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.

Is one day a year to remember the dead of WW I & II too much to ask

Because they don't want to.

Everyone who doesn't wear a poppy has given their reasons why.

Their decision not to wear one is just as valid as your reason to wear a poppy.

Plus, many posters have said, they will not wear a poppy, but they will remember the dead.

You dont need to wear a poppy to remember and respect the services.

I bought an enamel poppy a few years ago but still pop something in the collection tins, my personal reason for wearing it are to remember the lives lost in WWII & WWII . I'm really surprised at the amount of nastiness on this subject.

No I don't wear one (unless I'm going to an actual service) but there's usually a few that have been bought and taken off coats because I find the noise of the paper really unsettling when you catch it (I'm autistic and it's just an unpleasant sound for me) lying around the house.

I don't like the internet poppy enforcers who demand that we NEED to wear one to be honest and I do find Giant Poppy Watch on Twitter/X rather amusing because the whole thing has got ridiculous now. My best mate is a military wife so I've spent a lot of time hanging around on the local army base and I tend to follow the lead of the guys there - mark the occasion respectfully, but the poppy stuff has got bonkers now.

Yes there have been wars since but primarily the Red and Purple poppies are to remember those Service Members and Service Animals from 'The Great War' where it involved just about every nation, as again for WWII.

But the money raised no longer goes to support the veterans of the world wars. Or maybe a very, very small amount at most.
So you can see how it's supportive of other wars to wear a poppy these days. It's literally raising money to support veterans of those other wars.

Is one day a year to remember the dead of WW I & II too much to ask.

This phrasing is, I think, a subtle example of the insidious change of tone surrounding the poppy in recent years. It's not about 'asking' or expecting this this of others. Nor is it about attaching a sense of obligation to a supposedly neutral act, or about policing others' morality in accordance with one set standard: whether they do or don't choose to wear a poppy.

It's about providing them with the opportunity to do so if they wish.

Sins by omission - censoring people for something they do not say or do not do - isn't the way of a democracy. It also rings hollow in the context of the latest middle eastern crisis. IMO, it would be a far more fitting tribute for the ultimate, often futile sacrifices made by past generations if we actually learned something. Ie. for the West to stop interfering with what we don't understand, with consequences that are catastrophic not for us but for those living with the messes we've helped to create.

Of course, this never happens.

My grandfathers served in WW2. My paternal grandfather saw Auschwitz. We have a photo of him when he'd just come home from the war and he looks deeply traumatised. He went away one man and came home another, he was distant and detached for the rest of his life. My maternal grandfather was in the navy, he saw things he would never, ever talk about. He didn't become distant and managed to have a good enough family life when he returned home but he drank a lot.

I am immeasurably proud of both of them, however I won't be wearing a poppy. We all hear 'lest we forget' but one look at the news right now shows that 'we' have well and truly forgotten. I will remember those who gave their lives and had their lives marred by war in my own way.

Yes. Wearing one at the moment. If you get a sticky one, also use a pin as they lose their stickiness and fall off otherwise.

So am I. And I think you're correct in your assumption that discussion and rhetoric surrounding the poppy is becoming much more incendiary of late. I've not seen that vitriol directed at those who say they do choose to wear the poppy. However, there's been a significant amount of it levelled at those who do not.

There is constant social pressure to show visible signals of support for political issues, or to acknowledge certain public events (usually the sort that some people would like to see 'unite' the nation). This often entails indicating your support/acknowledgement by displaying some sort of symbol: rainbow lanyards, pronoun signatures, Palestinian/Israeli flags, coronation banners, banging saucepans at 8pm on a Thursday and, yes, the poppy. These are a convenient and immediate way to show that a person is on the 'right' side of whatever political/ideological belief they're signalling an adherence with.

I don't happen to want to. I'm a republican and oppose the monarchy, I'm dismayed at the mess in the middle east and deplore the methods of Netanyahu as well as Hamas, and I don't believe the rainbow stands for what it once did. But in the sector I work in specifically, it's undoubtedly easier to comply with these practices than it is to resist them.

Obviously, non-participtation by one individual isn't going to change anything, apart from perhaps causing a few eyebrows to be raised in your direction. But I hold with acting in accordance with my own conscience in a meaningful if private way. A fundamental democratic right is the right to remain silent. I'm not under any illusions that the rest of the world is queuing up to hear my opinion. Everybody's got one.

On this thread people have taken the trouble to explain their reasons for non-participation, whereas in an offline context they likely wouldn't (and shouldn't be expected to). It's a question of exercising that right as you see fit, and understanding that others will take a different personal decision from your own. When you live in a democracy this is inevitable.

It isn't a personal affront.

I'm as Woke and lefty as you can be 😁, and no, I don't hate it at all, far from it! I DO feel sad that you do it to feel superior, that you certainly cant understand what Woke is, and that you sound very bitter... I'm sorry for that.

I’m a Guardian reading leftie sitting here wearing my poppy.

I'm one without a poppy this year - just haven't seen them available. 🤷‍♀️

I am, however, remembering my great-uncle Herbert, born in Paisley, Scotland, died in Flanders serving under Canadian Expeditionary Forces and buried in Wimille, France.
I'll be taking my toddler to a Remembrance Day ceremony this Saturday.

Remembering and honouring those that fought for our freedom.

Lest We Forget
🇨🇦

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-mccrae

I would describe myself as very woke but I'm wearing a poppy.

I recently inherited my late Nan Rita & grandad Bill's photo albums, some of the photos I'd never seen which were from wartime (ww2).

The first upsetting photo was of the group of late teens lads who my Nan was friendly with.. every single one killed during the war after joining the RAF. She never forgot them.

The second sad photo was of my grandad Bill with his best mate who he served in the army with from 1937, both stood in uniform & grinning broadly.

He was apparently shot dead in 1944 by a Japanese sniper while stood next to Grandad in Burma. My Grandad never mentioned him to any of us. He must have been devastated.

My main belief is in being an anti Nazi like my Grandad Bill (who fought Moseley's Blackshirts in the streets before he joined up) and I think that's one of the reasons I wear a poppy - to commemorate those men & women I knew who fought in ww2 against the Nazis and their Axis allies.

I also like to remember the millions tragically wiped out in ww1, fighting to keep their countries free from the enemy.
And to think of the veterans of todays wars.. who often join up for similar reasons to my late Grandad.

JaneyGee I’ve seen this before people like you believe Lefties don’t wear poppies, you couldn’t be more wrong. I always wear my poppy proudly as I stated before, my great uncle died as a young man in France as did many boys in his small village. I’m as lefty as you get, so your not annoying me at all by wearing your poppy quite the opposite. as are many on here who replied to your uninformed bizarre post. Perhaps you need to realise it wasn’t just the right of politics who lost family in the war.

I have one on now, will be going to the war memorial near me in time for the 11am commemoration.

Happy to update that I found a poppy yesterday and wore it to Remembrance Day ceremony today then laid it on the cenotaph after the service (as we do here).

Lest We Forget 🇨🇦

Yes.