On Remembrance Day

Wearing a red poppy in November sometimes feels as much a statement of conformance than a meaningful symbol.  Media and public figures can't be seen on TV, the web or print photos without the obligatory poppy on their lapel.  For many on the left of politics, the red poppy has often been seen as a symbol of the military and imperial establishment with all its connections to Iraq and other contentious conflicts. And Celtic supporters like me are only too aware of how the republican leaning members of the Celtic family see the poppy as a symbol of British army oppression in Ireland over the last 100 years.

I don’t regard myself as a pacifist.  I can't see how someone like Hitler, or Franco, could have been stopped without fighting (although the roots of the 2nd world war go back to political and economic decisions made years earlier and that could have been made differently).  I opposed our involvement in Iraq and have been a member of CND for 30 years.  I don’t believe we should be replacing Trident.

 

My own feelings about wearing a poppy began to change 20 years ago when I first started to learn from my Gran in Perth about my great-grandfather's story in the First World War.  An ordinary working man pitched into a hellish experience after leaving the UK to try and find work to support his family (he died from his wounds in Australia after being invalided back after what sounds like from my Gran's description being wounded at Gallipoli).  That started me thinking about seeing the poppy much more as a symbol of the ordinary people who fight and die in wars - whether as volunteers, conscripts or just civilians in the wrong place and time - where they are pretty much the pawns of much more powerful political interests.

That feeling has been reinforced this year where I spent a fair amount of time with my day job working at the Royal British Legion on a big IT project.  I've heard and seen first-hand the day to day work of the Legion helping ex- service people deal with the problems they encounter back in "civilian" life.  Not just dealing with the social effects of wounds and disability, but all of the issues that so concern many of us in the Labour Party; lack of jobs, debt, payday loans, poverty in old age, squalid housing, access to benefits and family support.   They do a brilliant job.  And bluntly, income from red poppy sales is a big factor is allowing them to operate.

So I'll be wearing my poppy today. As a simple symbol of solidarity with all those who have found themselves fighting, dying and surviving conflicts that were not of their making and that we need to work ever harder to prevent happening again.