PARADE OR SERVICE?

WHEN the Bulletin interviewed Captain Massey, the Commanding Officer of Ark Royal during the aircraft carrier's recent visit to Palma, one of the questions put to him was whether there should be a victory parade in London to mark the successful outcome of the Iraq war. Captain Massey's response, speaking as one involved in the war, was immediate and clear: “There should be no triumphalism.” Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, who retired as Chief of the Defence Staff last week, said earlier that a victory parade might seem ”arrogant or patronising”. PP The push for a parade has come mainly from the Sun newspaper which has claimed that it has the Prime Minister's support, but yesterday Downing Street said that he would be guided by the military over what was appropriate. If it were to be decided, as seems likely, that a Thanksgiving and Memorial Service at St Paul's Cathedral would be the best choice, the position of the Archbishop of Canterbury might arise. At the Falklands thanksgiving service at St Paul's in 1982 the then Archbishop of Canterbury, the late Lord Runcie, incurred Margaret Thatcher's displeasure by calling for the Argentinian dead to be remembered as well as the British. Since Dr Rowan Williams was one of the most outspoken of churchmen opposing the Iraq war it is unlikely that he would remain silent about his views in similar circumstances. Last week in New York he said that “until you can see how relations of various kinds are properly mended, it might be premature to speak of victory.”