Will you be wearing a poppy?

[thingsthatmakeyougohmmmmmmmm]

To support the work that the Royal British Legion do.

Nobody around here seems to be wearing one.

Yes, to honour the dead from both world wars - although mine is a brooch because I'm not in the UK and poppies aren't a thing here.

For those saying that the far right are hijacking poppies, if 'ordinary' people stop wearing them, that's letting the far right have the symbol, which can't be a good thing.

This. It's depressing. If people want to help, give money to organisations working with the men and women who struggled after being in are armed forces. Homelessness, trauma centres, ex-offenders, you'll find some ex-service people with needs there.

As soon as it become an issue not to wear one, I stopped.

I wear one of the metal pins same one every year then donate. For me it is not just about remembering those who died in WW1 and 2. It is remembering those who gave their lives in all wars since, and in conflicts which are currently happening. And remembering the lives of civilians who died in conflicts too.

The rise of nazism and nazi Germany was a product of the circumstances it found itself in after the first world war. Which was an entirely unnecessary war in which millions of young men were used as cannon fodder to feed the egos of the ruling classes of Europe

The second war was a necessary fight but the completely unnecessary first war created the circumstances that led to it

@Girlattheback

i didn't take the paper/plastic one.

I bought the bracelet small piece of elastic (not sure what that's made of, possibly some plastic? & metal/enamel) and the 2023 metal/enamel pin.

not sure if there's any plastic component, but if there is, it must be negligible.

@thingsthatmakeyougohmmmmmmmm

yes, I do & I do of my own free will & in memory of ALL who served our country.

Yes, DH is in the military and it’s an important charity. There are still British service people dying and it commemorates and supports all of them, not just those who died a hundred years ago.

We benefit also from charities like SSAFA and Tommy’s Little Soliders. We have also benefited in the last year from a lovely charity called Give Us Time that provided us with a lovely free holiday as DH had been deployed for such extensive periods.

Not before November. I'm quite tempted to wear both white and red.

nope nopitty nope. the young men who were butchered in the first world war as the generals sat in their comfy offices and then pushing Germany to the brink which allowed the rise of hitler, the holocaust and so many more unnecessary deaths. the whole thing was a shitshow and the history is grossly oversimplified and romanticised - the poppy is a symbol of that. and we continue sending our young people to war and kill millions so rich people get richer. instead give a proper donation for the veterans who are shamefully and criminally treated. so many are homeless, unable to access even basic support for injuries etc. poppies just make us feel better about ourselves without doing anything real.

yes

I will be. For family, and all those from the 2 world wars, but also for those from more recent conflicts. For those lost in Iraq and Afghanistan, and those left to deal with the aftermath. My husband served for 27 years, and lost many friends. My son is a cadet, desperate to follow in his footsteps.

We will remember.

Anybody who "doesn't understand" the white poppy-feel free to google. Not sure me paraphrasing Wikipedia is a good use of anyone's time.

It’s used by the far right as a symbol in their propaganda, to try and reach out to a sense of patriotism, but it extends beyond ordinary patriotism to the kind that hates anyone not white.

My experience is of vets being fobbed off rather than signposted. With a reading age of 9, it’s hard for people to do their own research. One of my legacy policy changes before I left was that no soldier in training should be left to make a complaint by themselves, it’s simply unfair that they get a policy document when the organisation has legal and policy advisers on call. Same applies to vets. The organisation takes advantage of their lack of understanding/education/whatever. The RBL should be doing more in this area.

thank you. good information.

Indeed.-"the old lie" , as Wilfred Owen said

No, I stopped buying one once the number of WW2 veterans had dwindled to nearly none. I don’t fell much sympathy for those who signed up voluntarily for later conflicts.

What’s Tommy’s little soldiers?

Yes. While the world wars were a long time ago. Other wars where military people died are not.
I feel grateful for their sacrifice and will always

Jesus wept. I don't think WW2 was glorified at all. Imagine if no one had stood in Hitler's way? Thank goodness for all of us they did.

I'm 54 but born to older parents. One of my uncles died in WWII, my dad died of injuries he sustained there, when I was a child. RBL supported my mother & me in a difficult time, she was a poppy seller locally for many years. I will wear my poppy to support RBL to return the favour they did me, and to remember my dad.

pp did you mean Scotty's little soldiers charity for bereaved military children.

@therealcookiemonster

So now we are to blame for Hitler?

Dear fucking god.

40% of recruits have a reading age of less than 11 (as reported by Defence Select Committee in 2013) but as the military is UK's single largest provider of adult education (including patching both literacy and numeracy) I'm not sure what the figure is for those leaving the Services. I'm genuinely interested - what's the source of the average reading age being 9?

It's paper this year.

Are people really unaware of the geopolitical reasons for Hitler's rise to power?

Crack a book people.