Whilst I support the veterans and usually wear a poppy every year to show my support for the Royal British Legion I disagree with people now being FORCED to wear a poppy. People on TV, especially the BBC, are now usually forced to wear poppies on air whether they want to or not. Newsreaders on BBC News 24 and Sky News have to wear them and so do the guests that appear on those channels (like those politicians, historians, writers and journalists etc who do the nightly reviews of the next day's newspapers on both channels). Even guests on talk shows have to wear them - the actress Sienna Miller was criticised in the media a few days ago for appearing on The Graham Norton Show without wearing a poppy. Things bordered on the ridiculous the other day on the BBC's Countryfile when the presenters were forced to wear them over their work clothes whilst mucking out pigs or sticking their arms up sheep (or whatever it was they were doing). But it never used to be like this. It used to be the case that if you appeared on TV - or of you were a high-profile person appearing in public - you didn't have to wear a poppy. Nobody bothered whether you wore one or not. It's only in the last few years, for some reason, that people have been forced to wear poppies when appearing on TV, or all politicians are forced to wear them. Anyone appearing on TV now not wearing a poppy gets instantly abused by the Twitterati. But it should be everyone's individual choice. And just because you don't wear a poppy doesn't mean you don't support the veterans. You could put money in a Royal British Legion charity tin and not wear a poppy afterwards.
