Memorial overkill

Then there is the VE Day “celebration” on 8 May (for which the Chancellor has set aside £1 million). Add the Battle of Waterloo celebration later in the year (to which he has committed a further £1m), the 210th anniversary of Trafalgar – and next year the 270th birthday of Culloden.

All feature, no doubt, platoons of “re-enactors” – eg grown men playing soldiers, with the threadbare excuse of educating or entertaining the rest of us.

Am I the only member of a typically military family (our men have donned khaki or blue whenever the nation asked it of them) that is vaguely uncomfortable with the increasing obsession with our military past?

It is of particular concern as successive governments have mortgaged our military future to the point where we have to ask friendly neighbours to track Russian submarines and aircraft because we no longer can. A single, solemn day of commemoration every year is sufficient and dignified.

David Fiddimore

Calton Road,  Edinburgh