According to Michael Gove, through his chosen mouthpiece, the Daily Mail, its time to stop belittling true British Heroes, something that he believes that at least one academic and several comedians are doing. This is incendiary language, in part because the only people who have been belittled by any of the agencies he has referred to have been some of the senior Generals and Political leaders. There can be no doubt that all of these men (no women were involved) took difficult decisions and lived with the consequences of their decisions, unlike many of those who carried out their orders. As we reflect on the first World War it is vital to remember the lives of ordinary men and women whose communities were ripped apart, as effectively as if the shells and mustard gas was being aimed into their villages.

Gove writes: “Our understanding of the war has been overlaid by misunderstandings, and misrepresentations which reflect an, at best, ambiguous attitude to this country  and, at worst, an unhappy compulsion on the part of some to denigrate virtues such as patriotism, honour and courage. The conflict has, for many, been seen through the fictional prism of dramas such as Oh! What a Lovely War, The Monocled Mutineer and Blackadder, as a misbegotten shambles – a series of catastrophic mistakes perpetrated by an out-of-touch elite. Even to this day there are Left-wing academics all too happy to feed those myths. What is at the heart of Mr Gove’s comments are that leaders get criticised for their actions, and it is time to stop. I suggest this partly because in all that I have read and heard and laughed at, nothing has left me feeling that the mud soaked Tommy, the Sailor battling against U boats or the wife at home (three simple stereotypes)are not heroes. This is despite my own exposure to those on the Left and many debates about the War. I think the issue of how well led these people were is still a reasonable debate to hold and Mr Gove seems to be suggesting the same.

He writes: “There is, of course, no unchallenged consensus. That is why it matters that we encourage an open debate on the war and its significance. But it is important to recognise that many of the new analyses emerging challenge existing Left-wing versions of the past designed to belittle Britain and its leaders.” I don’t want to try to draw a comparison between my three heroic stereotypes and any Left Wing academics or debaters that seem to provoke the education Secretary, but if we are to have a debate that avoids belittling people, surely the Minister needs to stop belittling the Left and entertainers, just as much as he wants them to stop belittling the likes of Haig and Asquith? If we are to commemorate the first World War (I am with Paxman, not Cameron on this) then at the end of 2018 we will celebrate the suffarage that was granted to all men within months of the Armistice. This will lead to questions which will be impossible to answer without some reference to the subjugation of a nation by an elite few. Are the Left expected to say nothing at that point too?

At the heart of Michael Goves argument lies a paper by Nigel Biggar from September 2013. I have read the paper, largely because Gove cites it as a source that proves that World War 1 was a Just War. I was intrigued, because my own view of the War was that it could never be described as being Just, due to the disproportionate number of casualties. although I accept that all of the other conditions do apply. To his credit Nigel Biggar goes some way to addressing this, putting the 1.1M deaths into context with other conflicts. However what he does not answer for me is the alternative scenario of a defensive war that stopped short of making the bloody incursions into No Mans land that in my mind at least were so wasteful of human life, and gained so little in terms of strategic benefit. If as Michael Gove is suggesting, that we have debates about the War, that is one of the issues I would like to see explored. I confess my understanding of military history owes more to Biggles, Airfix and Humbrol than it does to people such as Sheffield, Evans and Biggar but that doesn’t leave me without genuine concerns. I would also like to see us explore some of the details such as why we used poisonous gasses, in some cases impacting our own trenches. If we are to make a case that our leaders were the heroes that Gove suggests is the case, what about those who were executed for what we would now describe as PTSD? surely there is shame on that at least? My concern is that Michael Gove is simply turning this issue into his own Political crusade, that he has no intention of a debate that consists of any more than him speaking (or writing) and us listening or reading. This mornings headlines suggest that Labour have now set up their own alternative claim on this issue. The World War was fought primarily by ordinary men and women, set up by those who claimed to be their leaders (and betters!). If Michael Gove and Tristram Hunt want to kick the stuffing out of one another, could they please go and do so in a way that doesn’t interfere with any response I might want to make to an event that deprived this nation of a generation of young men who gave their lives for a cause they believed in, but which was ultimately about political aggrandizement (even Nigel Biggar supports that point of view).