In the United Kingdom, remembrance poppies made of paper, "paper poppies", are sold by The Royal British Legion (RBL) and Haig Fund. These are charities providing financial, social, political and emotional support to those who have served or who are currently serving in the British Armed Forces, and their dependants. They are sold on the streets by volunteers in the weeks before Remembrance Day. I
n England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the poppies have two red petals, a green paper leaf and are mounted on a green plastic stem. According to the RBL, "The red poppy is our registered mark and its only lawful use is to raise funds for the Poppy Appeal". In Scotland, the poppies are curled and have four petals with no leaf and are sold by Earl Haig Fund Scotland. The yearly selling of poppies is a major source of income for the RBL in the UK. The poppy has no fixed price; it is sold for a donation or the price may be suggested by the seller. The black plastic center of the poppy was marked "Haig Fund" until 1994 but is now marked "Poppy Appeal". A team of about 50 people—most of them disabled former British military personnel—work all year round to make millions of poppies at the Poppy Factory in Richmond. In the early years after World War I, poppies were worn only on Remembrance Day itself. However, today the RBL's "Poppy Appeal" has a higher profile than any other charity appeal in the UK. The poppies are widespread from late October until mid-November every year and are worn by the general public, politicians, the Royal Family, and others in public life. It has also become common to see poppies on cars, lorries and other forms of public transport such as aeroplanes, buses, and trams. Many magazines and newspapers also show a poppy on their cover page, and some social network users add poppies to their avatars. In 2011, a WWII plane dropped 6,000 poppies over the town of Yeovil in Somerset. Some have criticized the level of compulsion associated with the custom, something Channel 4 newsreader Jon Snow has called "poppy fascism". Columnist Dan O'Neill wrote that "presenters and politicians seem to compete in a race to be first – poppies start sprouting in mid-October while the absence of a poppy is interpreted as absence of concern for the war dead, almost as an unpatriotic act of treachery". Likewise, Jonathan Bartley of the religious think-tank Ekklesia said "public figures in Britain are urged, indeed in many cases, required, to wear ... the red poppy, almost as an article of faith. There is a political correctness about the red poppy". Journalist Robert Fisk complained that the poppy has become a seasonal "fashion accessory" and that people were "ostentatiously wearing a poppy for social or work-related reasons, to look patriotic when it suited them". Kleshna, one of two businesses with an exclusive tie-in with the RBL, sells expensive crystal-clad poppy jewelry that has been worn by celebrities.
