Overview
- Recent days brought online and media targeting of Meghan Markle, David Lammy, Kevin Maguire, Charlene White and Mark Rylance over whether, when or how they displayed poppies, including criticism of a white poppy.
- Explanations cited include White’s refusal to promote a single charity on air, Maguire wearing a poppy only in Remembrance week, Markle’s claim she could not obtain one in California and Lammy blaming a new suit.
- The column labels the annual pile-on un-British bullying that shifts focus from remembrance to virtue signaling, noting the rise of oversized, sparkly and enamel poppies that encourage one‑upmanship.
- It links the ritual’s escalating enforcement to broader identity anxiety, recalling past flashpoints from Michael Foot’s Cenotaph row to the post‑Covid vogue for prominent flag displays.
- In separate critiques, the writer reports a council telling Banbury residents that full road resurfacing runs on a 103‑year cycle and condemns Elon Musk’s Grok for entries on Tommy Robinson, apartheid and Oswald Mosley.