• I THOUGHT that red poppies were optional?

You wouldn’t think that if you had watched the BBC over the last couple of weeks. Its presenters don’t seem to have the freedom to chose not to wear them. Premier League footballers now seem to have to wear them as well.

The original meaning of the red poppy has been lost, ambushed by the military public relations machine. They’ve now turned it into a way of manipulating the public into “supporting the troops” and, by extension, backing current, often illegal and unnecessary, conflicts.

It is far more fitting to buy the white poppy. That represents all the people who die in war.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED