People sure had it tough in the Second World War, from rationing to bombings, to making a Monday commute to the office - apparently.
In a piece for The Mailon Sunday, with the headline “In the 1940s they kept coming to the office – even when Hitler’s bombs were raining down”, former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said “all too many” civil servants and government employees “have failed to see Covid as a challenge’.
“And instead of rising to that challenge, as the wartime generation would have done, they have thrown their hands up in despair – before locking the doors and scuttling off home, of course.
“When I think of all the brave civil servants who went to work in the 1940s, determined to do their bit regardless of the threat from falling bombs, I wonder what has happened to us as a nation,” he wrote.
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The comments are the latest remarks from a Tory MP encouraging workers to get back to the office, after Boris Johnson, the prime minister, said earlier this week that colleagues would “gossip” about them if they didn’t.
In this instance, though, IDS has been mercilessly ridiculed online – primarily because, er, people didn’t have computers in the 1940s, the internet wasn’t invented and the Blitz wasn’t a highly contagious virus:
[wearily fetches megaphone] THE HOME WIFI CAPABILITIES WERE FAIRLY FUCKING BASIC DURING THE NON-CONTAGIOUS BLITZ pic.twitter.com/BKb5QpNRQ9
— James Felton (@JimMFelton) October 10, 2021
My Grandma used to say they’d no alternative when the zoom link went down. On with the trilby and out Grandpa went. pic.twitter.com/CfVSuJLuOR
— JOHN NICOLSON M.P. (@MrJohnNicolson) October 10, 2021
Hardly any homes had a telephone & only about two thirds had electricity… pic.twitter.com/CLHtNY8WbZ
— James OhBrien (@mrjamesob) October 10, 2021
Another stupid WW2 analogy form the right wing IDS.
— Brian Moore (@brianmoore666) October 9, 2021
Was the Blitz contagious? pic.twitter.com/xoMtpbnUzU
Given that three times as many people have died of Covid 19 in the UK than died in all bombing in WW2, I'm wondering when the tired old Blitz analogies will go away.
— Otto English (@Otto_English) October 10, 2021
He so right. My great-grandad was blown up in the blitz, and soon after his wife blew up too. Then one of their neighbours, who worked in a care home, caught Being Blown Up, and within a week half of her patients had exploded. pic.twitter.com/YqdfZsnips
— Russ Jones (@RussInCheshire) October 10, 2021
People during the Blitz: “I hope politicians in the future use this experience to try to shame our descendants into going back to the office during a pandemic at a time when home working is much more viable because of technology I can’t even dream of. Pass the Spam…”
— Matt Green (@mattgreencomedy) October 10, 2021
My grandfather told me that his father was arrested during the blitz on suspicion of being an enemy spy because his house was the only one on their East Ham street with a phone and people thought he was getting advance warnings of raids from the enemy https://t.co/cYrWztLKaa
— Adam Wagner (@AdamWagner1) October 10, 2021
once more for those at the back THE BLITZ WASN'T INFECTIOUS pic.twitter.com/SfhMg3YrCq
— Tom Davidson (@TomDavidson09) October 9, 2021
Iain Duncan Smith was born in 1954 pic.twitter.com/YR6MO6cJYs
— Joe Skeaping 🟠⬆️ (@JSkeaping) October 10, 2021
Translation: working from home is saving small businesses thousands of pounds in office costs, but that’s not good for the landlords who fund the Conservative Party
— Sam Bright (@WritesBright) October 10, 2021
My dad didn’t fight World War One on zoom #getbacktowork 🇬🇪
— James Felton (@JimMFelton) October 10, 2021
I want a big timer installed on Parliament Square that resets whenever a politician mentions The War https://t.co/6g4GgJ6BDQ
— Mollie Goodfellow (@hansmollman) October 10, 2021
Heck, even history professors were pointing out the Chingford and Woodford Green MP’s nonsense:
They [i.e. civil servants] did not as 1000s were relocated to work in safety. By the end of 1940, for example, Llandudno had become home to over 5,000 Inland Revenue staff and Colwyn Bay saw the arrival of 5,000 from the Ministry of Food. This is ahistorical drivel 👇 pic.twitter.com/rxMAjywq4C
— Prof Tanja Bueltmann (@TanjaBueltmann) October 10, 2021
People in the war didn’t even have the internet, I’m not sure why we need to take their working patterns as salutary. Would you also like every internal memo and external letter to be produced by pool typists on a Remington whenever they get around to it?
— Dr Charlotte Lydia Riley (@lottelydia) October 10, 2021
IDS’ article wasn’t the only bit of content from the Mail to trend on Twitter on Sunday, as its front-page headline, “Home working left Britons at Taliban’s mercy” also raised eyebrows, and led to ‘Pret’ trending on the social media platform:
Do you think your great-grandfathers stopped going to Pret just because they were at the Battle of the Somme? DO YOU?
— Max Morgan 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ (@SpillerOfTea) October 10, 2021
During the Blitz, I ducked into Pret A Manger. Hitler’s bombs were raining down, but we formed genteel queues, laughing - "No, no, after you -" "Do you mind if I just?" - because decent. Because British. pic.twitter.com/NRkgGIc99Z
— TheIainDuncanSmiths (@TheIDSmiths) October 10, 2021
My grandfather died trying to buy a Pret sandwich during a Luftwaffe bombing raid, so I can strongly relate https://t.co/o1HpwoM25N
— Stuart Heritage (@stuheritage) October 10, 2021
Or, it's helping lots of small local businesses as people spend money in their local cafes and sandwich shops rather than giving it to Pret. https://t.co/DDbgFwL8cn
— Allan Tanner (@weesandy) October 10, 2021
Eat Pret sandwiches or the Taliban take over pic.twitter.com/I6wNVg5Ou9
— emma jacobs (@emmavj) October 10, 2021
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DON'T GO TO PRET GUYS. https://t.co/Um5LtWxsKO
— Adam Macqueen (@adam_macqueen) October 9, 2021
We have accelerated unexpectedly quickly from “get back to the office to save Pret”. https://t.co/9mQCrrHjRN
— James Chalmers (@ProfChalmers) October 9, 2021
Offering workers free food & drink and talking about Pret going bust to try and lure them back to the office didn’t work so now it’s come to this?! https://t.co/1pWfpnCQBn
— Siobhán (@wigglymittens) October 10, 2021
Remember folks, if we don't look after commercial landlords and Pret shareholders, we're letting the Taliban win. https://t.co/zpvWbsTqrR
— David Paisley - Man at Bus Stop (@DavidPaisley) October 9, 2021
Neil I'm getting mixed messages here help me out buddy. pic.twitter.com/j5U1jlJGJP
— Blirt Lancashire QC™ (@GynecologistIm) October 9, 2021
If you don't go to Pret the Taliban are going to invade Basingstoke.
— NORM (@_TUMULUS) October 9, 2021
— Matthew Bland (@TheMatthewBland) October 9, 2021
I never knew writing articles from my bed while eating a packet of Hobnobs could be so detrimental…
