City to choose name for bridge: A brave life with relevant lessons

The importance of how we use the past to colour today and map tomorrow is underlined at this time every year when the debate, increasingly less strident thankfully, about wearing a poppy recurs. Some people see the simple symbol as a tribute to all war dead; others see it as a tribute recognising only the dead of world wars. Others still, probably a minority now, see it as a celebration of British arms. The vigour and barely-contained jingoism of some British memorial ceremonies make it hard to ignore those suggestions, especially as that mindset and Brextremism almost seem as one.
