk so much about the English identity – or lack of it – and how the Scottish, Welsh and Irish seem to be more at ease with theirs. That’s partly because obsessive left-wing academics and media force us every time we talk about “heritage” and “identity” to re-visit things like the Empire, crusades, religious persecution and any other historical self-flagellation they can think of.

But the true English identity is no better encapsulated than in beautiful pre-Norman Anglo-Saxon treasure and we should all be able to understand these people, their lives and how they became us – because if you are the English majority, they are you.

Don’t get me wrong – I support and encourage the cultural diversity of the nation along with the most impeccable Guardianista. It’s something I’ve grown up with. But if we are to preserve tolerance of this diversity we must also make the case for the English identity and the value of the Staffordshire treasure is not the amount it will fetch at auction but how it can be a positive aesthetic and tangible objectification of where England came from.

Let us hope then that it doesn’t end up in the US or Middle East but is bought by the nation for the purpose of strengthening the nation.

The fearsome Tirpitz

Today is the 56th anniversary of the part of Operation Source, the secretive mission to destroy German battleships in Norway, that saw direct hits on the Tirpitz .

It’s difficult to imagine getting into an X-Class midget submarine and being towed across the North Sea before being let loose and submerging. Then travelling at a painfully slow 2 knots towards a target many times bigger and more powerful than you before placing charges in a dangerous operation that leaves you vulnerable and escaping again as mind-crushingly slowly as you arrived, all the time looking over your shoulder and not knowing whether your pick-up craft has been lost.

There was no “Quit now” button for the crews to press, no shortcut out of that situation. Some men who went on the mission to destroy Tirpitz – a formidable battleship every bit as superior as her sister Bismark to anything the Royal Navy possessed – never returned and one craft’s fate remains a mystery to this day.

I think it is good sometimes to remember the people whose courage and duty, due to the missions they carried out, are not so widely recognised.

Another classic blog post from Cllr Olly Wells, who seems intent on talking about anything apart from Knaphill.

This time, he’s hand-wringing about the return of foreign artefacts from British museums and having a good old Liberal self-flagellation session about the lingering wrongs of the Empire. Snore. On the bright side though, he does have a talent for the misplaced assumption. At the moment, he’s got relatives over from Taiwan.

“They have been doing a lot of sightseeing which has been good fun, but as usual
when people visit from abroad questions are raised about our imperial past which
we seem to have forgotten in the UK”

As usual!? More than 31 million people visited the UK in 2008. It seems hard to imagine that they are walking around London admiring Buckingham Palace or exploring Shakespearean Stratford overwhelming tour guides with accusatory questions about imperialism. Most tourists to Britain are just happy to see some sunshine and follow a fat woman with an umbrella.

But Cllr Wells hasn’t finished.

“The key question is should we return all the historical artefacts in the
British and other museums that we didn’t purchase or receive as gifts?”

Funny, I thought the key questions in museums were things like “how old is this?”, “what was it used for?” and “what is its historical significance?” Clearly I was wrong. The question that visitors to the V&A or the Ashmolean ought to be asking themselves is “under what circumstances was this artefact acquired and does it accord with the European Convention on Human Rights?” It all goes to show what a weird world many Lib Dems live in.

Finally, we get

“I don’t want to be seen as anti-patriotic, but it is worth noting that a
significant proportion of the world’s population appears to see us in an
imperial light, rightly or wrongly.”

Perish the thought that Cllr Wells should be viewed as unpatriotic – I didn’t know he cared – but no, it’s not worth noting because the only part of the world’s population that sees us in the light he describes are our enemies.

The problem with Liberals is they’ve spent so long worrying about what this country’s enemies believe that eventually they’ve started to think like them. It’s not good.