As usual I will not be wearing a poppy today. I know that though there are now very few survivors of the war the poppy symbol truly commemorates and that the day also is for showing respect to those who lost their lives in subsequent conflicts, observance of Armistice Day means a great deal to some people. I have always wondered though, is Poppy Day not something of a cop out. Would we not better respect the memory of those who gave their lives by trying to uphold the freedoms their sacrifice won?
Britain’s greatest ever Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, spoke of building a “land fit for heroes” as, in the wake of victory, he initiated vast slum clearance and social housing projects, laid the foundations of the welfare state, fought against the dark forces of conservatism to gain advances in social justice, including votes for all and decent conditions for factory, mine and agricultural workers? The young officers who died in hundreds and left us some great war poetry may have been from Eton or Charterhouse, Stowe or Stonyhurst, but the Tommies who died in their hundreds of thousands were apprentices, clerks and labourers who had left school at eleven or thirteen to work for a pittance.
To get an idea of how much remembrance means to the class that started the way, we need to consider the closure of the C of E Church of St. John The Evangelist in Accrington, which is deemed too expensive to maintain. St. Johns is an ordinary local church with no special architectural features that I know of. It does however house a small chapel dedicated to The Accrington Pals. This regiment, recruited entirely from the young men of the town, was wiped out almost to a man in ten crazy minutes on July 1st, 1916. A whole generation of a town’s men...
When I contacted various people to see if any effort was being launched to save the Church and its Pals Chapel neither the Diocese, local political groups nor the media were interested. I am in no way religious but I am an effective communicator and campaigner ad would have been glad to give my time. It was disgusting to find there was nothing I could do to preserve the memory of those young men.
It is not just that of course, the war waged by politicians on the working class over the past three decades, the abandonment of social housing and attacks on workers rights all insult the memory of the millions who died.
When the poppy sellers approach me I’m happy to give a pound to the charity but I will not take a poppy. I’d rather people think me a bastard than a hypocrite.
If you are turned off by the pomp and circumstance, the elitism and the hypocrisy of the official Armistice Day celebration, here's a link to The Green Fields of France, probably the most moving and honest anti - war song ever recorded.
As well as the back story to the song The Green Fields Of France (words: Eric Bogle, music: traditional Irish & Scottish lament), the page also has two links to 2 mp3 recording to download free or listen to online. American readers might recognise the song as The Streets of Laredo, these old melodies certainly get around.