In the age on on-line campaigning, so many calls for support land daily in my in-box that I fear that they do not all get the attention that they probably deserve. But there three reasons why this one one on Change.org caught my eye.
1. I was one of those who went and planted poppies at The Tower of London back at the beginning of the WWI commemorations (my poppy still stand proudly long with the little olive tree in a pot on the balcony) so I have a personal interest in the wellbeing of the charity which is following up on that wonderful initiative.
2. The design for the ‘There But Not There’ Tommies is based on a photograph by Horace Nicholls, the late webmaster James’ grandfather, about whom I blogged earlier this year – so we have family interest in those ‘There But Not There’ Tommies.
And finally……
3. It is a totally reasonable request of the chancellor. As they say, ‘to date, sales (of the Tommies) have raised nearly £4m for six military charities, but because our Tommies are technically classed as “merchandise”, £800,000 of the money raised has had to be paid in tax to HM Revenue & Customs, making HMRC the single largest beneficiary of the public fundraising initiative’.
So, please do go and add your name to Rowley Gregg’s petition…… Over 98,000 have done so so far.