Another voice

I hate badges and ribbons, but this year I have decided to wear a poppy for the first time

Matthew Parris

10 November 2007

For the horror of it all, wear a poppy.

Ted Heath was not always easy to love, but his grumpiness could be endearing. I remember him once inveighing against badges. Badges, he said, lapel-stickers, medals, tags, ribbons, bumper-stickers, rosettes, even T-shirts with writing on them — they all added up to the same thing: using yourself as a human billboard to advertise your convictions or good works. He detested the practice, he said. This diatribe had been prompted by a request to attach some perfectly harmless sticker — Save the Whale or whatever — to his coat. The young man who had asked him to do it was rather winded by the tirade.

But I agreed with Ted. I still do. Of course one can see why those who have merited a decoration in war or national service may care to sport their medals on suitable occasions, but even this practice seems to me (to be candid) a little showy. As for slogans, political badges, the gold £ lapel-pins that a certain kind of Eurosceptic wears, ugh. At party conferences some Liberal Democrats literally run out of lapel-space on which to sport all the statements they wish to be seen making.

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stephen Deaves

November 8th, 2007 5:32pm Report this comment

I too was born long after WWII ended but likewise feel moved by it as well. I also wear it for the brave but I fear pointless deaths of service men in Irak and Afghanistan.

One of the scarred.

November 10th, 2007 11:12pm Report this comment

Thank you Matthew.

G. A. SPENCER

November 14th, 2007 8:12pm Report this comment

I never have, and never will, buy a poppy for these reasons: 1. I don't need a symbol of anything to remind me of the sacrifice of those who died in war. I know, because I was there, and served six years. 2. The poppy industry (for that is what it is) is an insult to those who were wounded and for whom the fund is supposed to buy comforts they would not otherwise get. THERE IS NO CONCEIVABLE COMFORT that should not be provided by the government; 3. The poppy industry exists largely for its own ends. I have yet to see a believable figure of how much of the money collected finishes up actually paying for "comforts" of ex-service men. I remember my fallen comrades in my own way in my own home.

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