Daily View: Poppy debate
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Commentators ask why the remembrance poppy appears to create controversy every year.
This year the storm centres around Jon Snow, the Channel 4 News presenter, who has hit out at "poppy fascism" and "intolerance" after he was criticised for not wearing the emblem on TV. he told a commenter to get that "Hitler lost the war".
does Jon Snow know how offensive he is being:
"My complaint is that, by turning on his critics like an angry schoolboy chastised for neglecting his homework, [Jon Snow] has, no doubt unwittingly, encouraged the belief that wearing a poppy is a sign of dull conformity. Really, it is a badge of pride. Of course, he is entitled to say that in a free country he has a right to choose whether or not he wears this emblem of gratitude."
The the controversy, saying Jon Snow is just taking the hit for a yearly debacle:
"You can tell the passing seasons just by reading the regular TV fixtures that pop up in the Daily Mail news calendar. There's the 'too many Christmas repeats' story, the 'not enough religion on the telly at Easter' tale, and that perennial favourite, 'outrage at presenters who don't wear poppies'."
The debate recalls a 2006 article from the Guardian in which on accusations of "poppy fascism" on a .
Historian :
"Not wearing a poppy on air is not equivalent to not remembering those who died for our freedoms, although I suspect Snow over-eggs it a bit when he says that soldiers died so that we might choose. I'm somewhat wary of defending small, specific liberties by invoking wartime sacrifice, but I'm extremely wary of a culture that insists on forcing us, as individuals, to publicise our remembrance and our grief."
Mr Walters goes on to suggest the debate may have a positive result for the Royal British Legion:
"Snow's blanket ban on wearing symbols is a positive reaction against competitive public grief. His refusal makes us think again what the poppies are really about, and ironically, his blank lapel does more to remind us of sacrifice and remembrance than a poppy worn mindlessly or out of compulsion."
the poppy to an American audience:
"The poppies recall Marimekko in their graphic punch, and 'Sex and the City'-era brooches in their ubiquity, but they are political, not fashion, accessories - the American-flag pins of British public life. David Cameron would no less be seen without one than he would be seen without a shirt."
Prompted by Tony Blair wearing a poppy on US news in 2004, the emblem to Americans, saying the poppy permeates British culture:
"Explainer found that roughly one out of every four tube passengers sported the vibrant red flowers; Explainer even dropped a pound in a Royal British Legion collection box and wore a poppy in his lapel for the duration of his stay - it was the easiest way to be mistaken for a Brit."
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