Remembrance Day

The weekend of Remembrance Sunday, i was staying in Dunmow, so i attended a service in the street by the war memorial, with what looked like everyone who lived in Dunmow and the air and army cadets. It was a lovely service and it finished with the singing of the National Anthem.

I also attended the Remembrance Day service at my university chapel at Royal Holloway. Unlike the service i attended in the morning, i left this service feeling annoyed and disgusted. The singing of Jerusalem and the National Anthem was not aloud for fear of upset international students. Now before everyone takes out their fury at the international students, I'd like to point out that it was the white, English middle managers who made this decision. No international students had been asked if they would be offended (even if they were though, this is a British country so expect British church services if you come to study here) so these middle managers, really were panicking for no reason as there was nothing to say that they would be offended. The service should have had all the trimmings of a proper British Remembrance Day service, and if anyone was offended then it could be dealt with after- in that they could have been told " well you are in England, what did you expect?"

On top of this, i was also shocked to see the that the majority of choir that would be singing at the service were not wearing a poppy, i think i saw 5 people at most, out of a 20 or so strong choir who had bothered to show their respects and get a poppy!

I left the service feeling angry and let down by the university, a British university, funded by British tax payers but where anything British is omitted just in case someone, who is a visitor to this country, gets offended.