Very few people wearing poppies this year?

[YippieKayakOtherBuckets]

Anyone else noticed this?

I was in some very busy parts of London today and saw maybe half a dozen people wearing poppies in total. I’m watching Question Time now; the panel are all wearing poppies (the Plaid Cymru representative is wearing a red and a white poppy side-by-side) and at a glance I’d say less than a quarter of people are wearing them.

Is this primarily because of Gaza or did the trend start a while ago? Are people who used to wear poppies now choosing not to? I know this probably sounds very journalisty but I’m not, I promise. I’m really struck by what feels like a dramatic cultural shift in the last ten years or so.

I've definitely noticed fewer poppies this year. It used to be that come Nov 1st my local town switched to poppy mode. There is an older man selling them in ASDA, but from what I can see, only the occasional person buying or wearing.

I have a metal one and I think I'll do as a poster said and wear it underneath. Maybe more people are doing that anyway.

It's become very performative and off putting. Council vehicles with poppy decals, benches in public places with soldiers and poppies, poppies attached to lampposts. It's as if they're all striving to be the "best" at remembering.

I don't want to be a part of that.

Poppyboffers, that's the issue. Performative poppy wearing and using them as a stick to beat others (usually featuring some made up racist rubbish about how they're being torn from the breasts of injured ex-servicemen and little old ladies in Bradford).

To me the whole point is to donate to RBL wearing last years one doesn't do that!

Yes, I’m well aware of what the white poppy is intended to mean - although, as this thread demonstrates in respect of red poppies, people quite naturally place different meanings on symbols.

Personally, I think wearing a white poppy is a signal of a choice to reject a red one. It’s not the same as declining to wear a red poppy - which can’t ever send any signal because poppies aren’t and never have been compulsory (except in a few jobs where wearing one would be expected) and many simply lose a poppy or forget it.

I’ve never heard any convincing explanation of why white poppies are preferred, why red poppies glorify war, signify a political point of view etc. To me ordinary poppies are the ultimate example of a unifying symbol that does not promote war, crosses all boundaries of opinion and stands only for reflective thanks and memory. Those who actively show their rejection of red poppies by wearing white ones seem to me to have their own issues with political and social judgment and cynicism.

(I leave out special situations like in NI where poppies seem to have taken on a tribal significance. That is entirely localised.)

Yes, exactly. This has inevitably put people off.

I’ve have a lanyard so you wouldn’t see mine with my coat on.
The paper poppies always come off.

i dont need to wear a bit of paper and plastic tat to honour the fallen.
i have a sticker on my car, and bought a proper pin years ago. i donate to BL when i see collectors.

I will never put money in the shakers of Salvo Army collectors. they can get fucked.

Same as every year here, NW coast. Sellers in most large shops, most people donating and taking a poppy.

What has the Salvation Army got to do with the Poppy Appeal?

I've been volunteering with poppies in our tiny shopping centre (6 shops!) And most older people are wearing them.

We have a card machine for poppies as well as change pots.

However I was shocked most supermarkets don't allow volunteers to man a table inside anymore, they'll take a box is all. I think that has a massive affect. If your nan/grandpa/friend of was selling youd get chatting and be obliged.

I think irrespective of peace position we have a duty to bear witness to the atrocities of the world wars and remind future generations to do so.

I’m the only person at my work (lots of young people) wearing one which saddens me. I think the further the generation from the world war the less likely. Both my Grandpas were in the war - one had mental health issues as a result, one had a back full of shrapnel. I wear mine, very simply, to honour all the young men who fought to keep our country free. For all the woman who worked to keep our country going in their absence. For all the families who lived with grief so that today we can post on sites like this without fear of being censored and controlled by a fascist state. I’m not remotely right wing, I loathe war but I won’t forget what was done for us. You can navel gaze, theorise and pontificate as much as you like but it happened and we shouldn’t forget.

I always buy a poppy but sometimes swap coats and forget to swap my poppy too. I’m not sure if others are in the same position!

because where i am they hang around the BL poppy collectors like a bad smell.

