The poppy bullying begins

THE POPPY BULLYING has begun this year, led by Sky News lynchpin and co-founder Kay Burley well ahead of Remembrance Sunday on 11 November.

Ms Burley began the baiting by publicly calling out the Daily Mirror Associate Editor, Kevin Maguire, for not wearing a poppy when he appeared on TV. Now this is particularly strange behaviour as Maguire was in his regular newspaper review spot on Sky News. How hard would it have been for Ms Burley to have got his phone number to call him and ask him one-to-one why?

Instead, the star of Sky took to Twitter to pillory Maguire in public for offending her sense of how people should exercise the freedom that the poppy is supposed to represent.

Burley tweeted on 28 October:

“Were we a poppy short for @Kevin_Maguire or did he not want to wear one?”

An exasperated Maguire replied to the tiresome TV troll via Twitter about his wearing a poppy:

“Here we go again. I buy and wear mine with pride in week of Remembrance Sunday. As I explained in 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 . . .”

Establishment figures are so in fear of poppy police such as Kay Burley that, last year, Downing Street was caught photoshopping a poppy onto a web picture of British Prime Minister David Cameron!

Burley urges people to “Add a poppy to your profile pic in support of Poppy Appeal 2016 and our Armed Forces.”

It’s an echo of the Royal British Legion appeal:

“Show your support for our Armed Forces community by adding a poppy to your profile pic.”

That’s the “Armed Forces community” that has waged war across the Middle East and the British Empire’s colonies, including Ireland. The “Armed Forces community” numbers among its actions internment and Long Kesh torture, the Ballymurphy Massacre, British Military Intelligence and MRF/FRU collusion with unionist death squads, and Derry on Bloody Sunday.

There is little understanding shown in the British mainstream media for those who cannot support the “Armed Forces community”, people such as James McClean, playing soccer in the English Premier League.

In what is becoming another annual ritual of baiting, Scotland’s Daily Record trotted out the ‘news’ that the Derryman felt unable to wear a poppy, given what his city and community had suffered at the hands of the British Army. Unlike Kay Burley, however, the Daily Record did report the viewpoint of the West Bromwich Albion player:

Earlier this season, 27-year-old McClean explained in the West Brom match programme why he wouldn’t be wearing the poppy and has also previously written open letters to fans to express his views.

In the Albion match programme he said: “We are coming up to Remembrance Day and I won’t wear a poppy on my shirt.

“People say I am being disrespectful but don’t ask why I choose not to wear it.

“If the poppy was simply about World War One and Two victims alone, I’d wear it without a problem.

“I would wear it every day of the year if that was the thing but it doesn’t, it stands for all the conflicts that Britain has been involved in. Because of the history where I come from in Derry, I cannot wear something that represents that.”

▶︎ Previously: Stop the poppy bullying – What does the James McClean story say about the poppy, ‘freedom’ and ‘respect’?

Sad story

KAY BURLEY is a notorious clickbait diva.

The siren from Sky won worldwide derision last year for her crass tweet after the Paris jihadist attacks when she posted an image of a Golden Retriever dog that she said was “sad” at the 129 people killed.

“Sadness in his eyes #parisattacks,” she sighed.

#sadnessinhiseyes then trended on Twitter as thousands mocked Burley’s insensitive idiocy.