Two minutes silence and refusing to serve customer

[BalugaBelle]

At work today I was on the checkout (large retail store) and the silence was announced over a tannoy.

A woman (on the phone) came up to the checkout during the silence, so I shushed her. Motioned to poppies next to till!

She then said, "I'm going to miss my train, please continue serving me!"

I refused, shook my head and sat silently for the two minutes.

At the end I put her items through, she moaned at me and called me rude and petty and then went on her merry way.

So was I being unreasonable to respect the two minutes silence, even if it meant a customer was unhappy at me doing so?

I know good customer service is needed but surely the two minutes silence takes priority? She clearly had no respect!

Quite frankly I didn't give a damn about her train, I was paying my respects as was everyone else in the shop. It was literally almost silent apart from young children (understandable) and general noise, i.e., heating making noises!

Tired of your rudeness reanimate

I was proud to honour my relative and stood straight, not like a sack of spuds because I have respect and am not offensive

Why are you so rude about what’s important to other people, Reanimated? A lot of people lost loved ones and former comrades and it’s something that matters to them.

You seem to make a habit of being so obnoxious? I’ve seen you do this on a lot of other threads.

Because there is something not only daft and distasteful about this kind of enforced 'respect' but something that's actually quite dangerous. To those without any family connection to the armed forces, it's pretty much irrelevant. To some who are forces or ex-forces themselves, or to their friends or families, it's distressing or infuriating to not only have to witness what they percieve as a romanticising of pointless slaughter, but to be pressured into enthusiastic participation.
It should be optional, and no more of a big deal to those who don't want to join in than Valentine's Day or Yom Kippur.

And, while we are living in such volatile times, with national newspapers blaring on about 'British' values and 'traitors' and pumping out thinly-disguised racism and xenophobia, the last thing we should be doing is ordering people to participate in rituals that they don't care about or disapprove of.

Why are you connecting this with racism and British values?

Good on you. Some people are so rude these days. I was in a shop and even the kids were quiet!

Reanimate I don't agree with you. I've only just read your post so haven't really had much time to process it and really think about it (which I think is important to do when discussing such a topic) but my initial thought is that surely even though the veterans are dead, they still fought for our country and went through almighty hell, so I don't see now someone could consider it 'pretty much irrelevant.'

It was mass death and slaughter. People lost their lives. So many. Just bedause they're dead it doesn't mean people today can't take a second from their lives to remember what their ancestors went through?

Otherwise it just leads me to think of the very depressing notion that once we are dead, all the great things we do are forgotten and lost by future generations.

I'm sure those millions of people didn't go through all that unimaginable horror to be considered 'irrelevant' to our lives today.

And again we are talking about fairly recent, mass death. We remember to make sure it never happens again.

I suppose what I want to know is why do you believe that even those without any family connections should consider all those who died irrelevant, irregardless of the fact whether you believe the war should have occurred or not? (Because it did and even if you think it was pointless laughter, it doesn't change what happened.)

I shall read your post again, however. This is just my point of view. And I understand your opinion differs, I simply want to know why.

Jeez I've read it all now and am appalled and disgusted at some comments on here

Reanimated you are so wrong. It's not irrelevant. People in the works wars went through hell. They deserve our respect. My own dh was in Iraq many times actually and it devastated him that the reality is he was there for nothing. His friends were killed for nothing. He killed for nothing. They genuinely went in thinking they were doing a good thing. The realisation it was built on lies and money for him was horrific. The poppy and remembering the dead doesn't romanticise war, take a minute to talk to anyone who has been you'll soon realise that.

World

Lass, I would bet my bottom dollar that retail outlets at stations or airports do NOT stop serving for 2 minutes to observe the silence. There would probably be mutiny if they did. Sometimes connecting services are late so people who cut it fine for the train are not necessarily 'idiots'.

I've been going through security at an airport and everything stopped to observe the silence. Nobody complained. I'm pretty sure the retail outlets would have done the same.

All any of us are asked to do is observe the silence. No one has to think about anything. What we are doing is allowing other people the chance to think, remember, reflect, honour. It is a kind and considerate thing to do. Chatting, laughing, bustling about during the 2 minute silence is being unkind and inconsiderate.

Well, at least no one (not even the anti silencers) posted on this thread between 11 am and 11.02. Just been back and checked!

As for other threads , I haven't got the energy to check them.

spiney, no you wouldn't be in a trance but as an adult, you'd keep silent yourself... as that's what you're doing, isn't it? For just TWO minutes.

Well, I tend to agree with Reanimate. If anyone does wish to remember, there is Remembrance Sunday when they can not only remember in the two minutes silence, but almost certainly find a Church Service in which to do so. For years and years this was the day to Remember, the additional 2 minutes silence seems to have come along in the last 10-15 years.

People have every right not to participate and not to care - and to actively despise what they percieve as unpleasant, jingoistic bullshit of the sort that led us to Brexit. Yes, there should be opportunities for those to whom it does matter to do their stuff (and confining it to the Sunday, as used to be the case, would be much more sensible) but we need to move away, fast, from the idea that it's obligatory. Because making any essentially pointless ritual (and it is, objectively, pointless to shut up for two minutes. It doesn't actually help anyone, change any law, make for a fairer world) compulsory is seriously harmful.

Reanimated You seem to forget the fact that England was not the only country involved in World War I and II, nor in any conflict since. Brexit has nothing to do with this.

I'd think someone was a git if they thought that they should be served during a two minute silence, and, how's this for a revolutionary concept, I'm not British.

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I'm perfectly aware that other countries were involved in WW1 - and even that a lot of other countries have similar issues with increasing nationalism/fascism. But other countries don't appear to have quite the same level of vicious dumbfuckery from the press, and from all the self-appointed poppy police. When much of the really enthusiastic support for any event/ritual comes from tossers like the BNP/EDL/UKIP, it's probably time to walk away from the whole thing.

The additional silence on the 11th itself seems to have come about during the Blair years - Blair who took the country into an illegal war. But I agree with Reanimate how wearing a poppy has become a show - witness all the people on a show like The Apprentice -Your'e Fired sporting a poppy. How is wearing a poppy dished out by the BBC wardrobe department remembering anything? How is it contributing to the British Legion Funds? By all means find a Church service on Remembrance Sunday and give up an hour or more of your time in the act of Remembrance, and really be asked to think about it, but squashed into a couple of minutes shopping? Is that really Remembrance?

wearing a poppy has become a show

I agree with this

I think loads of people wear a poppy because they want to

But some do because they have to, thinking politicians, tv people and some business

No one is asking you to do anything. You ca believe what you like but just be considerate of others. It's as plain as this!

Of course I would Witch. I think we agree on that.

I wouldn’t talk through the 2 minute silence. And as I said before it would be out of good manners to the other people around me observing the silence as much as my feelings about the Remberence itself.

If you’re going to talk and laugh on your phone in a place observing the silence, you’re going to get shushed. In a church, mosque, shop,wherever.
Only on Mumsnet would the ‘shussher’ be criticised in the face of such disregard to other people’s feelings.