A charity urging people to wear white rather than red poppies has been accused of attempting to ‘hijack’ Remembrance Sunday after calling for the occasion to be ‘decolonised’ and not ‘glorify’ the British Empire.
The Peace Pledge Union has claimed that annual ceremonies to commemorate the armed forces ‘gloss over the history and violence of colonialism’.
The organisation, which distributes white poppies, demanded there be more attention paid to ‘the human cost of colonial conflicts’ – highlighting the 1919 Amritsar massacre in Punjab, India, and the 1952-1960 Mau Mau uprising in Kenya.
Both happened when the territories were under British colonial rule.
But critics have condemned the timing of the PPU’s new campaign, ahead of the King this morning leading the annual Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph in London while similar events take place across the UK.
Remembrance Sunday today involves a veterans’ parade along Whitehall past the Cenotaph in central London -…
