We can all agree that the Royal British Legion does excellent work supporting ex-service personnel and their families, and that their annual Poppy Appeal is an inspirational fund-raising exercise.
We can all agree that the Royal British Legion does excellent work supporting ex-service personnel and their families, and that their annual Poppy Appeal is an inspirational fund-raising exercise.
But do we really need TfL slapping poppies on the front of trains several weeks before Remembrance Sunday?
So it's praiseworthy to see TfL already sticking poppies on the front of trains in readiness for Remembrance Day.
This is a DLR train pulling into All Saints last Thursday with a big red poppy on the front. This is nothing new, TfL have been sticking poppies on the front of trains for years. But it's only mid-October for heaven's sake and Poppy Day is more like mid-November, so whose idea was it to slap on the stickers so prematurely?
Waiting passengers must have swelled with pride as this DLR train approached, perhaps bowing their heads in memory of battles fought and lives lost. It's always an emotional time, the first poppy-stickered train of the year, so it must be best to stick them on as early as possible to maximise the period of remembrance.
What's more they've even stuck them inbetween the carriages, at the blank ends where you can't pretend you're driving the train. Nobody needs poppies interspersed on the grubby windows mid-train, this is totally unnecessary signage for added the sake of it. Indeed precisely how many of these sticky red shapes have they spent our fares on when the money could have instead gone on something genuinely practical?
How great to also find poppies stuck to the windows inbetween the carriages. It wouldn't be right for people sitting in the middle of the train to miss out, scrolling obliviously on their phones instead of musing on heroic self-sacrifice. Also these 2- and 3-carriage trains must sometimes be reassembled into different combinations, so this over-stickering ensures that no unpoppied train will ever shame our city.
The key date in all this is Remembrance Sunday, the day on which all official commemorations are held and which this year falls on November 12th.
The key date in all this is Remembrance Day, the true anniversary of the Armistice, the common sense option which always falls on November 11th.
And Remembrance Sunday is still three weeks away, a lengthy period which also contains the distractions of Hallowe'en and Bonfire Night. What is the point in kicking off our season of remembrance quite this early when the genuine focus of commemoration is so far distant? Even the Royal British Legion haven't launched their Poppy Appeal yet, it'll start this Thursday by which point these stickered DLR trains will have been running for over a week.
And Remembrance Day is less than 20 days away, a tantalisingly brief period in which to give our national heroes their due. We should be remembering their sacrifice for much longer, ideally at least a month, so that the distractions of Hallowe'en and Bonfire Night don't dim our appreciation and our pride. The Royal British Legion really ought to launch its Poppy Appeal much earlier than 26th October, indeed it seems TfL may have got it right.
It's not just the DLR that's slapped the poppies on, it's also Crossrail. Scores of their trains have also been red-stickered, again prematurely, clashing colourwise with the usual purple trim.
It's not just the DLR that's been bepoppied, it's also the Elizabeth Line. Not all these trains yet have stickers, which is somewhat remiss, but what a beautiful sight on London's newest line.
These poppies aren't on the front because that's pointy and it would look stupid. Instead they appear on the side of the driver's cab where even those waiting behind platform doors will see the premature aberration pass as the train grinds gently to a halt.
It's a shame these poppies aren't on the front of the train in a position of pre-eminence, and also that they only appear at one end rather than both. How much better it would be if, like the DLR, every carriage had at least two stickers, preferably more.
It's possible these stickers emerge so early because some budgetary jobsworth insists on getting their moneysworth. "If we're going to add poppies to trains again this year", they might argue, "at least let's display them for a lengthy period of time." This would fit with the fact they're never removed from trains immediately after Remembrance Sunday either, often lingering into late November or, where depot staff are particularly lazy, well into December.
For those who revere the poppy as a symbol of ongoing respect - often seen wearing pin badges and decorated jackets all year round - the stickering of London's trains can never come soon enough. It might therefore be appropriate to decorate our trains from Trafalgar Day onwards, i.e. from 21st October, even though no veterans from this key battle are still supported by the British Legion, and to retain them until Churchill's birthday on the last day of November.
The tube is also getting in on the act, as seen here on the front of a Metropolitan line train arriving into Moorgate. But here it seems the stickers have not been consistently applied, with the Hammersmith & City train alongside remaining resolutely poppyless.
The tube is also getting in on the act, as all right-thinking passengers would rightly expect. But the stickering is often disrespectfully slapdash, as here at Moorgate where one train has been correctly stickered while the other is offensively blank-fronted.
Does anybody, on seeing a train with a poppy on it, seriously pause to remember a fallen comrade, reflect on the resolve of the human spirit or consider the futility of war? At least we haven't yet reached the ridiculous situation where every bus in London tours the streets with a poppy on the side for the best part of a month, at least not yet.
It stirs the soul to be reminded, with every train we take, of the sacrifices made by the Greatest Generation and the ongoing conflicts the brave lads in our armed forces continue to face. If only all London's buses could be similarly emblazoned, not just the occasional all-over vinyl, how much stronger our collective remembrance would be.
This pointless pandering to patriots is being foisted upon our transport system for an unnecessarily extended period of time, inexplicably defined and which is somehow equivalent to over 5% of the calendar year. And all this for a commemoration which officially lasts just two minutes, or two minutes twice if the populist November-11thers get their way.
This excellent annual crusade imposes remembrance on the masses through the simple act of sticking a poppy on the front of trains, reminding everyone of the selfless souls who died to save our future. The campaign can never start soon enough, nor should these stickers be unpeeled too early if our heroes are to receive the long-term respect they deserve.
It's only right and proper that we remember, but nobody's memory is best commemorated by cheap red stickers slapped nonsensically on the sides of trains over three weeks in advance.
Until TfL can be persuaded to provide more consistent impact by leaving the stickers on all year, the earlier they appear the better, ideally long before we can buy one ourselves.
