It’s Friday, 8th May, VE Day. On the 8th of May 1945 Hitlers Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies. After six years of fighting between 1939 and 1945, Europe had peace at last. The Germans invaded most of Europe and wreaked havoc.

While Europe was occupied by the Nazis, they killed and executed millions of people for their beliefs, etc.

During the Second World War in Europe, it is recorded that between 21 million and 25 million Allied military deaths occurred. The UK lost 383,600 military deaths during the conflict, with Russia losing the most between 8,800,000 and 10,700,000 million military personnel.

On June 6^th, 1944, D-Day brought the invasion of Normandy. British and US forces attacked to liberate Europe. With the Russians attacking from the east and British and US forces also attacking from Italy, the date 8^th May will be remembered because it ended the war.

The Nazi leader Adolf Hitler committed suicide instead of standing to be counted for the war crimes the German army and the SS committed. Some of the war crimes were crimes against humanity and waging aggressive war. The Nuremberg trials, which put the Nazi high command left alive on trial, put all the charges against the Nazis.

These days, we have only a handful of soldiers still alive. They did their duty for Britain and freed us from an evil tyranny. Hitler was so close to invading England that we may have lost the war and been talking German.

The problem is that not many young people know enough about WW2. The older generation had stories from their parents and grandparents. It’s 81 years since the end of the war, we should not forget.

The Falklands War in 1982 was 44 years ago. If you ask youngsters if they remember this war its unlikely, they do.

Let’s not forget WW2 and its significance in the life we have today. All those lives lost to give us freedom.

It’s the 40^th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster on the 26^th of April. The nuclear power plant Chernobyl had an accident, causing reactor 4 to explode, leaving the core exposed and nuclear particles being dispersed into the atmosphere. The immediate explosion killed 2, but worse was to come, and it was the worst nuclear accident in history at the time.

A nuclear reactor makes steam. This steam, in turn, makes the steam turbines spin, and the generators make electricity.

Never had this type of accident been seen in the world at the time. The core had gone, and graphite was distributed everywhere on the roof and the ground outside. The fire brigade turned up and started to put out the fire, but the firemen were getting sick with radiation poisoning.

With the town of Pripyat located 3km from the plant, all 49,000 people needed to be evacuated, but while everyone argued about the accident, it took 36 hours for a 10km exclusion zone to be established. Over the coming weeks, 300,000 people had to be evacuated from the area.

The problem is that radiation is invisible. How many people in Europe died of cancer because of the Chernobyl accident from nuclear fallout?

One of the main problems was the secretive Soviet state. They did not want their enemies to know anything about the USSR and weren’t quick enough to let the world know about the accident. They would not allow help from the West anyway.

These days, the perimeter of Chernobyl is 2600 km² to keep people safe. Regeneration and common ecosystems are now flourishing in the exclusion zone. It’s become a popular tourist location until the war started. People just want to go where it’s dangerous.

The nuclear industry is quite a safe industry. Classed as renewable energy, some nuclear waste is reused. The perfect cycle was the Plutonium breeder reactors. The waste Plutonium is recycled back into the reactor rather than becoming a byproduct. For more info, try Wikipedia on fast breeder reactors.

It’s going to take lifetimes before cleanup work can properly begin.

With Diesel reaching over £2 per litre, many believe the UK is in for protests. Petrol and diesel is being sold at extortionate prices, and the general public is getting sick of being ripped off. With the oil prices slightly dropping, in price, it fails to show at the pumps.

The people of Ireland have come together to protest fuel prices. They, too, are dismayed with the prices at the pump and have taken to the roads to show their dissatisfaction.

The roads in Dublin are blockaded; roads and major motorways have go slow protests. For 6 days, the protestors have been at it, and public order units have been deployed.

But do protests work, and are they worthwhile?

France is a country known for its protests and demonstrations, especially by farmers. When they turn out, Paris stops. Unity is the key to demonstrations, and the French have it.

Do protests work in the UK?

We can protest in the UK, but will it have an effect? In 2000, blockades were undertaken of refineries and fuel depots. This really had an impact, leaving the majority of petrol stations fueling police and NHS vehicles only.

What started in Essex spread all over the UK. So, did it do any good?  After the protest ended, the government announced a freeze on fuel duties. The power of the people won.

But the blockades of 2000 would never happen today, as we are short of fuel for one. Then the army would be called in if a demonstration of this size ever happened again.

Since 2000, though, protests have done nothing like the 2000 blockade. It seems the government only listen when the country is on its knees.