Red poppies: a political statement?

What a tricky question.

On the one hand, for most people, it is not. Statements are heard precisely in so much as they stand out against the background noise of the status quo. In that sense, at least, it is not a statement.

Indeed, many people wearing red poppies will be against many of the specific military ventures in which Britain has and is engaged. They view Remembrance as simply that.

On the other hand, precisely in so much as it isn't heard as a statement that is exactly what it is: a statement of unity, of unanimity in many offices, churches and communities, in which the totem is the same even if its connotations are different.

That this is a form of statement is thrown into relief when such unanimity is impossible to assert, such as in Northern Ireland where the poppy became associated with Loyalism. Here the poppy and the flag are inseparable. The question is, are they ever?

The point for me is that those who wear the white poppy are often accused of making a political point on the back of an apolitical event. But for as long as people are still dying as a result of the system that they oppose, it's difficult to imagine how wearing a symbol so deeply embedded in the military economy can be acceptable to them.

Others' hostility to this betrays a totalising tendency among those who would prefer that, for one day, the monologue is unchallenged. This, in itself, is a reason to opt for the white poppy.