Jon Snow and Remembrance Poppies

Poppies really bother me.

Don't get me wrong. My grandfather fought in WWII (Irish Guards), my uncle fought in Korea (Canadian Air Force). I took a tour of WWI battlefields in Belgium in 1998 and stood at the frontline in the 1st Battle of Ypres, when mustard gas was used to liquefy Canadian lungs. I hate war, and I hope we all mean it when we say, "never again."

But, that's the problem, you see, the utter hypocrisy of the weeks leading up to Remembrance Sunday.

The PM and his cabinet, and hundreds of other MPs and city councillors, up and down the land, who support the war in Iraq, who voted for arms sales, who don't say boo to countries that make war upon their citizens (like Russia), all wearing poppies. Business leaders who sell arms wearing poppies. People whose pension funds invest in defence industry and arms sales wearing poppies.

If we say "never again," we should really mean "never again" ... not never again except for Iraq ... or never again except for selling arms to both India and Pakistan over Kashmir.

On a related note, I really appreciate Jon Snow having the guts to break with other newsreaders/presenters and refuse to wear a poppy on-air.

He said that "I am begged to wear an AIDS ribbon, a breast cancer ribbon, a Marie Curie flower ... You name it, from the Red Cross to the RNIB, they send me stuff to wear to raise awareness, and I don't. And in those terms, and those terms alone, I do not and will not wear a poppy. Additionally there is a rather unpleasant breed of poppy fascism out there - 'He damned well must wear a poppy!'. Well I do, in my private life, but I am not going to wear it or any other symbol on air."