A Dishonour

Millions of Britons stopped what they were doing yesterday to mark the anniversary of Armistice Day. They stopped at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in remembrance of the day in 1918 which signalled the end of the First World War.

That solemn two minute silence honours the dead of all wars and it will be repeated when the Queen leads the nation at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday.

Yesterday, a small group of protesters burned a model of a poppy in Exhibition Road, South Kensington. Some held placards saying BRITISH SOLDIERS BURN IN HELL.

These same people forget that our soldiers gave their lives to preserve what is still thankfully a free country.

What, I wonder, would happen if these same people returned to their own countries of origin to protest about the happenings there?
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‘Lest We Forget’

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I had to go up to London yesterday and was saddened to see how few people were wearing poppies.

Maybe some people feel that the poppies represent just another charity and, to some extent, that is true for every week someone seems to be clanking a collecting tin as we emerge from a station or a supermarket. Every so often we also get personally-addressed appeals in the mail from charities reminding us of the need to support various folk or animals around the world. So I have some understanding of what is now called ‘charity fatigue’.

On the other hand, the annual display of poppies in the run-up to Remembrance Day has become a national symbol as well as a memorial and tribute to all those who have fallen in conflict and who may have been injured in or affected by them.

It’s not only the last two World Wars that we need to remember, but all the various conflicts since then. And, of course, the conflicts that exist right now, and Lord knows there are plenty of them.

More importantly, Poppy Day is a reminder - one sadly forgotten or ignored by many young people these days - that those who have fallen in conflict have done so to protect the freedom that we enjoy now. And that is definitely something that should not be forgotten.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
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