Epiblog for Remembrance Sunday

There are certain stories which come around at certain times of the year and obsess the media for a few days, sometimes even causing an outbreak of “spats” on message boards across the face of the internet. The appearance of the first charity Christmas card catalogue, the annual (and shameful) culling of seals by Canada, the Boxing Day hunt meetings, even the first cuckoo. So it is with poppy day.
I don’t actually recall poppy day being such a big deal when I was at school – the tray of poppies came around, you put your donation in the tin, you bought a poppy and you wore it. These days, under the forensic glare of the media, it certainly is a big deal. You can’t even turn on your TV without finding programmes that are normally miles away from anything military suddenly morphing into “Remembrance Day Specials”, and wearing a poppy – or worse, not wearing one – has become a political act, by which you can be judged, irrespective of any other evidence either for or against! Even TV newsreaders such as Jon Snow have been dragged into the controversy.

This year, there have been particularly sparky exchanges on both sides, because of stories about FIFA not letting the England football team wear poppies on their shirts during the friendly match against Spain on Remembrance Day weekend, and because of our old friend Anjem Choudhary and his merry band of useful idiots wanting to burn poppies in the streets near the Albert Hall on the day itself.

FIFA’s excuse is that if they allow one nation to bear “national symbols” on their shirt, then all nations will wish to do so. In effect, they sort of have a point – we would soon be up in arms if the German football side wanted to put swastikas on their shirts – even if it was done in memory of people who died in Germany resisting the Nazis! FIFA, however, is a totally discredited body led by a totally discredited windbag. Everybody knows that FIFA is, in many respects, very like the EU – the English are the only people who actually obey the rules, and as a result, they are usually the only ones who get the shitty end of the stick. I would have a lot more respect for FIFA’s rules if their sudden discovery of a rule book extended to them opening it and reading the page about not trying to bribe people in distant parts with jiffy bags of the local currency handed over clandestinely in car parks. However, it seems that their rules only work selectively, on days when Sepp Blatter is actually in the office.

The football imbroglio has been solved by a typical British compromise, which allows the team to wear the poppies on their armbands instead of their shirts. This may solve the immediate problem, but long term, international football needs a cleaning of the stables at a much more fundamental level. Perhaps Prince William and David Cameron could keep up their pressure on Sepp Blatter over other, dare I say, more important issues around FIFA, although I suspect that, in Cameron’s case, as usual, he saw a bandwagon rolling by, and couldn’t resist the temptation to hop on!

The actions of “Muslims Against Crusades” (membership, approx. 12), are of course more problematic. Theresa May has now banned them, as I speak, which has achieved the following results – instead of being justly, and justifiably, ignored, they are now all over the news; they will pop up again next month under a different name; they have dissolved as an organisation, which doesn’t stop them burning poppies as individuals on 11 November; and of course she has not only fanned the considerable inferno of Mr Choudhary’s own self-importance, but also given the approving nod, once again, in a dog-whistle, subliminal message sort of way, to all the white van men, the BNP and EDL supporters and Daily Mail/Sun readers who think that anyone who is a bit brown is automatically an enemy of the state and should be deported, irrespective of whether they are British or not. The people who now look questioningly at you if you don’t wear a poppy

Of course, what these people neglect is that actually, in both World Wars, many people of many faiths fought for Britain, and – for instance - Khudadad Khan, the first soldier in the British Indian Army to win the V. C., in 1914, was … a Muslim. But, sadly, this is unknown territory to the many, many people who now seem to view wearing a poppy as being equal to “being patriotic” and “supporting our troops”. And with that, of course, comes the baggage of tacitly supporting the likes of the EDL, thinking there are too many immigrants, they are all after our jobs, all Muslims are fundamentalist terrorists and all the rest of the shit that goes with it. Shit which I utterly reject.

Which brings me back to my own reasons for wearing a poppy. Because I like to pick and choose my wars, you see; I’m funny like that. The First World War was a tragic and blunderful episode that wasted lives and left a generation blighted. I can empathise with wanting to remember that needless, heartless sacrifice, and wanting to ensure it would never happen again. And I would wear my poppy in memory of my great-uncle, Harry Fenwick, of the RFA, gassed at Ypres in 1917, and Debbie’s great-grandad, William Evans of the Suffolk Regiment, died of wounds in 1915. I can certainly see the point of commemorating the struggle against Fascism, 1939-45, and the sacrifice, again, of the fallen in that massive conflict, such as my Mother-in-Law’s distant relative James Ross, RAF, whose Hawker Hurricane plunged into the Irish Sea, sadly with him still inside it, one January day in 1942.

But, and here I am going to surprise you, like Anjem Choudhary, I am against the war in Afghanistan. For completely different reasons, of course. He sees it as part of a global war on Islam, which is to be countered by introducing Sharia Law and re-establishing the Caliphate (!) I am against the conflict in Afghanistan because I think it is now a waste of time, we have already telegraphed to the Taleban, for God’s sake, that we’re giving up in a couple of years, the place is beyond redemption, sadly, the puppet government established by the US is hopelessly inept and corrupt, and all that our troops are doing now is being professional targets, and coming home in body bags.

This doesn’t mean I don’t feel sorry when one of them is killed, or sympathetic to their families for their sacrifice and loss. But I think it is perfectly possible to respect and honour, even, the professionalism of our armed forces out there, making the best of things with poor equipment and shortages, with little or no help from our European “allies”, without tacitly approving the bungling adventurism of the politicians that put them in harm’s way. And if they are injured, then the Government should make damn well sure they are looked after – and well looked after – for the rest of their lives, not leave it up to some charity set up by a tabloid newspaper with questionable morals and motives which gets them off the hook. We didn’t need “help for heroes”, we’ve already got a Government to do that sort of thing, and failing them, the British Legion. But of course the Sun, and the tendency it both fosters and represents, has commandeered the “Help for Heroes” agenda in the same way as the EDL has commandeered the cross of St George, and would do to the poppy, if allowed.

So, in answer to those who would castigate me for picking and choosing what wars I support, and for having my own reasons for wearing the poppy, I can only remind you that in the years 1939-45, people fought and died for the right to choose which government and which policies you support, and for the free speech to debate it, and for the right to wear or not wear a poppy without being coerced either way, for your own reasons. And if we lose that, if we forget it, and forget – for instance - that Muslims have won VCs as well, if we continue in some Gadarene rush towards an even more xenophobic and bigoted nation, using the poppy as a symbol, for all the wrong reasons, allowing it to be hijacked in the same way the St George’s flag has been hijacked, if we forget our history, if we forget the enormous and painful sacrifices of the struggle against Fascism, we may just be condemned to repeat it.

Lest we forget.