Why our young people are scared to wear the poppy
“This is the first time I haven’t bought a poppy as an adult, because I just feel like it is sending a message I don’t really want to send,” says Sophie*, 33, a writer from London. “It feels like it encompasses a lot of other things. We should commemorate the sacrifice of people who fought in wars and respect them. But it feels symbols have become really potent in the past few years.”
The wearing of red poppies sometimes seems as much an annual tussle over their meaning as it is an annual remembrance of the fallen. There is regular talk of “poppy etiquette” when public figures don’t wear one – while appearing on television, for example – and accusations of failing to show respect for the sacrifices of the Armed Forces. Conversely, non-observers often respond with complaints about “poppy fascism” – although the Royal British Legion (RBL) insists it would never criticise anyone for not displaying the symbol.
“We are remembering the service and sacrifice of those who fought for the freedom we have today,” says Philippa Rawlinson, director of Remembrance at RBL. “[But] we will always come out in defence of individuals who don’t want to wear a poppy in public life.”
The RBL says it has distributed 30 million paper poppies and six million poppy pins consistently every year for the past decade. But the mood seems to be different this year and there has been a noticeable fall in the number of people, particularly young people, wearing a poppy.
Many struggle to explain exactly why they have opted out, but say the symbol now has broader associations they would rather avoid, whether that be war in general or some negative aspect of Britain’s historical legacy, or just a patriotism that is seen as unfashionable.
“I also think it’s linked to Brexit for a lot of young people, who feel that somehow making a show of patriotism is tied into that, which so many young people are still unhappy about,” says Anna*, 24, a commodities trader from London. “A bit like with St George’s flags, that makes some people feel uncomfortable.”
Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a think tank that specialises in immigration, integration, race and identity, adds, “The far-Right have always wanted to own Remembrance. When the English Defence League [EDL] was at its height about 15 years ago, Remembrance was used heavily as an anti-minority weapon and [the EDL] even entered into a symbiotic relationship with Islamic extremists as the defenders and attackers of poppies respectively.”
In 2014, Britain First, a far-Right organisation, was castigated for using the poppy to sell its merchandise (and breaching the RBL’s copyright). The far-Right also use the phrase “Lest we forget” on social media as a means of reinforcing their duty, as they see it, to “protect” Remembrance, knowing full well that this boosts the number of times their posts are liked and shared because they look like straightforward commemorations.
And just this week, Britain First shared a photograph of two houses awash with poppies – in their windows, on their front walls and drainpipes, and planted in their front garden alongside memorial crosses. The message accompanying the photograph read: “This patriot’s neighbour complained about this poppy display… so they put up 20 more!”
“I can’t think of any of my friends who would buy a poppy now,” says Sophie. “It feels too close to nationalism somehow. I have a lot of pride for my relatives who fought in the Second World War, but I’m not sure wearing a poppy just says we are commemorating that anymore. I feel like it sends out a wider message. It’s hard to articulate, but it’s somehow linked to how you feel about the country. It feels a bit adjacent to hanging a St George’s cross in the window of your sitting room.”
If the red poppy is as tainted for some as the St George’s cross, it’s worth noting how that flag’s image has metamorphosed over the years. In the 1970s and 1980s it was associated with English football hooligans, but this changed in 1996 when the country hosted the Euro Championships and the team reached the semi-finals after years of falling short in major tournaments.
Suddenly the flag was everywhere – on cars and in windows – amid a display of positive patriotism. It lasted for a few more football tournaments. But, more recently, the flag has come to be associated with the extreme Right again, or simply as a designator of white working-class culture, something sections of the middle-class might look down upon in the style of the MP Emily Thornberry, who famously shared a picture on social media of a house in Kent bedecked with England flags in 2014, with the comment: “Image from Rochester”.
It is not just the far-Right who have appropriated the poppy, of course; the far-Left must share the blame. According to the Peace Pledge Union (PPU), sales of its white poppies, which it distributes in the run-up to Remembrance Day as part of a campaign against the “glorification” of war, are up 27 per cent in schools and universities this year, with most people wearing them as a gesture of solidarity with Gaza.
A giant poppy decorating a park bandstand in Eastleigh, Hampshire, was also vandalised last weekend, forcing the local council to remove it and seven others.
But Katwala says there are some trends that augur well for the future of the red poppy, and counteract the actions of extremists.
“The story has been widened [in recent years] to include more women and minorities,” he says. “There has been much more focus on the multi-ethnic and Commonwealth contribution to the world wars that has brought a more inclusive sense of what Remembrance is about. The armies that fought the world wars had the demographic mix of a classroom in 2024 Britain. That history disrupts the Left’s pacifism and the far-Right’s racism.”
The RBL also continues to work with schools to make its cause relevant to today’s pupils. “We want to keep the stories of our veterans alive, as we are sadly losing them,” says Rawlinson. “We create resources especially in Years 8 and 9 that are designed to engage children in schools with the work we do. We have 50,000 signed up for a special Remembrance Day assembly across the country.”
And, despite a row in 2017, when the England team was told by Fifa to remove the poppy from England shirts prior to a match against Spain on Armistice Day, poppies in public are probably more common now than they have ever been – on Premier League football shirts, projected onto buildings and in squares and on monuments across the country.
While the far-Right have attempted to suggest not wearing a poppy is a traitorous act, the obvious riposte has been to point out that it is precisely the freedom preserved by the Armed Forces that means we all have the choice to wear what we please.
“There have always been clashes between generations over poppies and Remembrance,” says Katwala. “The 1960s was an obvious one, with satirical shows and films such as Oh! What A Lovely War. It’s a recurring challenge as to whether this tradition will be carried on by successive generations. It’s politicised when people on one side of a debate say to the other side, ‘The poppy belongs to us and we wear it because people like you don’t wear it’. That’s where you will get a political and generational divide. So rather than say the poppy is neutral, I’d argue you should say the poppy can represent both sides of a debate and everyone can share the tradition.”
Rawlinson puts it slightly differently. “We are really clear that the poppy is non-partisan and non-sectarian,” she says. “We don’t focus on the politics of conflicts but on the experiences of the servicemen and women affected.”
But she says the RBL will not hesitate to take action against any misappropriation of their famous symbol. “The poppy is very precious to us,” she says. “We are hoping it helps us raise over £50m because we want to continue to do our important work.”
*Names have been changed