Poppy-wearing politicians must do more to help war heroes

It will be a sight for sore eyes on Sunday when leaders of the two main parties lay their wreaths at the cenotaph. Prime Minister Boris Johnson leads a government that last month failed to include legislation in the Queen’s Speech to protect military veterans from prosecution; Jeremy Corbyn’s close and long associations with the IRA are well-documented.

Meanwhile, shadow chancellor John McDonnell has been out and about this week with his poppy, no doubt hoping the nation has forgotten what he said in 2003 at an event to mark the death of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands.

‘It’s about time we started honouring those people involved in the armed struggle,’ he told his audience. ‘It was the bombs and bullets and sacrifice made by the likes of Bobby Sands that brought Britain to the negotiating table. The peace we have now is due to the action of the IRA.’

Bombs such as the one that killed 18 British soldiers at Warrenpoint in 1979 and eleven Royal Marines bandsmen at Deal ten years later.

Such cant encapsulates how meaningless the wearing of a poppy has become.