Wearing a poppy is a visible sign of support for the services
Sir, Jon Miller (letter, Nov 2) seems bored with remembrance and feels it is time we moved on. He also fails to understand the significance of the poppy. It is not worn as a badge of honour. It is a particularly poignant reminder of those men and women we never knew, who fought for the freedoms we enjoy today.
Three of my great-uncles, scarcely out of their teens, returned from the First World War with broken minds and bodies. As with so many others, the country they fought for offered no help and they ended their days as down-and-outs. I never knew them, but there is a place in my heart for them, and I buy a poppy to make a contribution to the appeal and to remember them. When I see other people wearing their poppies I know that we are together in this act of national remembrance and that they have their own special memories.
The BBC has swung from one bizarre extreme to the other, first banning the wearing of poppies then obviously compelling anyone who appears in front of a camera to wear one. This is all wrong. People can choose whether to remember or to forget. They can choose whether or not to wear the poppy. That’s the point.
Ruth Homer
Bury St Edmunds
