I must be getting old.
I remember the Festivals of Remembrance of old where the whole of the floor of the Albert Hall was filled by tightly packed members of the three armed forces & there were military displays before they formed up. (Does anyone else remember the Navy doing mast manning, or Army PT instructors doing crossover gymnastic displays?
I am all for change and development, but I found it disheartening to see the only forces related features being on the death and injury of selected individuals. I fully appreciate that the point of the night and tomorrow is to reflect upon those who made the ultimate sacrifice and those who have to live with the consequences of their service life. In previous years, I feel that a more positive aspect to life in the forces was presented based on comradeship and shared experiences, which probably acted as a significant benefit in recruitment terms.
Looking at the small numbers of what one might term "real" armed forces personnel on parade, one one hand, it surprised me that the Cubs and the Brownies weren't drafted in to try to try to fill up the empty space on the floor of the Albert Hall, even although they keep increasing the size of the platform that they build up a drumhead altar on. Not too long ago, the drumhead was built up on the stage, now it's in the middle of the flor to disguise how few armed forces folks we can spare for something as important as this.
I appreciate that we're in the middle of a war with Afghanistan & we need the folks on the ground just now, but surely we can scrape more folks together?
Roll on the cenotaph, hopefully it'll stay dry untill I lay my wreath.....