The poppy was once a symbol of peace. An icon of the futility of war. It was once worn on one solitary day a year to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. For those who have, or continue to wear a military uniform, the poppy has a lasting resonance. Unfortunately for those who wield political power it has other uses.

Today, it has become a political football. A nationalistic trophy. UKIP claim it. The English Defence League claim it. The ‘Leave’ campaign utilise it:

This is an embarrassment. pic.twitter.com/wy7WEPQZKD — Jamie Ross (@JamieRoss7) November 8, 2015

The Conservative Party and their media supporters gorge on it. David Cameron even had his Facebook image ‘photo-shopped’ to add the poppy, much to the ridicule of the social media.

The politicisation of the poppy has got so out of control that on Remembrance Sunday, of all days, the mainstream media is alive with spats between military generals and political party leaders as to the use of Britain’s nuclear weapons.

On a day when we all should contemplate the heinous reality of war it is those who have never served their country that control the narrative.

There is no mention of the millions of working-class men who left their squalid living conditions to fight in the trenches 100 years ago, for a government for whom 40% were ineligible to vote for. No mention of the aristocracy who led these men and forced them to walk ‘like gentlemen’ towards German machine-gun fire.

There was little reflection to remember those who fell in the ‘war to end all wars’. Instead the focus remained on whether a newly elected Prime Minister, Jeremy Corbyn, would ‘press’ the nuclear button.

The presence of Tony Blair at the cenotaph was absent from all mainstream media commentary. A man who may yet be exposed in the overdue Chilcot Report on the Iraq War. No mention of his illegal invasion of Iraq or the UK’s under-resourced deployment in Helmand which cost hundreds of lives. Instead the issue of the day became whether or not Jeremy Corbyn bowed after he lay a poppy wreath.

Unfortunately it is people who have never been in harms way that control the narrative. People who have never been in battle that hunger for further military action in Syria. These people have politicised the poppy to such a degree it is now a symbol of militarism rather than a symbol of peace.

This has to change…

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