Remembrance Sunday, 2016
A day when we rightly remember the sacrifices made in defeating fascism and lives lost in all wars, especially the two world wars of the 20th century.
But this year, of all years, we should remember the causes of the wars, when Europe was a continent of individual nation states, and nations elected leaders blaming all their woes on the establishment and scapegoats - pledging to make them great again.
Exiled Thucydides knew
All that a speech can say
About Democracy,
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;
Analysed all in his book,
The enlightenment driven away,
The habit-forming pain,
Mismanagement and grief:
We must suffer them all again.
