Happy Friday reader – and what a week it’s been. Let’s recap, shall we?
The home secretary Suella Braverman did her darndest to solidify herself as a contender for the most hated politician in Britain this week.
She made comments that homelessness was a “lifestyle choice” which, unsurprisingly, had a lot of people quite upset.
Comedian Joe Lycett clapped back by uploading an image of potpourri he found on Google with the caption: “I always thought lifestyle choices were things such as cargo pants, fishing and decorating your bathroom with a bowl of potpourri.”
He wanted to see if he could raise £50,000 for the homelessness charity Crisis UK in response – a fundraising goal supporters achieved within three days.
Now, the random image has generated over £69,000 for the charity. Who knew potpourri could smell this sweet?
Poppy fever
Remembrance Sunday is almost upon us, and the Royal British Legion (RBL) is selling its plastic-free poppies for the first time this year in a move towards environmentalism – hooray!
Meanwhile, the X account Poppy Watch has been sharing some of the more unusual ways you can remember the fallen this Remembrance Day.
One of those is to use a poppy-themed car to nip to Tesco and collect some #PoignantPepperoniPizzaPoppies.
One social media user papped the poppy-themed meal and added the caption: “We will fight them on the quiches”.
We will fight them on the quiches pic.twitter.com/ai4lI966jI
— Hip Priest (@ecLOLogy) November 6, 2023
Nowzad poppy
In other news, the animal charity Nowzad has released its own poppy-themed merchandise.
The charity’s new poppy is in gold to commemorate King Charles’s coronation and has a pawprint in the middle to reflect the charity’s mission (not the King Charles spaniel, one would assume).
RBL specified that they have trademarks on poppies with two and four petals, so Nowzad’s three-petal design avoids breaching it.
You can find out all the poppies that are available and what charities they support in this helpful article from none other than Civil Society (you are so welcome).
The list includes RBL’s Captain Tom Moore-inspired poppy pins, which were originally priced at £29.99.
They are now on sale for £6.99, which Diary is sure has nothing to do with recent media reports...
This week, news came out that Captain Tom’s family had lost an appeal they made when their local council asked them to demolish a spa complex that they had created with “charitable uses” in mind.
The Ingram-Moore family will now be reduced to using public spas like the rest of us.
It appears having a dip in the pool whilst looking at some Captain Tom memorabilia is not “charitable” enough for the council (go figure).
You know what they say: ya snooze, ya lose the j’acuzz..i.
