D-Day hero who said sacrifice of the lost men of his generation ‘wasn’t worth’ what the country has become says UK 'has gone to rack and ruin'

UK Daily Mail ^ | November 9, 2025 | Harry Howard

[C19fan]

Although he has a chestful of medals and a proud record as the country’s oldest poppy seller, Alec Penstone insists he is not a hero.

‘The heroes are all the dead ones. The heroes are the ones we left in the Arctic and on the Normandy beaches,’ the 100-year-old says from his home on the Isle of Wight.

But, in the eyes of the millions of proud Britons who saw him give a damning assessment of the state of the nation on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Friday, the D-Day veteran – who fittingly was born on St George’s Day – absolutely deserves the label.

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TOPICS: History; Society
KEYWORDS: britain; uk; yookay

[C19fan]

Mr. Penstone serving God, King, and Country one last time.

[C19fan]

Having been born in the East End of London in 1925, Alec is, as he proudly says, a ‘real Cockney’.

Damn imagine your hometown getting taken over by Paks and Bengalis, ethnic cleansing the real Cockneys.

[oblomov]

The insipid response of the hostess, and the cloying smiles of the “representatives” of the armed forces there, all of which he was too polite to criticize, confirmed everything he said.

[Red6]

Sad,

Fight for something which later generations throw away.

Things we get given to us, that are free, we don’t value.

[Netz]

Imagine reflecting on an entire lifetime where your youth was taken from you in war. You believed in the cause greater than yourself. Now, 80 years later you see the society you fought for is all but gone. He is not the first WWII veteran to bemoan this epoch in history.
I wonder of returning veterans from WWI felt the same way by 1960 in the UK...

[Twotone]

Yes, he is a hero. Telling the truth is an act of heroism these days!

[stanne]

“ Things we get given to us, that are free”

Pretending freedom is free is the problem.

Period

[deport]

[oldtech]

Well, some DO value the things that were given to them. Sometimes it may take awhile to truly realize the value of those things. Nowadays it seems to be getting harder & harder to value them though as they seem to be drifting away and/or replaced by things that have little or no value. Supposing that right after WW2 a soldier from NYC had come home to a mayor such as Mamdani. I bet he would describe the man in the kind of language that most of us won’t use. By the time Vietnam had ended,many soldiers were already coming home to little or no respect. To me it now seems that our president is trying to build back some of that respect for our soldiers & our nation as a whole, but I can see that it’s a tough battle.

[Red6]

Freedom, wealth, security/safety, our privacy.

Example: It’s funny how some of the most vehimently pro privacy rights folks I know came from the former East block when you had the iron curtain. Most the people I see that don’t care or see no threat, were born and raised in the West.

Take a Coptic Christian and they don’t take the idea of religious freedom for granted. They see a risk of being persecuted or oppressed, especially by Muslims as very real. But take an average American (or German/UK citizen born and raised there) and they don’t see that.

Take a woman that fled Iran or Afghanistan for her freedom, and she takes that very serious. But for most western women, born and raised, the idea of “freedom” has been degenerated to mean no more than abortion rights.

The danger is, when you have weak “people” (sorry, had to throw that pun in) today, it creates hard times.

[Uncle Miltie]

“Free” is evil.

Confirmed every day, everywhere.

[Carry_Okie]

UK 'has gone to rack and ruin',

That would be "wrack and ruin," Mr. Howard.

[Carry_Okie]

That is a man who’s worked, all his life.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

You fight for what you believe in at the time of the war, not 60 years in the future. No one knows what the future will bring.
The soldiers of 1776 had no idea of the Civil War in the future and the Civil War soldiers had no idea of two future wars with Germany or one with Japan.

[No name given]

Indeed.

[No name given]

And the men who fought in both world wars had no idea of the wars in Korea and Vietnam. Just like the men who fought in those wars had no ideas of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[dfwgator]

All the stories have been told
Of kings and days of old
But there’s no England now
All the wars that were won and lost
Somehow don’t seem to matter very much anymore

[tinamina]

Think about how the Vietnam war people feel? How about veterans of the Iraq war or the Afghanistan war veterans? What did they sacrifice for? Dick Cheney and Halliburton?

[Red6]

America is culturally and in values, very fast changing and flexible.

Today they might deny someone a job with a clearance, claim they are mentally ill, make fun of them in the arts and media, give them no job working with kids as a homo. 20 years later they will go to homo venues to recruit them.

Abortion, climate change, inner-racial marriages, the Iraq war 2003 and Vietnam... Things can change 180 degrees in a matter of just a few years. Today you can’t watch a commercial without seeing an inner racial couple, and nothing is off limits, see hormone blockers and sex changes for kids or abortion as examples. Long term plans, strategic plans, are nearly impossible, see our policies towards Iran or energy as examples (changes with every administration). We break promises, lie and cheat or withdraw from treaties because the promises of the predecessor mean little.

We will exceed your wildest dreams of how much and fast we can pivot on any issue.

I have learned to take the bad with the good. Our political system and society reinvents itself, changes course often, but this can also be a good thing.

We are able to adapt to new technology, fast. We cut our losses when things aren’t going so well. As the international world changes, we can change course and aren’t entrenched in old dogmas. Even though it’s technically lying or breaking a promise, we don’t abide to rules or agreements when they make no sense for us anymore (missile defense - and that has proven to be a real threat and worthwhile investment).

So while we aren’t people that necessarily stay the course and are consistent, things you would normally see as being virtues, our rapid ability to change course and flexibility morally allows us to adjust to the times / situation.