Never surrender to those who decry the poppy
What a strange time to be alive when marking the sacrifice of our war dead can be seen as wicked. A third of young people in Britain say they won’t pin on a poppy, mostly because they think wearing one glorifies war, or that they object to what the British military is doing. Of course, it’s their choice in a free democracy not to wear a poppy. Just as it’s their choice to wear a white poppy, as Channel 4 newsreader Jon Snow does.
But refusing to don a poppy because you don’t want to glorify war is just plain stupid. This isn’t about celebrating guns or bombs, but remembering and thanking the men and women who sacrificed their lives precisely so we could live in a country where we are free to have just this kind of debate.
As history has taught us, singing Kumbaya doesn’t get you very far when the Nazis are frogmarching down the street. Sometimes, you have only two choices: to fight or to die.