Activists want to recognise all those affected by war, dismissing official ceremonies as “imperialist propaganda”

Students at Cambridge University rejected a motion to honour British war veterans on Remembrance Day.

The commemoration on the centenary of the end of the First World War was proposed at a meeting of the students’ union council by Cambridge University Conservative Association (CUCA). The motion stated that the council should “encourage the commemoration of British war veterans on Remembrance Day across the University of Cambridge”.

Opponents described it as “imperialist propaganda” and put forward an alternative motion that removed the words “British war veterans” and “Remembrance Day”. Instead it proposed that the council “encourage the commemoration of those whose lives have been affected by war across the University of Cambridge”.

Timur Coskun, the chairman of CUCA, said that the voting down of its motion