TORT LAW PROBLEM QUESTION (Defamation) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

TORT LAW PROBLEM QUESTION (Defamation) - Essay Example fathers who had been injured in the Great War, and all of them knew the quotation from that great elegy for the First World War dead: ‘In Flanders field, a poppy grew’. Three generations have passed since the 1920s, and people no longer share these cultural references. Today in 2010 most inner-city youngsters associate the red poppy with the production of opium, morphine and heroin. The average twenty-year old in Toxteth, Gateshead or Hackney looks in bewilderment at politicians and news-readers all dutifully wearing their poppies. Why are they all advertising the drug-trade, and what connection does that have with Britains current wars? The smarter ones soon work out the answer: it must be in celebration of the fact that opium production has soared in Afghanistan since the British Army took over Helmand from the Taliban ... Since the Anglo-Chinese Opium Wars of the 1840s the British Army has long been involved in facilitating drug trafficking. But is this something we s hould celebrate each year by supporting the Poppy Appeal? BRITISH LEGION, listen to me! If your present purpose is to collect funds for the wounded of Britains elective wars in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan, then you need a less controversial symbol. How about a paper representation of a shrapnel wound, red with blood, that can be pinned to each politicians lapel? ... Until the BRITISH LEGION gets its act together, we must boycott the Poppy Appeal. At present everyone wearing their artificial red poppy is signaling their support for the drug runners of Afghanistan and for those British soldiers who collude with them. 2. Whether or not the British Legion as a charitable organisation as a claimant may sue for damage to its reputation. If the answer is favorable, then the next issue is whether or not Smith may sue on behalf of the charity. 1. The most important issue is whether or not the words in the article are defamatory. Firstly, it must be explained what exactly is a defamatory statement.