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Are you all going to buy a poppy to help out the War Veterans who are struggling to pay their fuel bills and those who have recently been blown up and maimed in the pointless wars we are fighting now ?
I personally felt a bit ashamed when, of all people Simon Cowell pointed out that these people are just ordinary people, some of whom have paid the ultimate price for their country and they deserve our support.
The proceeds of this song go to the British Legion Poppy Appeal
[b:30jv6876]Help for Heroes[/url:30jv6876][/color:30jv6876][/b:30jv6876]
Will definitely buy a poppy but not sure about the single as the song choice was just too naff for me. I thought it was a really nice gesture by cowell though, and he did actually come across as sincere.
I must admit to having felt ashamed lately when seeing this amazing documentry by Jeremy Clarkson, having never heard anything about it previously. If you didnt see it on telly its an incredible story and well worth a watch.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mgF0R4dhUqk
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=o5q8eU9ku … re=related
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OL1kwL7SK … re=related
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CBj9K03yg … re=related
I would never not buy a poppy but I think the Government (and I am not being party political here as this has applied to all Governments since WW2) should do more to help those whose lives have been destroyed fighting for their country.
It is the Government who take us into these conflicts (and has been pointed out) some of which are very dodgy morally and / or legally.
The Government has an obligation to support those it sends out to do its "dirty work".
Regarding the record, putting any cynicism about Simon Cowell’s motives aside, it is a sad day when our veterans have to rely on a charity record to live but if it helps them it cannot really be faulted.
I know the poppy appeal is also a charity event but, to me, it is more than giving money to support veterans – it is a chance to show what they have done is appreciated and not forgotten. as the saying says "lest we forget".
I have no time for religion or dogma, however wherever I am in the world I make sure I am at some Remembrance event on either Remembrance Day or on Armistice Day itself.
The most moving one I can recall was when I was in France about 15 years ago – it was the 11th November and we stopped in this small village in the middle of nowhere and joined them in their commemorations. It was only a village of a few hundred people but the place shut down and everyone from the oldest to the youngest turned out in the pouring rain.
I would never not buy a poppy either as our family lost relatives in both WWs, and have friends who have fought in more recent conflicts, but even if that wasn’t the case, I buy them for all the others I have no personal knowledge of. I know that without their efforts and sacrifices, we wouldn’t have the freedom we have today which some take so for granted, and some choose to abuse at the slightest opportunity. At the same time I think there is something seriously wrong when people are struggling to make ends meet after having served their country, whilst others seemingly just hold out their hands and are given everything on a plate.
When the "Massed Bands" play "Nimrod" it, is one of the most moving moments you will ever experience.
It is well worth a trip to London even, if you only do it once in your lifetime.
Regards – Matron
As well as Remembrance Sunday, this Tuesday is the 90th anniversary of the armistice of the war and Whitehall will be closed as Britain’s last 3 surviving veterans will be laying wreaths at the cenotaph. I think they are 108, 110 and 111 years old. It will be televised I believe.
10 o’clock on BBC1…have also just read that War Horse, a play that I have been trying to see for quite a while has been adapted for radio and is on Radio 2 at 7 this evening….emotional as I get about the tragic loss of so many young lives during the First World War, I think that the series that used to be on television when I was a youngster upset me terribly because it showed so many dead horses, most of which had been taken from their homes never to return….I’m not saying that a horses life is as important as a persons, but it somehow showed up the senslesness of so many conflicts.
In a similar vein, I missed the name of the animal (I think it might have been Warrior, appropriately enough), but Brough Scott was talking on Radio 4 yesterday morning about one horse that features in his latest book. It won a point-to-point on the Isle of Wight in the early 1920s for his grandfather, having previously led a significant battle charge in World War One.
It rather puts in the shade those quotes you hear from connections nowadays of, "our horse knows he’s been in a war today". No he doesn’t. Not like that.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Too true.
Often we use the word war in such an easy context for example in a horse race and even describing Football and Rugby matches as a war when infact it is nothing of the kind.
I will certainly be wearing my Poppy and at work on Tuesday will make sure i stop at 11am for two minuites and by god i will have a go at anyone who so much as even burps throughout it.
Britain’s last 3 surviving veterans will be laying wreaths at the cenotaph. I think they are 108, 110 and 111 years old. It will be televised I believe.
One of them is 110yo Harry Patch, who’s namesake – most fittingly – won at Doncaster today
Personally I find Remembrance Sunday and the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to be the most emotionally charged days of the year and, perhaps surprisingly, I find them increasingly lip-quivering with each passing year
my daughter, when researching the family tree was given a letter about someone in her husbands family who was batman to an officer in WW1…supposedly when all around was mayhem he made them both a cup of tea [which was quite muddy], which the officer then wrote about..it’s little details like that which make that war so real and personal and heartbreaking……
I think it’s important to remember the people who have died, it is even more important that we don’t let our leaders cause wars again. Someone said .. ‘remember the lions that die in the war and not that donkeys that lead them there.’ which sums up my feelings on the subject.
When the "Massed Bands" play "Nimrod" it, is one of the most moving moments you will ever experience.
Yes
I think it is also important to remember than some conflicts are as much about preventing further carnage as pure defence from an aggressor. Without doubt, a Taleban and AQ administration that had a whole country as a launching base and the potential to really develop weapons which would be deployed towards its genocidal aims had to be stopped.
The bravery and wonderful work of our forces continues
I’m just back from Paris, and went to the Arc De Triomphe on Monday morning. Inside the Arc, they had a very moving photographic exhibition of how the Great War trenches of the Battle of Verdun look today, and how the landscape was physically changed by the amount of artillery that fell on the area.
I used to choose not to wear a poppy, for the (probably misguided) reason that, by wearing one, I was somehow condoning the conflicts our Government entered into. Latterly, I’ve been of the opinion that, as Davros says, it’s more important to "…..remember the Lions and not the donkeys who send them there". This thread got me thinking about the subject before I went away, and the exhibition in Paris sealed the deal for me.
I’ll be wearing a poppy again from next year.
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