The days before Remembrance Sunday are always, without exception, a time of extreme embarrassment for me. Every year without fail, I purchase a poppy or a badge and within days I have lost it, sometimes on the day on which I bought it. Then, I have to pass numerous stalls staffed by the Royal British Legion’s volunteers feeling embarrassed and slightly guilty as if I have not bought a poppy or badge. I feel like walking up to each and every one of them and saying: “I really did buy one, honest, but I lost it, just like I always do.” And the volunteers would be thinking: “Yeah, right. We’ve heard that one before. Why not just admit that you don’t to buy a poppy or a badge?”
I know that actually poppy sellers won’t be thinking that because the very people for whom they are collecting fought for a world in which we can all be free, including being free to not buy a poppy if we don’t want to buy one. But I did, honestly. I did.
Surely, the Royal British Legion (RBL) is up there with our finest charities? I’ve always thought that since I worked out for myself what it was all about. And while I have to draw the line at donating to every single charity that comes knocking at my door, so to speak, the RBL is not one where I do that. It makes me very proud of our country that we do remember those who served, especially those who gave everything. When I meet someone who has served in our armed services, I thank them for their service, even if I have managed to lose my poppy or badge. I just wonder, as I always wonder, why caring for those who served is paid for through charity. Why isn’t the state picking up the bill?
For charity, as we all know, pays for the things we the people deem not important enough to fund through general taxation. So, our ex servicemen and women are supported through life by the kindness and generosity of strangers. And the RBL is not the only charity that operates in this way.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is a charity, so is the Air Ambulance Service. The government pays around £200 million a year towards cancer research, but various charities like Cancer Research are on the frontline trying to end this awful disease. There are over 170,000 charities in the UK. Without them, I would suggest that the country will not just be on its knees, it would collapse altogether.
I used to take the view that I should not donate to any charities because it was just letting government off the hook from its responsibilities but quickly U-turned when I realised just how deep-seated charities are in the foundations of our country. The state cannot fund absolutely everything it wants and even things it needs to. A decent, properly organised charity can and does make a difference. None more so than the RBL.
The RBL has been around for over 100 years and proudly declares that it’s going nowhere. I believe that The Great British Public are happy to learn that news. And maybe we actually prefer that this great charity functions as well as it does because of the people who choose to support it by making regular donations and by volunteering. I am thinking that because it’s very much an independent community organisation, and not some government quango that is tasked to carry out a specific function, we are more likely to support it and feel strongly about its enduring success. I know that is how I feel about it today.
As with most years, I shall succumb to my embarrassment by buying another poppy and badge before – you guessed it – losing it again. I can probably afford it and in any event I’ll be doing something to help those who fought for us to be free and continue to keep us safe. Maybe when it comes to Remembrance, the people know best and that’s why we support the Royal British Legion. And long may we continue to do so.
