Is it just me, or has the poppy thing got a bit . . . weird, this year? First it was the poppy photoshopped onto a photo of David Cameron, lest someone see an image of our Prime Minister this November without one, then Sienna Miller getting a public telling-off for appearing on a chat show without one on her dress. At Waterloo Station, huge ones have sprung up out of the concourse floor, and Jeremy Corbyn was on the Sun’s front page for not bowing low enough while laying his wreath at the Cenotaph.
I should make it clear at this point that I’m no pacifist. As an Air Cadet, I spent many cold weekends collecting for the Royal British Legion outside our local Budgens, often before heading to veterans’ events where we’d serve dinner in our Number 1 blues. I am an observer of two minute silences, and donate to the appeal every year. Early last August, I went down to parliament to see the lights turn off at 11pm, the time war was declared a century ago (it felt important).
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