Politicians who talk a lot about patriotism are betraying everything that the war generation stood for - Andy Brown

It was the war generation that gave us the National Health Service. It built council houses. It provided decent pensions, built a network of new universities, re-trained adults who needed to update their skills and had strong policies to help the regions to prosper. It nationalised assets that were natural monopolies like the railways.

Much of this was paid for by taxing those who were rich enough to be able to afford to contribute. Winston Churchill had a top rate of income tax in excess of 90 per cent. He used the money from heavy taxes on inheritance to give a more equal chance to those who inherited nothing.

That great generation that went through the war had some very radical ideas about how this country should function that were driven by a conviction that we were all in it together, everyone deserved a chance to succeed, and it should be your own efforts that determine what happens to you in life, not inherited wealth.

The result of the economic and social policies that they implemented was incredible success. The country got a lot richer and a lot fairer very quickly. The post war years were hard, but most people saw improvements year by year and there was a strong safety net to look after those who weren’t able to look after themselves.

It is instructive to compare the steady economic improvements they achieved with the results of the unfunded tax cuts implemented by Liz Truss and admired by Nigel Farage.

The contrast between the well thought out policies and tolerant values adopted by our post war society and some of the views put forward by modern extremist politicians is dramatic.

The welfare state we inherited is being steadily dismantled by those who think it smacks of socialism. Proud achievements built by those veterans like the NHS are under threat. For many years Nigel Farage advocated a US style healthcare system for Britain. He now favours a system of private insurance for those who can afford it and a basic service for those who can’t. It isn’t hard to imagine what level of service that would result in for those who are less well off or who have a family history of cancer. Who would have insured someone like Rob Burrow?

There is a similarly worrying tendency for many advocates of extreme right wing theories to claim that taxes are wasteful and we must let the rich keep as much money as possible because it will trickle down to the poor.

Elon Musk recently got his company to award him an annual pay package of over $50bn. It is possible that he will spend that in very responsible ways. It is also possible that technology is increasingly concentrating wealth in the hands of a very few people whilst public services are starved of cash. Too many politicians seem afraid to tell the honest truth that someone has to pay for the things the community needs and taxation is inevitable.

Most worrying of all is the way that our traditional British values are being betrayed by politicians who talk a lot about patriotism but actually betray everything that the war generation stood for. One of the candidates to become an MP for the Reform Party recently voiced the view that Britain should have signed a peace deal with Hitler instead of fighting him.

That moment when Churchill’s one nation Conservatives worked alongside Labour and Liberal opposition MPs to stand up to fascism was probably the finest hour of our nation. Those of that generation who welcomed the refugees from fascism had good cause to be proud. Our nation gained great talent as a result of those immigrants fleeing from regimes run by far-right political theorists. Those like the Daily Mail who printed “Hurrah for the Black Shirts” and advocated shutting out the Jews had to live with the shame.

Like so many British people I am proud of the country I live in. Patriotic values are not owned and controlled by mean spirited people. It is time for those of us who genuinely hold to the values of the war generation to reclaim our birthright. Tolerance. Open mindedness. Caring about others in the community.

We are at best a welcoming nation that leads the way on new technology. It is not in our country’s best traditions to embrace hatred and allow politicians to build their career on demonising others. It is time for our own generation to stand firm against the modern far right and defend the true legacy of our ancestors.

Andy Brown is the Green Party councillor for Aire Valley in North Yorkshire.