'Lots of parallels between Occupation and Covid-19 pandemic'
RESTRICTIONS on public life due to this pandemic are likely to help islanders empathise with what the wartime generation endured during the Occupation, the Lt-Governor Sir Ian Corder said.
In a 16-minute interview conducted by TV historian Dan Snow, His Excellency spoke about all things Liberation, from why this anniversary is so important to what we can life lessons we can learn from Guernsey's occupation.
Mr Snow said he remembered being in Guernsey this time last year for the Liberation Day celebrations.
'There wasn't much social distancing going on, it was quite the opposite,' he said.
Sir Ian Corder agreed, saying plans have had to be adjusted significantly but he hoped people would still commemorate the spirit of the day as much as they had intended to.
Mr Snow asked whether there was anything that could be learnt from celebrating this year in isolation.
Sir Ian said a lot of people had drawn parallels between islanders' loss of liberties during the occupation and the situation we are faced with today.
Careful not to take the analogy too far, he said there was of course a difference in suffering a loss of liberty willingly under the direction of Public Health as opposed to being forcibly occupied by a hostile power.
'But I think the experience we are all enduring at the moment I'm sure will help us empathise with what the islanders had to go through before Liberation.'
He believed this time would encourage islanders to realise the importance of life's basic things like good health and looking out for one another.
'It doesn't matter how bad it is and how far away [normality] seems, things will get back to normal and we can take a lot of hope from the Occupation as an example of that.'
Mr Snow said Liberation Day last year was unlike anything he had experienced in Britain before and wondered how the event would be commemorated while complying with Public Health guidelines.
His Excellency said he felt very sorry for everyone who put a huge amount of hard work into the preparations for this year, but was pleased at how much could happen 'virtually'.
'I sincerely hope that some of that hard work can be carried forward to what I'm calling 75+1 and hopefully next year we will be able to regain a lot of things we hoped to do this year,' he said.
Read more in Monday's Guernsey Press.
Watch the interview back on the States of Guernsey, VisitGuernsey and Liberation Day Facebook pages, or at liberationday.gg or visitguernsey.com
