Well congratulations!

That’s the first time I ever recall my first poppy sighting of the year not to be on the chest of a politician.

I caught one of Manchester City’s board wearing one while watching the Lech Poznan game on Thurday night.

Normal service was resumed on Friday when Tory MPs were sporting them in the House of Commons.

Saturday lunchtime and the Football Focus boys were also bedecked – even the behind the scenes ones supposedly preparing for Final Score. The BBC enforcers were obviously on the ball.

Every single one of these poppies was the kind with the green leaf. I.e. the ones us mere mortals of the public can no longer obtain.

It’s at least three weeks to Armistice Day. I can’t help feeling that such ostentatious display is more than a little unseemly.

See my previous rants about politicians and poppies here and here.

Well. This year Jack Straw sported one in the House of Commons on the 20^th October!

That’s ridiculous. It’s at least 20 days before Remembrance Sunday (or 27 if it’s the Sunday after the 11th November.)

Doesn’t the Queen get to pick which Sunday it will be if the 11th is on a Wednesday?

Edited to add. I spotted Gordon Brown with one at Prime Minister’s Questions on the 21^st (yesterday) yet on the lunchtime news yesterday it said Dame Vera Lynn was to launch this year’s poppy appeal.

How come politicians get there first?

Re-edited: The Conservative spokeswoman on last night’s Question Time on BBC 1 had on a quite ridiculous effort: not the standard issue at all. It was as if she was saying my poppy’s bigger than your poppy and so I’m better than you. (Or more patriotic; or something.) It was actually more like the special ones the Queen wears. I’d have been more impressed if she’d had on a normal one like the general public buys – no green leaf. That would have been enough of a contrast with the other panellists.

I watched a bit of “Question Time” last night before the panellists’ constant interrupting of each other got too much on my nerves.

It was a special edition from America (because of some election or other they’re having over there which you may just have heard of.)

With David Dimbleby and Simon Schama, I could understand it. They’re British (in Schama’s case half of the time.)

But why on Earth were the four Americans on the panel wearing poppies? They were in America.

It would be like me waving the Stars and Stripes down Kirkcaldy High Street on Veterans’ Day or something.

What sort of Stalinist (no resistance will be tolerated) regime are the BBC running?

It’s a very worthwhile endeavour. Of course it is. I buy and wear one every year as do my family members. But….

I caught a bit of the American Football from Wembley on BBC 1 on Sunday. They had two Americans pundits giving expert opinion. Fair enough. Except…

They were both wearing poppies (as was the British presenter.)

As far as I was aware the Poppy Appeal is a British undertaking. Do ordinary Americans even know of its existence? The two may of course have been perfectly happy to wear their poppies and presumably the reason for the practice was explained to them.

This sudden rash of media poppy wearing towards the end of October always strikes me as a bit sanctimonious. This is especially so since the poppy wearers on the TV – and in Parliament – have them way in advance of Remembrance Day (before the general public has much of a chance to buy one) and always have the green leafed version. These are not generally available to the public so there is an element of showing off about them that is more than a little distasteful.

There is also a hint of compulsion. I get the impression that in the run up to Remembrance Day no-one would be allowed on TV without one – with the possible exception of babes in arms. Is it someone’s job to press poppies on people about to appear in front of camera?

I know the BBC every year gives a substantial donation to the Earl Haig Fund for the poppies it uses. I assume ITV (and all the other TV companies) do too. Is it faintly possible that some TV employees don’t buy one themselves because they’ve got a BBC (or whatever) one? If so, the Fund will lose out.

As I recall it wasn’t always like this. Not everyone on the TV at this time of year used to have a poppy. You can’t say that now.

So, if everyone on the TV wears a poppy how much does it actually mean? It becomes merely a gesture and not an affirmative act. Weren’t the First and Second World Wars fought (on our part) so that people were not dragooned into doing things they might not want to?

Wearing a poppy ought to be a matter of individual choice, not of coercion – whether that coercion be by the TV companies or by those writing/phoning/texting/emailing in to complain if someone in the public eye doesn’t have a poppy on.