Poppy or Not…???

Every year many people struggle with the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Day campaign: should they or shouldn’t they wear a poppy?

The problem isn’t about remembering the selfless sacrifice made by so many British servicemen and their families in the Second World War, it’s about an unease with what British servicemen and women are being asked to do today.

As a way of remembering the sacrifice made by so many ordinary people in the Second World War and the impact this had on ordinary lives, I re-post below a brief recollection of my Uncle Lennie. I hope that it says enough:

Lennie (Leonard Allen) was the brother of my grandad, Ernie.

I didn’t know Lennie too well as he had moved away from the immediate vicinity of Bermondsey before I was born. He lived in Morden which to me as a child, was a million miles away from the flats. Nowadays I realise that it’s merely the end of the Bakerloo Line of the London Underground (which isn’t, just in case you didn’t know, not a million miles away from Bermondsey).

Lennie was always treated with respect in our family because he had been a prisoner of war, held by the Japanese in Burma. More importantly, this was because Lennie had also been severely tortured by the Japanese army. The story goes that when Lennie came back from fighting in the Far East after the end of the Second World War, no-one in the family recognised him due to the amount of weight that he had lost. Despite the fact that he never spoke openly about the torture that he underwent, from the day he returned from Burma until the day he died, he never took his shirt off (due to the scars that he had on his body), and he refused to watch any films or tv programmes about war: any war. He also never attended or participated in any Remembrance Day events and because of this, I have always struggled as to whether or not I should wear a poppy.

Two things I remember about Lennie and his house in Morden. The first is that I loved the ‘mouse in a brandy glass’ ornament he had and which were popular in the 1970s. And second, he was the only person I knew in that had a real sheepskin rug. When i visited him I must have been no more than about 7 or 8, I remember laying on the rug and falling asleep, so content and warm was the experience.

Lennie died some time in the 1980s with very few of us having seen him in his last years.

Everything on this site by Chris Allen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK: England & Wales License. www.chris-allen.co.uk.

Islamophobia and Religious Discrimination: new perspectives, policies and practices

All readers of this blog are invited to the event, “Islamophobia & Religious Discrimination: new perspectives, policies and practices”. Details as follows. If you are intending coming along to the event, please ensure that you register beforehand – scroll down for details:

Wednesday, 09 December 2009
14:00 – 17:00

Location:
G15 (Main Lecture Theatre), Muirhead Tower, Main Campus, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT

More than a decade ago, the Runnymede Trust report Islamophobia: a challenge for us all noted that Islamophobia had reached previously unprecedented levels. Shortly after, a Home Office report suggested that other forms of religiously-based discrimination was also on the increase. Since then, a whole raft of legislation has been introduced in an attempt to address this issue. Most recently, the Equality Act 2006 introduced a ‘religion or belief’ strand of equalities protection that has regularly made the headlines through a number of high profile cases, for example where a Christian registrar asked to be excluded from performing same-sex civil registrations.

Event: ‘Europe & Islam: Whose Identity Crisis?’

As part of the British Council’s ‘Our Shared Europe’ project, I have been invited to participate in a debate at the European Parliament on the 19th November 2009 entitled, ‘Europe & Islam: whose identity crisis?’.

If anybody would like to attend the debate, then please contact osedebate@britishcouncil.be before the 11th November.

Full details of the event are set out below:

Europe & Islam: Whose Identity Crisis?
Hosted by Sajjad Karim MEP

Thursday 19th November 2009 – 10:30 to 13:00
European Parliament, Brussels

In a continent of diverse cultures how people choose to identify themselves is becoming increasingly important; whether through nationality, religion, language or political outlook. Can these identities mix, are they changing, and which are most important?

And is identity in Europe becoming a more complex issue for its citizens? How are European Muslims reconciling their multiple identities? And what is the basis for a European identity? Does an increase in extremism, euroscepticism, islamaphobia and a move back towards nationalism indicate that people are unhappy with those who identify themselves in different ways?

In a continent progressively challenged by mixed identities, who is it with the identity crisis? Europe, or Islam, or both?

Participants

Pal Schmitt
Vice-President of the European Parliament
Douglas Murray
Director, The Centre for Social Cohesion
Malika Hamidi
Vice-President, European Muslim Network
Dr Chris Allen
Academic, writer and broadcaster on Islamophobia in Europe
Bashy Quraishy
Chair Advisory Council, European Network Against Racism
Daniel Hannan
Member of the European Parliament

Debate moderated by Shada Islam, Senior Policy Executive, European Policy Centre.

Further information can be found at http://www.oursharedeurope.org/activities.

New Publication: ‘The West Midlands’ Changing Population’

The West Midlands Regional Observatory (WMRO) has today published a series of new policy reports as part of its work on State of the Region Thematic Dialogues. The reports are entitled:

What makes a sustainable community?;
The West Midlands’ changing population;
The importance of innovation in a changing economy; and
West Midlands’ knowledge economy

Of these, I have contributed a policy think-piece on the topic of ‘Safer, Stronger Communities’ to ‘The West Midlands’ changing population’ report.

To read my piece, download the free report, click here.

For more information on the WMRO, click here.

Support the striking postal workers

Ever since Thatcher quenched her thirst for destroying the unions in the 1980s, industrial action – ‘striking’ – has become unpalatable for many in today’s Britain. Triumphantly shrouded in memories of militant socialism being defeated by a rampant Conservatism, it is highly unlikely that the call for industrial action by postal workers from the Communication Workers Union (CWU) yesterday will be greeted by overwhelming support from the general public. Indeed, the strikes will be little more than a throwback to the ‘dark days’ of picket lines, scabs and a much bleaker 70s Britain.

But what the general public seem unwilling to hear is the reality of what is happening in the Royal Mail. Under the guise of modernisation, brokered by Chief Executive Adam Crozier – the same Adam Crozier that was responsible for giving Sven Goran Eriksson his multi-million pound contract by the Football Association – the Royal Mail is cutting jobs and piling extra work on to its employees at a rate that is pushing them to breaking point. Because of this, the Royal Mail management are causing enormous resentment among an already disgruntled workforce. For many postal workers, the outcome has been one of more work for no extra pay.