York Council slammed by ex-Veterans Minister after banning military equipment at Armed Forces Day

GB News

Former Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer has launched a scathing attack on York Council after it banned military kit from Armed Forces Day celebrations.Leader of City of York Council, Claire Douglas claimed the move does "not diminish how seriously we take Armed Forces Day".FULL STORY HERE.

Transcript

00:00good afternoon yeah i mean it's crazy isn't it um and uh it's just you know it's in line with the

00:06kind of moral ambivalence and um lack of you know it's all tokenistic interest really we see

00:13in the veterans and in the military in this country and to be honest i think a lot in the

00:17military community are pretty fed up with it um it's it's it's embarrassing um and i think you

00:25know the key thing is it doesn't really represent what ordinary folk think right ordinary folk are

00:29incredibly proud of the military they're uh you know they want to get days like this right um but

00:35uh you do have these outliers who who seem to think that uh everyone hates the military now

00:41they're a terrible uh organization whereas in fact they're you know this incredible force for good

00:46this incredible life chances machine that you can go and have a great career afterwards from so

00:50look i think it's really sad but it's it's the world we live in i mean you you've seen under

00:55this government veterans rights slowly sort of corroded and you know progress being undone and

01:00things like that so i'm not surprised um but i don't think uh many of us are going to let it

01:06happen without saying something what what protests do you think they're nervous about johnny

01:10oh god knows i mean you know we've got a government that uh is is going from you know legislation to

01:19protect veterans in northern ireland to paying jerry adams compensation right so i think that's the

01:26way the political tide is going at the moment and i just think this is a wider reflection of that it's

01:31not actually in keeping with the way most people feel about the military um i think it's you know and

01:38i just want people to know that it doesn't you know it doesn't really reflect the nation it doesn't

01:42reflect the way people truly feel about about the military but it is a really good example of you know

01:48if you look at the statement your council put out about how they really kind of you know talk about

01:53the armed forces covenants and how their gold award holders and so on but they're not prepared to show

01:58military kit on parade on armed forces day and it just shows you the kind of tokenistic approach that

02:04i'm afraid some of us are quite sick of uh in uh in the uk um and shows that really you know there

02:11needs to be better metrics and better better way of holding local authorities and and groups that

02:18support the military government to account well this is the thing that annoys me johnny i mean

02:22it's like you know it's the military it's the armed forces that protect us right okay we know there's

02:26not enough of them we know they're not paid enough we know we treat veterans accordingly all of those

02:30things apply but the bottom line is we rely on the armed forces to protect us okay so i i have not

02:36we are going to read the statement out from your council in a minute as to their reasons behind it

02:40but i suspect reading between the lines here they're worried about the flag we constantly see on our

02:45streets at the moment and that's the palestinian flag

02:48well look i'm not i'm not going to get into that issue i think that um i i just think that it's a

02:56sad reflection of where we are right you know i think that um it's like i said not in keeping with

03:01the way people feel um i understand you know people don't protest on force today but i've never

03:06seen that or heard of it um you know certainly where i'm from in plymouth it's an amazing day for

03:12everyone to come together and reconnect with the military community and uh it's it's a fantastic

03:17initiative and a good chance to go and you know really find out what a career in the military is

03:21like there's so much so many misnomers around it there's so much misunderstanding um but like i said

03:26you know the key for me is is the difference between what york city council actually say and then how it

03:32feels like to be a veteran or to uh be in the armed forces and for me you know how that reflects among

03:38the service community and and makes them feel is what bothers me um and uh yeah that's that's why

03:43i think we've still got more to do in this space

03:45you

Category

Transcript

Recommended