100 years later, World War I sparks a new battle in Britain
LONDON — The plan was for curious schoolchildren to wander foreign battlefields, for grateful communities to repair crumbling monuments and for an entire nation to solemnly recall a war that cost more British lives than any other.
Oh what a lovely commemoration it was to have been.
But just a little over a month into the centenary of the start of the First World War, those plans have been overshadowed by ugly political sniping over what the war meant, and whether Britain is remembering it in the proper way.
Charges of insufficient patriotism have been answered by accusations of jingoism. A much-beloved British sitcom has been caught in the crossfire....