With images of the devastation and civilian suffering in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine having dominated our screens agenda for years now, why on earth can’t our national newspapers promote averting war?
The solemn ritual of pausing each November to remember those who died in war has now been dragged into the trenches of the culture war.
‘Woke remembrance’ scream the Telegraph and the Express, as they take aim at the Peace Pledge Union (PPU) and its campaign promoting the white poppy, a symbol of remembrance for all victims of war, both military and civilian.
Founded in 1934, the PPU has always stood for pacifism, nonviolence, and the rejection of militarism. Its white poppies are meant to complement, not compete with, the traditional red ones. Indeed, some people wear both.
White poppies are also associated now with those men shot for ‘cowardice’ in the first world war long before PTSD was recognised.
But for certain right-wing commentators, anyone wearing one is just another “woke, leftie, disrespectful idiot.”
“Woke Remembrance campaign to wear white poppies to ‘decolonise’ November 11 launched,” blared the Express this week, singling out actor Sir Mark Rylance for supporting the campaign. The paper claimed Rylance had “promoted fury” by publicly backing the PPU and saying this year’s Remembrance Sunday, should “refocus our every effort to avert war.”
With images of the devastation and civilian suffering in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine having dominated our screens agenda for years now, why on earth can’t our national newspapers promote averting war?
Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon told the Telegraph that Rylance “spits in the face of veterans” by wearing a white poppy, despite the PPU’s campaign explicitly honouring all who have suffered in war, including British soldiers.
“I can’t express it more determinedly how much I abhor this white poppy lot,” he added.
Former defence secretary James Cartlidge claims the group’s efforts to “decolonise remembrance” would “undermine” the memory of those who “gave their lives so that we can be free.”
Yet what the PPU actually advocates is a fuller, more honest history, one that includes colonial soldiers and the victims of empire, whose contributions and suffering have too often been sidelined.
The hysteria around “woke remembrance” reached even more absurd levels, with the Royal British Legion, the very organisation behind the red poppy, being accused of “wokeness.”
Laurence Fox (who else?) tweeted: “I haven’t bought a poppy yet this year from the @PoppyLegion. Can’t bring myself to contribute to the head of diversity, equity and inclusions salary. Also the “pride poppy” child mutilation cult badge is a big put off. Woke kills everything. I refuse to support it. Tough one.”
Even by Fox’s standards, the comment was a new low, as one user responded: “Imagine being so far right that you consider the Royal British Legion too woke.”
The real tragedy here is that Remembrance should unite, not divide. The poppy, red or white, or now black or purple, is meant to commemorate human loss, not fuel political outrage.
If wearing a white poppy prompts us to think harder about the causes and costs of war, then perhaps it’s doing exactly what remembrance is meant to do.
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