Lest We Forget

A poppy can lay dormant for years in soil, only for it to flourish when the earth is churned over. That’s why fields upon fields of poppies could be seen in France and Belgium after the World Wars. That’s why it stands for the memories of those who laid down their lives for us; those who churned the soil of fascism so freedom could bloom.

Jon Snow, the channel 4 newsreader has once again refused to wear one on air this year, saying he refuses to bow to ‘poppy fascism.’ A tragicomic image comes to mind of poppies marching on gardens, refusing to allow other flowers to bloom and shooting on sight all bees that work for any other plants.

He says that he doesn’t wear any symbol on air, pointing out that he doesn’t wear charity bands or black ties to mourn even those related to him. He is only interested in his journalistic impartiality. It’s a brave stance. However, it’s a stance he’s only able to take because of those who laid down their lives in such numbers so many years ago.

I wear pink on pink days, black for funerals and I wore a yellow band when my father was fighting cancer. There are more causes to support than colours. Wristbands have gone from plain, to multicoloured to pin badges. There’s even a Livestrong clothing range. Soon you’ll able to drive an animal rights car and live in an apartment that supports the fight against MS.

They’re all valuable causes, and Jon Snow is right when he says supporting one opens the floodgates to all. It conjures up the image of the news being presented by a giant slinky of multi coloured bands with a voice emerging from the top; ‘and the NASDAQ came down 3 points today.’

But a poppy means more. It means that we have the right to support any cause we choose to without reproach. It means I can write this blog, you can read this blog and people can write comments underneath; all without fear of being dragged away in the night.

In fairness to Snow, he has a job that does require impartiality, and he wears a poppy off air. For Abercrombie and Fitch and Bodycare UK there’s no excuse. Both companies banned their employees from wearing poppies simply because it isn’t part of their uniform. Do employees have to wear company approved underpants, socks, hair?

Why is it that some people seem so averse to celebrate their ancestors? Maybe it’s because we don’t make a big deal of it. Korea, USA, Australia and New Zealand all have national holidays to celebrate those who have died defending their nation. We just have bank holidays, and banks steal all our money.

A national holiday would give people the proper time to reflect on the bravery of those who have walked the extra mile for the most constructive or destructive of things, of that which is the hardest to sell; an ideal.

Over the next two days, if you walk past a poppy stall and debate whether to buy one, do you have time? Just remember 70 years ago, people just like you had no debate. 1,700,000 Brits laid down their lives over 9 brutal years. That number is too big to comprehend. Put simply, somebody British died every 3 minutes over both wars. That’s about the time it’ll take for you to buy and put on your poppy.

Tony, Toni, Tone

Tony Blair’s memoirs are well on their way to becoming the fastest selling in British history. On pre sales alone it shares the top 3 current bestsellers with the autobiographies of Alistair Campbell and Peter Mandelson; we do love a good monster story in Britain.

Usually when somebody provokes such ill feeling as Blair, there are a number of reasons for it. Being hated to the point where a million march against you takes some doing. Thatcher stole industries, jobs, communities before she finally rose to full on hatred with the theft of milk.

With Blair, however, there was just Iraq. His smug smile was irritating. Hobnobbing with celebrities and pretending to be a football man both showed a man desperate to be liked, but nobody died. He was just a bit of a loser. That was OK though, people can deal with a loser when unemployment is falling, hospital queues are being slashed and the minimum wage is increased yearly.

Seeing 179 British soldiers dying to stop weapons that never existed managed to take Blair from OK loserish guy, to hated war criminal pretty much overnight.





On Parkinson Blair said he prayed to god for answers about the invasion of Iraq. He then went on to say “You realise that judgement is made by other people... and if you believe in god, it's made by god as well."

When I was at University there was a man who used to walk around the local town centre. He would collect cans, put them into a black bin bag liner and carry them to the same spot at the same time every night. There he would proceed to stamp on the bag and shout “BAD CANS, BAD CANS – THE DEVIL IS IN YOU AND HE MUST COME OUT, BAD BAD CANS!”
That man was unsurprisingly taken in for medical care after a few weeks. He was guided by the voice of god, and yet all that was damaged were a few cans.

There was also a Muslim student who used to tell people outside the student’s union bar that they were being judged by god; that bad things would happen to them in the after life if they continued down their path of sin. He was warned by the University not to go near the union unless he could keep quiet, and yet all he did was talk to us.

Strange then that when, guided by god, and passing judgement on his / her behalf, Tony order the invasion of Iraq and with it the death of 700,000 civilians, he was worried that people in Britain would think of him as a ‘nutter,’ because he was Catholic not Church of England.

Strange also that Blair would describe Gordon Brown as a man with ‘zero emotional intelligence.’ That from a man who patronised the British people so severely by stating they couldn’t accept a leader of another religion.

As thousands working in the public sector are currently looking over their shoulders, worried that they’ll be swept away in the next wave of cuts, one wonders what word they’d use to describe Blair, the man who instigated and authorised the spending of £9.24billion on invading Iraq.

The word ‘nutter’ comes to mind.