Seventy-five years ago, we took to the streets to celebrate Victory in Europe.
After six years of toil, sweat and adversity a nation bruised by war had reason to celebrate.
We stood together in the face of tyranny and aggression. Our survival was never certain.
In the words of that other famous war leader, the Duke of Wellington, it was a “damn close run thing”.
A generation of Britons were tested to their limits. To survive the war and emerge victorious required guts, stamina and heroism.
This great collective endeavour was led by our pilots, sailors and troops. Yet it also needed the dedication of factory workers, Bevin Boys in the mines and Bletchley Park code breakers.
And it rested on the spirit of the Blitz and the solidarity of our allies in the Commonwealth and beyond.
Resilience
If not for the coronavirus we would be paying tribute to this great national effort with pageants, processions and parties.
But at the moment we should be commemorating the resilience of a previous generation our generation has been presented with its own era-defining challenge.
Our present situation is not directly comparable to the sacrifice of those who lost their lives in the war but we can be inspired from this proud chapter in our history.
Then, as now, the nation has responded by coming together for the national good. Then, as now, we are being asked to make sacrifices we never expected to make.
And then, as now, we have discovered how the bonds that unite us can be strengthened in the face of adversity. The struggle against the coronavirus is far from won.
We must brace ourselves for more lives lost to Covid-19 and accept restrictions on our freedoms for some time to come.
After the partying had stopped on the morning of May 9, 1945, the attention turned to how to build a better, fairer nation.
When the coronavirus has subsided we too must start the work of creating a country we can be proud to hand on to the next generation.
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