Victory in Europe and Japan: 80th Anniversaries

Debate between Stephanie Peacock and Julian Lewis

Thursday 13th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Stephanie Peacock]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her question. Once again, I met the Royal British Legion this week to talk about how veterans can take part. The Royal British Legion has put a call out to all second world war veterans, who can express an interest. There will be activity, not just in London but in our devolved nations and across the country, and we want to ensure that we support veterans to get involved in whatever way they want .

[Sir Julian Lewis (New Forest East) (Con)]

I congratulate all three Front- Bench spokesmen on their excellent contributions. Does the Minister know whether the BBC will be broadcasting some of the films—not jingoistic, but thoughtful and realistic—that were made and broadcast in cinemas during the war years? Will there be any reminder of the fact that the end of the war, though joyous for the liberated nations, did not mean the same thing for those countries in central and eastern Europe—including Poland, for which we went to war—that were left occupied by the Soviet Union, and that at the start of the cold war, only our alliance with America prevented a further conflict following? I hope some of those lessons will be carried forward in the commemorations that the Minister has outlined.

[Stephanie Peacock]

I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for his kind words, and he makes an important point about taking lessons forward. That is something I will take away. He has asked about the BBC; as I mentioned in my statement, the BBC is working with us to deliver the concert on 8 May. Although it will be a commercial decision that I do not want to anticipate, I understand that there will be old films. I also mentioned the augmented reality experience, which will bring to life four well known VE Day photographs so that people can see them in colour and listen to an audio history that will go with them.