GB News members do not think young people take pride in wearing a poppy to mark Armistice Day, a new poll has revealed.
A survey conducted for this broadcaster's members revealed a staggering 79 per cent do not think young people take pride in wearing a poppy.
Just 14 per cent do believe young people take pride in the key act of remembrance, with a further seven per cent unsure.
The poll comes as RBL, which launched its first appeal in 1921, returns for yet another year to mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War.
The charity calls on 40,000 volunteers to distribute an astonishing 40 million poppies ahead of Armistice Day.
Poppies became synonymous with the sacrifice made by soldiers in the First World War after Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae penned ‘In Flanders Fields’ following his involvement in the Battle of Ypres in 1915.
The red poppy is worn as a show of support for the Armed Forces communities across the UK, Allied Forces and the Commonwealth.
Only donations from the sale of RBL’s red poppies go directly towards helping the Armed Forces community.
Sir Keir Starmer supporting the poppy appeal
PA
Despite the continued push, a dispute is emerging about whether young Britons still take pride in wearing the poppy.
A damning opinion poll released last year revealed that only one-in-three young people know that Remembrance Sunday commemorates the First World War Armistice.
That is compared with 53 per cent of Generation X, born between 1965 and 1980, and 62 per cent of baby boomers (born between 1946 to 1964).
The polling also found that baby boomers and Generation X are more likely to think that it is important to teach young people in schools about the First World War.
A young and old volunteer help in the RBL's 2023 appeal
PA
More than 70 per cent of baby boomers believed it was “very important”, compared to just 53 per cent of millennials and 45 per cent of Gen Z.
The polling also revealed that baby boomers are twice as likely as Gen Z and millennials to wear a red poppy.
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