I’m not sure I’ve learnt anything per se from WW2 but I know that intolerance is bad and I want everyone to live harmoniously without bigotry. Isn’t that where many of the younger generation sit now? So they don’t necessarily align it to Armistice but just as a general feeling/belief that stems from previous fighting.

I don’t think people do forget. I studied the war a lot but don’t wear one. I don’t really see wearing one as to do with remembering the war anymore.

They are dead and no longer care.

Freedoms? like the right to protest or strike being taken away from us all, as is happening right now by our political leaders.

I'd rather we helped ex forces still alive, my ex submariner FiL is waiting 2 years for a knee op, he is in agony, if he was an Australian vet, he'd jump any queue and have it done immediately.

It's interesting. I have a white crochet poppy I get out every year but haven't laid my hands on it this year and haven't had a proper look. It probably is losing momentum, dying out a bit, which is funny as the displays are getting bigger

We have 3 Millenial ds. Oldest is 38. None of them wear poppies.

But they are all accepting of every possible permission of gender/religion/disability. It’s a much more accepting and open society nowadays. They all hate war and anything militaristic. Think people should be able to live how they want to be.

We have the free society our ancestors fought for. That’s the best way of remembering it.

When they started castigating those who didn't wear one or who chose a white poppy I stopped wearing one and looked into what they represent and commemorate. They commemorate the British and Britain's allied soldiers who died in war which is nice, but what about everyone else? The innocent children, the holocaust victims, the forced soldiers on BOTH sides, the innocent people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki...?

I now support the white poppy movement and own several but don't wear them because I don't believe people should have to justify their choice of poppy or no poppy and I think it's all become meaningless, I think most people wear them so they don't look bad and/or can feel superior.

Not here - they have contactless machines.
This year they’ve got poppies that can clip on to something - plastic I’m afraid - but at least they don’t endlessly fall off like the pinned paper ones. I’ve got one clipped to my usual bag, and have noticed quite a few people with similar.

I’ve not seen anywhere selling them. Last year there were loads of places, I’ve not gone out any less.

I think white poppies have a better message.

https://www.ppu.org.uk/remembrance-white-poppies#:~:text=They%20were%20first%20produced%20in,Day%2C%20'never%20again'.

I might add that I do get irritated with those people who say out of ignorance and prejudice (while thinking that they’re being virtuously right-on) that poppies and all they stand for, are ‘glorifying war’.

They are not!

Oh, interesting. Apparently back in 2019 the RBL changed its official wording about Remembrance to include “we acknowledge innocent civilians who have lost their lives in conflict and acts of terrorism”. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/oct/15/red-poppy-used-remember-civilian-victims-for-first-time
I didn't know that as it was quite a while ago that I last looked into it, probably 2017 or 2018. It might just be me but I find the word 'acknowledge' a slightly odd choice, almost grudging? But at least it's there.
The main emphasis is still clearly on "the service and sacrifice of the Armed Forces community from United Kingdom and the Commonwealth."
As I said I'm not an 100% pacifist so decided not to wear a white poppy either but the inclusive wording on the white poppy website is closer to my own feelings about war:
"They are a symbol of remembrance for victims of war, both civilians and combatants, of all nationalities. They also represent a commitment to peace and a rejection of militarism."

@WhileMyDishwasherGentlyWeeps

Those who actively show their rejection of red poppies by wearing white ones seem to me to have their own issues with political and social judgment and cynicism.
This part I agree with but from the other side of the argument to the one you put across, I think. If I were to wear a white poppy, it would be because I reject the political and social judgement and cynicism that, nowadays, comes with the red poppy. However, because I don’t have the desire or patience to argue this point with right wingers on a regular basis, I choose not to wear one at all.

(I leave out special situations like in NI where poppies seem to have taken on a tribal significance. That is entirely localised.)
This part I disagree with. Of course, NI’s own history is going to highlight the tribal significance of poppy wearing, for very obvious reasons. However there is a growing “tribal significance” with it in England too. Obviously not to the extent that it is going to have in NI, but as other posters have said, it is becoming synonymous with St George's flag brandishing, far right, idiots.