Prompted by a comment by
I’ve had strong critical views about the way in which the British Legion conducts Remembrance Day for some years now (in short, their interpretation seems to be more about jingoism than remembrance, and pays no mind to the non-combatant deaths in war). To top this, there was a brief article on the Today programme this morning about the sponsorship of the British Legion’s Poppy Appeal by that well-known company of peaceable aims, British Aerospace, which shows once again that the truth is more cruelly ironic than fiction. The spokesman for BAe on the programme went as far as to say that this was appropriate and consistent because “BAe provides the best possible weapons for Britain because weapons are neutral”
I find this sickening, and I will refuse to support the British Legion (through the Poppy Appeal or otherwise) from now on.
(for those that are interested, a RealAudio stream of the interview is available from the BBC, possibly for a limited time)
Further coverage from The Guardian.