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It’s two weeks until the big day so the original and best Culture Wars ™ topic is back: poppies.
We can look forward to a fortnight of newspaper articles charging famous people with the heinous crime of being spotted in public without one and social media will be awash with posts telling us made up stories about how a Muslim got offended by a poppy (cher if u fink dis is a discrace!!).
So, further to the title above, do you wear one? Feel free to explain yourself. Or not, it’s a free country thanks to the old boys (and girls) that you may or may not wear a poppy for.
I buy one (or at least drop some money in the box – I still have one from last year so won’t actually take one). I wear it on Remembrance Sunday & 11th Nov and sometimes for a few days before (never afterwards – and never before November). This year I have also bought a purple one (remembering the animals) and will wear them together. It’s disappointing that there is now a whole bullying and “I honour the dead more than you” culture surrounding what always was, and still ought to be, a solemn and personal issue.
I bought one of these a few years ago:
The Poppy Collection ® Enamel Pin Silver Tone
Means I don’t have to buy one of those flimsy ones on an annual basis, but I still drop a couple of quid into the collecting box outside my local supermarket.
Always donate every year.
Like, Gladiateur I have metal pin also.
I always watch the coverage from “The Cenotaph” and always reflect and remember my late father as he served with RAF Bomber Command from 1939 and retired from the service in 1959.
I always buy a poppy. I put it on for Remembrance Sunday and on the 11th November if that falls on a different day.
I do not think anyone should be put under pressure. It is a personal choice.
WW1 was a disaster and I am not convinced we should even have got involved but the combatants showed courage and devotion to duty and that should be respected.
I agree with everything here, clear that you all understand and appreciate what it’s really about.
I can’t stand the circus surrounding the whole thing. Those who insist that everybody must wear one for a solid fortnight beforehand seem to forget that we fought a war against a bloke who wanted to tell everyone what to do.
A bit of quiet reflection during the silence on the 11th and/or the Sunday does it for me. I don’t wear a poppy but I will chuck a few quid in the pot.
I buy a standard poppy every year (ie without the green leaf) and wear it with the smaller leaf at the top and the larger leaf at the bottom.
I’m really starting to be annoyed when you see poppies being worn a fortnight before Remembrance Sunday, I’d hate to think that this is going the way of Christmas becoming commercialised with the true meaning being lost.Yes, I buy one.
Agree it should be a personal choice and people shaming is plain daft. They fought for a free country after all. Don’t think it’ll ever be “commercialised” Dragut, but there are times when its meaning is lost. Some think / thought it glorified war. Suppose it can mean different things to different people but for most the opposite is surely true. For me, it is important to remember the full price of war, because not doing so surely makes future wars more likely.Not one for religion or hymns – am 100% atheist. Instead I like to play one of my favourite songs on Remembrance Day. An anti-war song called The Green Fields Of France. There are several different versions but here’s my favourite by The Men They Couldn’t Hang. As John Peel once said, it’s the barely suppressed anger that gets to you.
Value Is EverythingWearing the poppy, like so many things, is divisive in N Ireland. I have no objection, as long as it’s worn for the right reasons. Eamon McCann expressed it best https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/eamonn-mccann-rage-not-reverence-should-mark-first-world-war-commemorations-1.2194037
I can’t stand the circus surrounding the whole thing. Those who insist that everybody must wear one for a solid fortnight beforehand seem to forget that we fought a war against a bloke who wanted to tell everyone what to do.
A bit of quiet reflection during the silence on the 11th and/or the Sunday does it for me. I don’t wear a poppy but I will chuck a few quid in the pot.
Same here. I can pay my respects and think about the wider issues without finding it necessary to wear a badge highlighting this.
Yes Salut, people can pay their respects and think about wider issues without finding it necessary to wear a badge highlighting it. However, paying something towards a poppy actually contributes to help ex-service men and women..
Value Is EverythingThe Festival of Remembrance in the Albert Hall on Saturday night was spoiled by some of the “singers”. Whoever told them they can sing?!
Yes, good point. Although the fellow who “sang” You’ll Never Walk Alone was much worse. I had to mute the television.
Working at a supermarket we’ve have the local British Legion branch selling poppies, near to remembrance Sunday. If the 11th falls on a working day I observe the 2 minutes silence. I consider it the least I can do for those that fought irrespective of what I think. Buying poppies I buy a badge every year, with the current year is displayed on it. Although in the early years I did buy a wristband.
You've got to accentuate the positive.
Eliminate the negative.
Latch on to the affirmative.
Don't mess with mister in between.I honestly think you’ve had too much Mustard Gas, ex-service members shouldn’t need handouts from a charity, governments should look after them.
I’ve never and will not wear a poppy, to commemorate slaughter while the rich bankers who printed money for governments to borrow to pay for the slaughter and then sat back while the interests rolled in, waiting for the next war they could fund WW2.
Mel Gibson was right they are behind all wars.Then you don’t understand what the poppy is really for, Troy.
Government has no money of its own to “look after them”, every penny comes from the tax payer. Therefore the government is limited to how much it can do. If believing ex-service men and women and their families should get more than they’re given by taxpayers, then it makes perfect sense to give a little to the British Legion.
Poppies do not “commemorate slaughter”, it remembers the price service men and women have paid for their country / for us. Or may be you’d prefer to live under a fascist state?
Incidentally, “bankers are behind all wars” is an idiotic anti-semitic theory.
My uncle was a jew, thankfully evacuated from mainland Europe hidden in a boat.
My grandfather fought in WWII in the expeditionary force. Many of his pals didn’t come back, one was unable to cope and committed suicide.Personally, if it helps service men and women and / or their families then am more than willing to give a little every year.
Value Is Everything
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