Army veteran 'saddened' by David Starkey's 'disrespectful' poppy fascism remarks

11 November 2019, 10:50

An Army veteran has labelled David Starkey's comments about "poppy fascism" as "disrespectful".

The controversial historian said that Armistice Day had "become a crazy religious ritual" and said being forced to wear a poppy as "poppy fascism".

He also accused soldiers nowadays of volunteering because "you like it, you get excited about it and you enjoy killing and that's very useful".

Briain Wood is a former Colour Sergeant who has been awarded the Military Cross, one of Britain’s highest awards for gallantry in combat. He told Nick Ferrari that soldiers certainly don't do it because they like killing.

He said: "He's entitled to his opinion. For me, it's a disrespectful opinion.

"We don't class ourselves as heroes, I certainly don't anyway. I chose to serve this great nation, I wanted to make a small difference. and I worked hard to do so.

"I experienced some really horrific trauma incidents. I can tell you taking someone's life is brutal, it's the hardest thing that I've had to come to terms with.

"War is brutal, we do not celebrate war. Every soldier will tell you that we're just regular guys who want to protect our nation.

"To hear that, it saddens me to be honest."