I think you are entirely wrong to blame the current bunch in power. Ok, they could make an enormous gesture and offer a medal or maybe a clasp. But there is no modern precedent and it simply cannot happen. This government have been embroiled in other related (perhaps not so apparent or, indeed, welcome) issues to do with previous wars, particularly the Shot at Dawn lobby (revisionism and very modern ethics loosely applied to a lost world); and events as far back as the Potato Famine (guilt stopping short of compensation) and won't want to make any more errors of judgement by reversing decisions made, in this instance, in 1945. If we can't make a proper apology to millions of slaves, we'll never give retrospective medals to people deemed to have killed innocent civilians. if any government started making gestures like this, there would be adverse consequences - groups wanting their own medals, more calls for apologies or expressions of regret. More revisionism. More lies from the apologists and Britain haters born in our own land. The Bomber Command medal lobby have no hope now, or historically. They need to remain above the politicking of other lobbies and campaign groups. They must remain champions.
Let me qualify this. I am 100% behind a proper lasting honour for all the men and women of Bomber Command. They have been my idols since I was a kid. They saved us. The Battle of Britain was for a few front pages, Bomber Command filled the rest. Every night, every week, every year until victory. God Bless Them ALL. The crews we know. But the armourers and clerks, the fitters and parachute packers, the mortuary attendants and police - they got the defence medal and the victory medal - the same as joe soap - their herculean effort merged with everyone else. The whole Command deserved a separate medal. But the politics of 1945 and the mindset of the way the committees worked who planned medal issues combined to seal the fate of a unique Bomber Command award.
The Aircrew Europe Star could have been issued with clasps for the relevant RAF commands - it would have been nice. But they didn't do nice. The base staff would still have gone unrecognised. The mood was to get the whole thing wrapped up and move on, Attlee's election landslide illustrates this - it was the national will. Arthur Harris is said to have been hurt that his Old Lags were not singled out for specific award - he wanted none for himself - but his whole command was swept under the carpet. The ethics of bombing and the bombing of ethics were to be eased off the stage.
In the end Bomber Command have as big an axe to grind as the D-Day Dodgers and the Forgotten Army along with countless others. We don't forget them at all, every day - for ever more - governments and hacks remember when column inches and tv soundbites matter. We have the best idea.
I signed the petition and would have liked to see a retrospective award. But this was from the heart - not the head. In the end they deserve something much more - a fitting memorial in the capital city just like the Battle of Britain got. We've built bigger monuments to animals. But for now Lincoln Cathedral, however solemnified, will have to do. This insult is a crime greater than a lack of medals. But, in their case, revisionism started on May 8th 1945 and has never stopped. We all know the state was immediately embarassed by the achievements of Bomber Command. They were airbrushed out.
Recent history is revealing: Harris' statue sometimes dawbed with paint. In Germany the chimera of the Terrorfleiger lives on as a counterweight to Auschwitz. Don't be fooled. We know who the criminals are. We know who brought them to heel - our great British people and our Allies, who have enjoyed far more of the laurels in recent years while our society chooses to forget. Honour these men and women. The medals would be nice - but the people will live on if we keep it that way.