On this Memorial Day in America, two of London’s war memorials have been defaced and spray-painted with the word “ISLAM”.
Police seem to be rethinking their earlier hints that it may be the work of “right-wing groups seeking to inflame anti-Muslim sentiment” – rather than, say, Muslims.
On behalf of his 77,000 dead comrades in Bomber Command, 89-year old Douglas Radcliffe is standing guard at the memorial until the graffitti is removed. Mr Radcliffe was a 17-year old BBC messenger boy when the Germans bombed Broadcasting House, killing seven young ladies in the music library. “I was there when they brought the bodies out and that was what made me decide to join up.” The past is another country, wrote L P Hartley. For Mr Radcliffe, today’s Britain is a foreign land.