AUTUMN, the season of reflection, is always a poignant time, as the trees lose their leaves - albeit in a blaze of glory - and we hunker down for the dark days to come.

It's particularly appropriate that Remembrance Day falls in this season, as we come together as a nation to honour those who have fallen in the service of their country. In this centenary year of the ending of the First World War, that poignancy is heightened even more; and communities the length and breadth of the country are rising quietly, respectfully but magnificently to the occasion.

Cumbria may not have existed as a county in 1918, but its residents of 2018 are united in showing their pride in their fallen heroes.

Here in south Cumbria, it is heartening to see how many people are wearing poppies - be they the traditional paper poppies or more elaborate and even sparkly brooches. Huge poppies adorn lampposts and buildings in towns and villages across the area, bands of volunteers getting together to put them up; and churches, monuments and landmarks are increasingly bedecked in remembrance red.

The arguments about whether we should wear red or white poppies have thankfully died down - an unnecessary distraction from what Remembrance Day is, whipped up by some online commenters who should have better things to do. This is not the time to attempt to take the moral high ground via the internet - and the "I hate war more than you do" attitude of some people taking to their keyboards is both immature and disrespectful.

No one who pins a poppy on does so in order to condone the act of war: we do so to honour the generations before us who fought and died to give us the freedoms we so often take entirely for granted.

I have no issue with people wearing the white poppies given out by the Peace Pledge Union, the pacifist organisation which distributes the poppies to remember victims of all wars, not just those in which British service people were killed.

But I disagree entirely with the PPU in their assertion that the rep poppy has become politicised. It has not. Wars may be political, sadly, but the act of remembrance is not. It is about individuals and communities coming together to pay tribute to our "glorious dead" who have given their country (and, indeed, commonwealth) the ultimate sacrifice.

Like the rest of nation, south Cumbria will come together on Sunday - and again on Armistice Day itself - to remember our heroes. We will do it solemnly and respectfully - and politics will play no part whatsoever in our commemorations.

Red, white or purple in memory of the millions of animals who also paid the ultimate price in war - those poppies should, and will, be worn with pride.