Sunday 21 May 2023

Keep Calm And Carry On

I am guessing everyone in the UK has seen the bright red 'Keep Calm and Carry On' message somewhere because it is everywhere, on posters, on t-shirts, cups and anywhere there is a space but we may see it but nobody did in World War Two.
The UK Government did print 2.5 million of the posters and planned to distribute them to lift the spirits of Brits whose menfolk were fighting NAZI Germany overseas and the plan was to plaster the nation with them when the massive civilian attacks began.
Eventually, German did launch the Blitz, but before then, Britain experienced a paper shortage and all of the Keep Calm posters were pulped and recycled and then forgotten about until the early 2000's when the Guardian Newspaper published a copy of it.
It became famous after that so if you find yourself telling someone to 'keep Calm and Carry On', you are not harking back to the World War II spirit with Vera Lynn and Winston Churchill keeping up moral, more harking back to the mid-naughtys with Take That, Tony Blair and that I Feel Like Chicken Tonight advert.

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