First World War £2 Coin

[mushroom25]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2531850/Royal-Mint-unveils-2-coin-featuring-famous-image-Lord-Kitchener-commemorate-100th-anniversary-World-War-One.html

a fitting remembrance for the conflict? or an ill-judged design that sends all the wrong messages about how war is viewed in this country?

[emmie]

are the British war obsessed, do they glorify it, how many go out on the street waving a flag, nonsense. But when November 11th rolls around many come together from across the globe, to remember, not to glorify, to commemorate, some don't get that perhaps.

[emmie]

and it is the politicians who have decided on this isn't it.

[emmie]

actually they saturated Christmas tv with crappy American twee schlok, more saccharine than is good for a body
war films have been a staple of our tv since i was a kid, they do that, i don't know many people who watch them, and those that do it could be because they like war films. not war itself, which is as they say a whole different kettle of fish.

[emmie]

so would you have preferred we hadn't gone to war in WW1, WW2. what was the alternative. We weren't the only ones fighting, nor were we the only ones dying.

[emmie]

since man first learned to chuck a rock at his neighbour, there have been wars, its unlikely to change for the foreseeable, no matter where you live.

[emmie]

perhaps its more to do with trying to fill the schedules, and i truly don't notice many war films on, if they do show some its because they can't afford to commission decent programmes or more likely they can show them because they cost zero. like old Ealing comedies, and reruns and reruns of Last of the Summer wine, costs nothing to the companies, or very little. fill the schedules with rubbish, the few good things will be repeated over and over,

[mushroom25]

Steve,
"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

George Santayana, "The Life of Reason", 1905.

[emmie]

ok, so we didn't go to war, what happened to our country, what would have happened to Britain if we hadn't stood up alongside many others against Hitler, We were not the aggressor, but we couldn't take a back seat either, going on the agreements in place. So if we had stood down and done nothing, what would have happened, you have to look at it like that. ALL war is a waste

[emmie]

but that didn't stop other countries from attacking Britain, and that could happen again.

[seadogg]

Some would argue that we are under attack from Islamic extremists and only the diligence of the security services maintains our safety.


Kitchener did a good job of raising and training the citizens army. It was Haig who squandered them and he was under pressure from the harassed French.

[mikey4444]

This story would be be used on April 1st. Its unbelievable that this man should commemorated anywhere, let alone a coin. Perhaps an image such as this might be more appropriate ::

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=gas+attacks+in+WW1&espv=210&es_sm=122&tbm=isch&source=iu&imgil=25QYMbC7YhoQBM%253A%253Bhttp%253A%252F%252Ft0.gstatic.com%252Fimages%253Fq%253Dtbn%253AANd9GcQyQw6AKbMIEQK6CaDzkBpdtp771NmxuKt__hPPEk6rOwHuJlFK%253B1200%253B743%253Brz0CWPBHJlp6eM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fen.wikipedia.org%25252Fwiki%25252FChemical_weapons_in_World_War_I&sa=X&ei=ezfFUpHqC9OChQf5uYCgAw&ved=0CDEQ9QEwAA&biw=1366&bih=642

Lions led by donkeys.

[jake-the-peg]

Yes a poor choice

I know you need a strong image for a coin but perhaps something by Paul Nash like this would have been better

http://kenwilsonelt.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/menin-road.jpg

[Gromit]

Remembrance Day or Armistice day celebrates the ending of the Great War in 1918, so surely a centenary coin should commemorate that, not the start of the conflict.

Kitchener and the poster that never existed is totally the wrong symbol. A poppy, which represents all those killed would be far more appropriate.

We were fighting the Kaiser, not Hitler and the Nazis.

At the time, it was called the Great War, or the Great European War. The conflict wasn't really a World War and wasn't called one until after WWII.