I hate badges and ribbons, but this year I have decided to wear a poppy for the first time

[…] So why was it that last week at Marylebone Station, for the first time in my life, I found myself marching up to the elderly gentleman at his poppy stand and, without a moment’s hesitation after putting my contribution into his box, taking my poppy (as I always used to decline to do) and actually putting it on? I didn’t even need a pin as the buttonhole in my lapel (never tested before) turned out to be real. There are three reasons. The first is that the Royal British Legion’s poster campaign this year has been so moving. You must have seen it. Scenes of family togetherness and happiness are pictured except that, in the photograph, a flesh-and-blood man — perhaps the father — has been replaced by a sort of ghost, an air-spirit, half-transparent, constructed only of poppies so you can see right through him wherever there are spaces between the poppies. Staring at these images on billboards I have had to fight back tears. […]

To read the full article: http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/columnists/334946/i-hate-badges-and-ribbons-but-this-year-i-have-decided-to-wear-a-poppy-for-the-first-time.thtml