The 80th anniversary of D-Day, the invasion of Nazi-occupied France on June 6 1944, will pass many people by. People whose parents were not even alive that day may wonder what it has to do with them as they struggle with getting to work or putting food on the table.

This is a shame. The anniversary of D-Day may be viewed as 'history', but it isn't really. The American novelist William Faulkner once wrote: “The past is never dead. It's not even past.”

The ripples from the past are always moving outwards into the present and the future. D-Day was part of the military response to Nazi aggression, as Adolf Hitler's Germany tried to impose its will on the rest of Europe, and before he was stopped, onto the rest of the world. We are seeing Russian fascism leading to aggression in Ukraine and unless stopped there will move westward to the Baltic states, Finland, Moldova and perhaps even Turkey (Russia has always harboured the aim of clear access to the Mediterranean). The lessons of D-Day are still pertinent. The world has to respond together to the Russian invasion. We have to have this international co-operation not just to deter Putin but also to other challenges such as the rise of China and the climate crisis.

So when we see today on TV the very elderly men who waded onto the beach amid gunfire now with their medals and berets, we salute them, not just as heroes but also as teachers and guides for the future.