VE Day commemorations offer stark insight into how far Britain has fallen

The contrast couldn't have been more stark. Reading - and relishing - every word of the coverage of the events to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, you were reminded of the stirring patriotism, courage and defiance of this nation and its people all those years ago. But turning to the next page in the paper - and without a word of a lie - you were greeted by the headline "Health Service Condemned Over Use Of Trans Toilets," followed swiftly by "All Rise ... If Able."

The stories concerned the row over the provision of single-sex toilets, and courtrooms in and changing the demand "All rise", which has been heard in courtrooms for centuries. Can any sane person divine how we've sunk from being a nation that was the envy of the world and, against all the odds, clung on determinedly to achieve what was at first seen as the most unlikely of victories and save the planet from tyranny, to worrying about where a trans person might want to urinate?

Some of you, sadly a dwindling number, will be able to recall the dark days of the Second World War. Others might need to turn to parents or grandparents for recollections, but as these were people who believed in service and sacrifice, don't expect too much emotion. They're not that big on group hugs, therapy or counselling sessions.

These are the shoulders-back, can-do veterans who put duty first - not the me-me-me generation with which we are now plagued.

Don't get me wrong. Too many service men and women's lives after conflict have been wrecked because years ago showing any sign of emotion was seen as weakness, and it is absolutely right this has changed.

But it is beyond perplexing to work out how, in just a few generations, we have gone from a country whose citizens were grateful to come out from their air raid shelters after a bombing raid alive, a country in which having a house still standing was a bonus, to worrying about who you might encounter in a women's toilet.

Equally, changing the court instruction "All rise" is part of this spineless descent into a nation that (literally) cannot stand up for itself.

If defendants, witnesses or anyone else in court had been regularly complaining or been embarrassed by the instruction this move could be justified. But, as one MP who opposed it last week said, the number of such cases was zero.

To this depressing list of so-called modern anxieties you can also add pronoun sign-offs on emails (he/him, she/her, they/them); the cancel culture; trigger warnings - including one for the "popping of balloons" in a production of The Tempest, children seeking to identify as cats, Empire bashing, unwillingness to fly the flag and workers' demands for "safe spaces."

For the generation we have just honoured, a "safe space" was anywhere a Nazi bomb wouldn't be likely to blow their head off.

It was entirely appropriate to commemorate VE Day last week, but don't forget events five years before that momentous day when the RAF achieved victory in the Battle of Britain.

At that time, Winston Churchill famously said: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

It seems precious few are even remotely aware of that debt now.