British Passport Office bans memorial emblem
EXCLUSIVE by JAMIE McDOWELL

A Poppy Wars row has erupted in Ulster this morning just hours before the the Home Office in Belfast annual Remembrance Sunday parades. For the 19-year-old pictured here says she was BANNED from wearing her Poppy in a BRITISH passport offIce run by the Home Office in Belfast. Linda Elliott, left, who works in the British Passport Office in the heart of the city, told the Sunday World: I was called into an office and told NOT to wear my Poppy. "I was told there were complaints about it. And to take it off." But as our picture shows, as poppy wreaths are about to be laid across around War Memorials throughout Ulster this morning, a defiant Linda is wearing her Poppy.
And last night, DUP Assemblyman and Policing Board member Ian Paisley Jnr. pledged: "I will be having this raised with the British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith in Parliament this is an absolute disgrace."

A poppy day row has erupted in the British Passoport Office in Ulster.
A teenage girl working in the British Home Office in Belfast - In the British Passport Office, smack dab in the heart of the cities High Street - says she was BANNED from wearing her poppy there.

The shock banning of the poppy commemmerating all the men and women, Protestant and Catholic, from both North and South of Ireland who made the supreme sacrafice in two world wars, shocked the girl office worker.

And it's sparked a political row this Rememberance Sunday Said Linda Elliott , 19 from the Shankill Road Belfast, pictured left, "I was shocked suprised and embarassed to be told to remove my poppy. After all this is supposed to be the BRITISH Passport Office and I am British." The teenager told the Sunday World she was called into an office in the Passport HQ in downtown Belfast.

She said she was ordered to remove her poppy which to her is a cherished , yet charity symbol.

Each poppy bought put funds into the British Legion Poppy Appeal which looks after veterans from both world wars. There are still branches of the British Legion in both Dublin and Cork. Said Linda, "I had heard of people in other places being asked to remove their poppies before and read about it in the papers. But when I was asked to take it off I was really shocked and suprised - especially because I was working on British Governmernt premises." The teenager is working under a sub contractin the administration department of the passport office in Belfast.

BRAVE

The firm running the sub-contract is Seimens who have 'lat out', part of their contract in a firm called Adecco. Linda is working as a 'temp' for Adecco, but she told us it was a 'Team Leader', from Siemens who called her into the office and told her to remove her poppy. She said it was the team leader from Siemens said it was because people had complained. And last night the poppy ban claimed by Linda at the British office sparked a political row.DUP assemblyman and Policing Board member Ian Paisley Junior, blasted it as an absolute disgrace. He said he was going to raise the matter with the British Home secretary Jacqui Smith.

He said I will ask Jacqui Smith why the poppy is being banned from a British Office in Belfast with the Home Office insignia over the front door. I will also ask in this day and age how wearing a poppy could cause offence to anyone? Sure wasnt 2nd World War Victoria Cross winner James Magenniss from the Falls Road? "And didn't people of all creeds sand colours - from Ireland and Ulster - fight in both world wars. The Sunday World asked both Siemens and the Home Office in London to comment. Siemens confirmed it had investigated the claim by Linda Elliott , but the company refused to comment specifically on it. Instead it issued a general statement reading: Siemens has an open approach to the wearing of Poppies by it's employees and contractors and actively supports the poppy appeal. " The Home Office however sidestepped the issue. A spokesman there said, "No member of the Belfast Passport Office has been told they are not allowed to wear a Poppy. As already outlined in this story, Linda Elliott is technically not a member of the Passport Office 'staff ' being employed as a 'temp' by an outside agency. But she was still adamant last night that she was told NOT to wear her poppy while working in the Passport office. The British Homeoffice runs a Passport service website on the internet.

A section titled 'Equality and Diversity' specifically mentions Northern Ireland It states:

'Our mandate is to safeguard the identity of everyone in the United Kingdom regardless of their race, religious belief and political opinion (in Northern Ireland), gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or age."

"That seems to apply to everyone," said Linda Elliott last night, "except you wear a Poppy in Northern Ireland."

Its just one thing after another. A fella had it up in another site that Tescos [think it was] in Ballyclare stopped a man from selling poppies outside their premises. Must be on their ground. Ballyclare? Its gettin to a sorry state of affairs when they are even stoppin them in Ballyclare. Strange days in Ulster.