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Saturday, April 25, 2026

ANZAC DAY 25th April 2026



At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we remember them. 
Their courage, sacrifice, and quiet service endure beyond time.
Lest we forget.

In remembrance of those who served, BreakingViews will resume at 1pm today.
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11 comments:

Barrie Davis said...

Today we remember those who fought and died overseas in the name of democracy. And how over the last 50 years our Government has shamefully given it away.

April 25, 2026 at 7:14 AM
Anonymous said...

Indeed, shamefully allowed to be dismantled piece by piece by the enemy within.

April 25, 2026 at 10:02 AM
Anonymous said...

A moving, inclusive, and poignant dawn service this morning

April 25, 2026 at 10:06 AM
Anonymous said...

Agree with Anon. Ardern has a lot to answer for.

April 25, 2026 at 12:19 PM
Anonymous said...

God defend New Zealand from the advances of radical Maori.

Lest we forget what our forebears sacrificed only for NZ to be currently infiltrated by fifth columnists.

April 25, 2026 at 2:49 PM
Anonymous said...


Liberation Day is a national holiday in Italy that is annually celebrated on April 25. It marks the fall of Mussolini's Italian Social Republic and the end of the Nazi occupation in Italy in 1945.

Our boys were still fighting their way north.

April 25, 2026 at 3:23 PM
anonymous said...

Reality check: comment from a pleasant medical receptionist: "Have a lovely long weekend."

April 25, 2026 at 5:58 PM
D'Esterre said...

"....those who fought and died overseas in the name of democracy."

Not in WW1, they didn't. I doubt that figured at all for them. They went for king and country, and for the adventure of it. Four of my uncles went: one came home.

"...over the last 50 years our Government has shamefully given it away."

NZ hasn't been a democracy since 19c governments established - and failed to disestablish - the Maori electoral system.

April 26, 2026 at 3:13 PM
Barrie Davis said...

You are right, D'Esterre, the shift from “they fought for King and Empire” of WW1 to “they fought for democracy and freedom” was a long, gradual cultural transition after WW1 shaped by governments, veterans’ organizations, educators, and the public.
The transition was brought about because the Empire collapsed, so it became untenable to say soldiers died for a political structure that no longer existed. Hence, the meaning of WW1 was reshaped to match the identity New Zealanders then held.
After WW2 and during the Cold War, “democracy” became a central moral concept and earlier wars were reinterpreted through that lens. Tens of thousands of New Zealanders were killed or wounded. Later generations needed a morally satisfying reason for that loss. “Empire” no longer provided it. “Democracy” did.
And over the last 50 years they have changed their minds again: “Democracy” is now expendable and is being replaced with “Partnership”. To realize that our Government is undertaking an extensive propaganda campaign together with an incremental change to the dogma by the judiciary.
The point is that we have been manipulated with propaganda into getting ourselves killed in wars we were not directly involved in and latterly surrendering our culture and heritage of philosophy, science, technology and industry.

April 26, 2026 at 9:39 PM
D'Esterre said...

Barrie Davis, I agree completely with everything you say here.

Being from a generation closer to the tragic events at Gallipoli, and having a family directly affected by the deaths there, over the years I've become increasingly irritated by the revisionism surrounding it. Call it wishful thinking, but I'd greatly prefer brutal honesty: the terrible effects of those deaths on families, both immediate and long-term, the real reasons so many young men signed up, not the "freedom and democracy" nonsense. And I'd prefer it if ANZAC Day commemorated just the Gallipoli disaster: nothing else. I know I'm in the minority here, but there you have it.

You're exactly right about how we've got to where we are now. But the younger generation dismisses opinions such as mine as being from an old dinosaur. They're horribly wrong, of course, but by the time they realise that my generation was correct, it'll likely be too late to change course, at least not without violence. In this household, we can see where NZ is headed, and, thinking of our offspring and descendants, we're very concerned for the future.

Even now, the effects of that propaganda campaign to which you refer are noticeable. Once upon a time, appeals to "democracy" were the backstop against creeping apartheid in NZ. But no more. On another comment thread on this site, somebody has claimed that the Maori electoral system is democratic. It isn't, and those of us who campaigned against apartheid in other countries recognise it for what it is: apartheid.

April 27, 2026 at 10:41 AM
Barrie Davis said...

These dubious examples show a progression which could presumably be traced back through history. It could perhaps have started with the myth of the Lady of the Lake presenting King Arthur with the sword Excalibur as the symbol of sovereign power which was passed down through the monarchy.
The holders of this sovereign power have developed it and passed it from a monarchy to a parliament and from the Mother country to the colony of New Zealand. In recent times the rulers have presented us with further mythological progressions such as those of Empire, Democracy and now Partnership.
However, many people have died for those causes and the time has come for us to interrupt this myth making and insist from our Parliament that they get real. By that, I mean to identify the true source of power and why and how that is attributed to a Government and a judiciary.
Those institutions comprise people the same as us. How is it that they get to rule us and even send us to our deaths?

April 27, 2026 at 7:42 PM

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