Will you be wearing a poppy?

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To support the work that the Royal British Legion do.

Nobody around here seems to be wearing one.

@RosaMoline it’s complicated and having some fucking respect isn’t that simple. I’m sorry your lovely granddad was a Japanese PoW, but not everyone has a relative they can be proud of. We have both good and bad in our family and, for many reasons, find it really hard to wear a poppy. So please, respect other people’s decision, you don’t know their history.

No.

No. Same as I don't wear rainbows, or shove flag images on my social media pages every time there's a conflict somewhere on the globe. The original meaning, IMO, has soured.

I reserve the right to keep my own counsel and not display some tangible symbol to 'prove' that I'm on the side of 'right-think'. It's still a choice, albeit one that now comes with a certain element of shaming attached. Case in point: 'Gary Linekar has said nothing about the Middle East!' Opening your trap is not mandatory, fortunately.

I'm under no illusion that anyone's queuing up to hear my lowly opinion. Which is fine with me.

It's fine to see everything as black and white if you wish. Wiser, more educated people tend to see the nuance.

Just look at some of the literature and poetry and journalism produced by those very soldiers who fought in these wars.

Many of them decried the blindly jingoistic attitudes that drove them to war.

I donate but do not wear one, I used to wear a white poppy but after being subjected to verbal abuse from a couple of strangers I don't bother any more. My father was a Japanese POW and being brought up by a father with undiagnosed and untreated PTSD has had a profound effect on me, trauma gets handed down through the generations. War is a terrible thing, the poppy used to mean "never again" and that certainly hasn't happened. On a lighter note, I follow Poppy Watch on Twitter/X, it's an account that posts photos of some of the excesses of this time of year, there is some crazy stuff out there

My grandfather died in WW2 but I think of him throughout the year.

Where I live, poppy wearing is regarded as virtue signalling and I know very few people who wear one.

Yes I am

Well you have no reason to. I wear a red one personally, but white poppies have been around for ever - they are about commemorating everyone who dies in war, not just servicemen.

The white poppy does signify looking at war critically, but not pacifism at all costs.

My father took part in the D Day Landings (Sword Beach), when he was only 18. I will be wearing a Poppy, but it’s too early yet, it’s still October.

Yes, really. Every year we say "We will remember them" and "Lest we forget". And in the place where I live no one had got it together to put a box of poppies and a collection tin on a counter. I was horrified and shocked. Just like I am horrified and shocked at people who have forgotten and don't think it is important to remember.

World War One was stupid ruling classes sending those they viewed as lesser to the slaughter. We need to remember this and keep in mind what happens when you view other humans as worth less. That is the most pressing need to remember that I know right now.

This!

It's terrible that people did that to you. It's even more stupid because, while it's always a personal choice whether to wear a poppy or what colour, the white poppy can happily be worn alongside the red one if someone wishes; there's no conflict between the two.

It is not glorifying war it is acknowledging the ultimate sacrifice of others for our freedom. If you think a Poppy is glorifying war you need to educate yourself.

No. I won’t wear one and definitely won’t donate. I usually donate to an international humanitarian charity/ organisation helping innocent victims of conflict or to charities helping refugees around Remembrance Day but definitely wouldn’t give anything to the British legion.

Yes of course. I always do in remembrance of blood spilt in wartime, and the sacrifices made in the name of freedom.

It confuses me when people claim it glorifies war...it does not, it remembers it without judgement.

My dad is 87, he now has hallucinations with dementia. He thinks he’s still the little boy in the Anderson shelter in Medway during ww2. He gets so scared he is crying.

my ex Fil fought in the North Atlantic. In a submarine chasing after u boats . If that doesn’t deserve his medals then his action that awarded him a oak leaf ( mentioned in dispatches) does

his father, ex’s grandfather died in November 1918. As did his great uncle, and the other great uncle. The entire male family wiped out. 2 of them within days of armertice. Cannon fodder.

my own grandfather fought in Burma, then had to go to India for the partition. He never ever talked about burma

my other grandfather ran away and signed up fibbing his age in ww1. “Luckily” he was shot 3 days into front line fighting and got sent home, where they discovered his age and chucked him out. He was not called up again. Never could move his shoulder properly.

my generation is the first generation of men never to experience being called upon as civilians to take up arms and be forced to fight ( or national service in readiness to fight) . At least most of them realise this and pay respects to the previous generation who weren’t so lucky. Reading some of these responses implies they went to war jangling with jingoism .

I’m appalled frankly that people see not wearing this as some sort of symbolic pacifism act…fucking hell…they’re worn to remind people of countless bodies all over the world that were so damaged or lost in war that they were never bought home. The poppy IS the symbol of the futility of war, MENs stupid aggression on a global scale, and the countless lives lost and still being lost.

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@wellthisisakward - white poppies above

I'll be wearing one but it's early yet isn't it. I don't wear mine until 1st Nov. I also wear the purple one for the animals in war.

WW1 wasn't about our freedom though. Our freedom was never at risk. It was about empire building and dick swinging by the political elite.
And the aftermath of WW1 created the dire circumstances in Germany that Hitler and the Nazis exploited to rise to power.

It's dangerous to oversimplify things, as it prevents us learning the lessons from history.

Not since it has been appropriated by the flag-shaggers.

I had relatives die in the world wars but be clear - they didn’t die because they were ‘fighting for our freedom’ or any such nonsense. They were there because they were conscripted and sent off to be slaughtered leaving mothers, pregnant wives and children at home to live another 60/70/80 years without them. They had no choice. Which I think is also the slogan for the purple poppy - the juxtaposition says a lot.

No, never (Irish).

It is not glorifying warfare, quite the opposite. The aim is to raise money for the Royal British Legion which supports military personnel.

Yes and some of the comments on here suggest there needs to be a big education campaign about them.

but LMFAO over the im joy wearing one cos virtue signalling innit without a hint they grasp the irony

Certainly there are attempts to hijack it, but plenty of people wear them and donate in support of ex-servicemen who aren’t as well supported by the state as they should do.

This.