Ex-Army and proud to wear a white poppy
PLYMOUTH MP and former Army captain Johnny Mercer has criticised those who wear white poppies. As an Army veteran, i wear the white poppy as an act of remembrance and a commitment to peace. With remembrance sunday approaching, it’s puerile to debate the colour of your poppy and wrong to accuse people of hijacking the poppy’s symbolism. The once simple, noble and dignified red poppy has already been hijacked. it’s been used to rally the nation in support of foreign misadventure and sold to us as ‘supporting our troops’ rather than our dubious foreign policies. it is also a disgrace that the royal British legion accepts sponsorship from the likes of lockheed Martin and BAE systems. The white poppy, almost as old as the original poppy, remembers all victims of war — 90 per cent of whom today are civilians. in the spirit of the original poppy and its sentiment of ‘never again’, the white poppy represents a firm commitment to peace, seeking to reject militarism and any attempts to glamorise or sanitise armed conflict. i doubt that any member of the Armed Forces went to their death with vague notions of providing freedom of choice for future generations, as Mr Mercer seems to think. My grandfather, a commando, joined up early in 1939 simply to put food on the table. it’s long struck me as odd that those who get us into wars — of which few if any have been justifiable since World War ii — think it’s OK to erect a stone slab outside their offices so we who do the fighting can trudge past once a year. in terms of ‘respect,’ the levels of hypocrisy are truly astounding when the ‘best of the best’ must increasingly rely on charities for health, social and welfare issues. When i deployed to Afghanistan in 2007, a reservist attached to the Household Cavalry regiment, our equipment was dire. A front-line tank unit, often we went into battle situations with kit that was defective or condemned for being past its shelf life. Protective electronic counter measures and radios would cancel each other out and much of our fleet would be regularly ‘on tow’ and ineffective. To be sent on a fool’s errand without adequate tools shows a massive lack of regard or respect, especially considering how our arms trade equips foreign armies and our British values are currently raining down on the children of Yemen. We who wear the white poppy are not disrespectful, necessarily pacifist or politically partisan, but neither do we think that war is the solution, particularly to the problems we face in the 21st century. rather than looking to the past, we want something different for our children’s future.
JOHN BOULTON, Tunbridge wells, Kent.