Ian Court

I don’t want to post the video. You’ve all seen it. But I do want to write a love letter… Dear everyone in Britain, ( even you illegals) Just so you understand. The poppy is for the boys who never got to grow old. For the boys who were still somebody’s baby, brother, uncle or father. More than 600,000 of them. It doesn’t matter if you support war, hate your country, think you are a woman (even though you are a man). It doesn’t matter which God you pray to, or if you pray to none at all. It doesn’t matter who you vote for, what climate narrative you believe, or whether you believe Israel should exist or not! The poppy isn’t for you! It’s for those who came before. Those who fought for your right to be weird, annoying or even foreign. The poppy is how we say thank you. Thank you for giving us time, peace and choice. And attempting to ban our poppy by declaring it politically divisive isn’t a move towards freedom. It is an act of suppression. Understand that. The poppy is about love and loss. For you! So stick your rainbow flags and every other flag where the sun doesn’t shine and just wear your poppy. Those boys did not die as symbols. They died for you! Did you know that poppies grew across the battlefields where so many fell? As though even the land refused to forget the blood once given to defend it. So the poppy is for them. For those who came before us and paid in youth, in hope, in breath, in blood, so that we might have the freedom to be arseholes. So that we might even have the freedom to fight over the ridiculous, the inconsequential and the insane. Revere it, celebrate it and wear it. The very least you can do is that. Best The ordinary people.