In a personal capacity, I would comment on recent letters and coverage of events in Brighton and Hove during this Remembrance time, which are given an added topicality by the possible deployment of thousands of young British servicemen and women to conflict abroad.

I sympathise with D A Coles and Steve Fuller (Letters, November 12), who comment on the lack of humanity and respect shown by some members of the city's community towards the elderly and the fallen and victims of the conflicts in which this nation has fought for freedom and decency in the previous century.

However, in fairness, I would point out that in every school in Brighton and Hove the two-minute silence was as much observed as on Hove Lawns, the Old Steine or in public places throughout our busy metropolis.

Indeed, I suggest it was probably observed without the noise of traffic, laughter and conversation from the ignorant and uncaring, many of whose antisocial behaviour disgraces the pages of The Argus on a nightly basis.

The apparent absence of poppies on the city streets was as much a result of public awareness of the risks of standing on a corner with a tin of cash as the same lack of personal commitment and respect which are the reasons for a dearth of volunteer collectors and the sad scarcity of the red symbol of Remembrance worn with pride.

The support by The Argus and local businesses in the city centre, more than 500 of which offered poppies to the public, is an encouraging light that brightens an otherwise dim public apathy.

A team of less than two dozen volunteers dispensed an estimated 15,000 little red Remembrance poppies on the streets and in shopping centres.

The Brighton City Centre Poppy Appeal has banked more than £15,000 so far, which will be put to use to help those of the ex-service community who find themselves in ever-increasing need through infirmity, illness or poverty.

What we could have achieved with a hundred volunteer collectors is conjecture but those who feel irritated they could not get a poppy this year should look to their own laurels and volunteer next November.

Our ex-service and serving military personnel deserve no less.

-Mike Paine, Lieutenant Colonel, Brighton Central Poppy Appeal