I DON’T wear a poppy. I used to – perhaps in honour of the grandfather I never knew or my mother’s Uncle Davie's two sons who didn’t come home. Just like in every other family in Scotland.

But I have been driven away by the complete lack of any objective judgment of the abomination of the First World War that has in recent years accompanied the almost glorification of it. There was no glory in the First World War. To see gathering in flamboyant ceremony in Westminster Abbey the great and the good, the high and the mighty, the inheritors of the pride and the power that sent hundreds and thousands of unwitting, unwilling often and latterly very often terrified young men into certain oblivion distresses me. What exactly is it the poppy does? Does it say sorry?

Who reminds us that it was Britain that declared war, not Germany – which had suggested a negotiation? Who reminds us that young men with virtually no training were sent over the top and killed in their thousands within weeks – and sometimes days – of volunteering? Who reminds us that, as the young volunteers ran out, men right up to their forties, sometimes with large families, were conscripted to provide the cannon fodder? There is plenty of graphic material showing the absolute horror of mankind’s wickedest folly. Who is showing this to all our children? Why are we dressing some of them up in uniforms?

Who understands that that war finished off the work of Clearances in huge areas of Highland Scotland, leaving communities all across it with virtually no men at all?

I have a photograph in my head that will never leave me. It is of a leg with a bit of a kilt. Yes. That’s all – a leg with a bit of a kilt in the mud. That is the First World War.

Perhaps I will wear one day a red, black and green Biafran poppy. In honour of the two million Biafrans starved to death by the UK and the US (who stopped the mercy flights carrying food into the newly declared republic). Because Biafra had all that oil and we had a cosy relationship with federal Nigeria.

Or what colour would my poppy be to say sorry to the four million – or is it five or six million – relatives of the hundreds and thousands of civilians we have obliterated in Iraq and Libya and Syria – and all the rest?

But none of that was 100 years ago. In historic terms that was just a short time ago.

There is a new Scotland emerging. Or maybe the old Scotland that was always there. It is a Scotland that wants no part in imperialist bullying and armed grandstanding. And I want to be a part of that kind of Scotland. But only if it has a constitution that says that any weaponry or armament we may manufacture for use in our own defence will never be sold to anyone else and our men and women will never ever be dressed up in uniforms and armed and sent off to engage in aggression, warfare or theft in other people's countries. Never ever.

And maybe then I will wear our poppy again.

David McEwan Hill,

1 Tom Nan Ragh, Dalinlongart, Argyll.

I AM certain I am one of many who wish to congratulate you on your commemoration of the end of the First World War (The Herald, November 10 & 12).

The centenary of the ending of the slaughter and maiming of tens of millions of ordinary people pushed me into thinking about the United Kingdom which got itself into this nightmare. Those in power before the war believed that they were a superior race which entitled them to dictate to and drain the resources from other "lesser" countries. Their power was based on hereditary wealth and privilege and maintained by very limited suffrage. They had little or no concern about "the other ranks", as the Queen Mother was later wont to describe ordinary people.

In these circumstances when a power struggle developed between three parts of the ruling families within Europe the ruling elite in UK had no compunction about declaring war and duping, then coercing (with white feathers) and finally ordering the lower orders into the carnage of trench warfare. Their attitude was encapsulated by Earl Haig when he described his strategy as if the Germans killed nine of our soldiers while we killed 10 of theirs then eventually UK would win the war. With these tactics the country was stripped of a generation of its young men and plunged into deep financial crises while the large industrialists profited massively from the hostilities, so much so that both the UK and the United States were supplying, through Sweden, the German war machine with raw materials to prolong the war.

Now when one looks at the current "United" Kingdom it is frightening to realise the similarities. The country is being run by a self-serving elite whose self-image is one of superiority and isolation with aspirations to rebuild the British Empire. They have shown they have zero concern for the poor, the disabled and indeed the ordinary citizens with their programme of austerity. These arrogant panjandrums are determined to drag the country out of the European Union (EU) for their own benefit completely ignoring the depredation this will cause for the rest of the population. Their methods echo those of a century before namely blatantly lying to the voter, intimidating by describing opponents as anti-democratic and completely ignoring the real will of the people.

I can only hope that if we are indeed dragged out of the EU then the arrogance of this elite can be controlled before they start utilising their illegal nuclear capability to bully other nations into submission.

David Stubley,

22 Templeton Crescent, Prestwick.

NOW that the 100th anniversary of the Armistice is over, could we drop the tacky, calculating, money-grabbing poppy-themed stunts which have taken over the month before Remembrance Day and return to a quiet, dignified pause for thought, as it was in the days when most veterans of the first and second world wars were alive and thinking about fallen friends?

I doubt they would have approved of the current orgy of competitive public display.

Dr Ian Johnston,

4 Wylie's Brae, New Galloway.

REMEMBRANCE Day was, for many, a long one, and one full of emotion.

Much of the coverage on television was presented with due sensitivity and reverence.

The exception to this was to see part of the essence of remembrance being incorporated into the evening programme, Strictly Come Dancing.

This represented a distinct lack of judgment on the part of the BBC.

Coverage of Remembrance Day should not fall within the category of light entertainment.

Malcolm Allan,

2 Tofthill Gardens, Bishopbriggs.