To think school shouldn’t insist that everyone wears a poppy and donates £1

[moonlightholly]

It’s supposedly in a deprived area too - there are constant reminders of the high percentage of pupils with PP.

Also, I don’t think a school should insist everyone wears a poppy - or AIBU?

Finally from me if you cant afford a poppy then spend some time with your child with a bit of card a button a bit of glue and paint and make one. Then let your child choose to wear it or not. After all it's all about freedom of choice isn't it??

I get fed up with the whole politics every year round poppy wearing. It is people's right to choose whether they wear one or not. Started because Jon Snow refused to wear one on air and then the media shitshow started.

Nearly every person on TV has a poppy or they get a backlash about how disrespectful they are. There are various reasons why people don't and that should be respected, just as it is anyone's right to wear one if they wish.
I am attending a Remembrance parade tomorrow. I will have one for that. I also wear a purple poppy to remember the sacrifices that the animals made.
This article in the Guardian is very interesting and sums up how I feel about the situation.

www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/remembrance-day-moeen-ali-jonathan-liew-james-mcclean-poppies-royal-british-legion-a8028301.html

“ There are many service people with mothers, wives and others on MN. I bet you wouldn’t dare say such a thing to their face.”

I will happily expressed any sincerely held views to anyone’s face, if they ask what they are. If they don’t like it, that’s life.

I will happily expressed any sincerely held views to anyone’s face, if they ask what they are. If they don’t like it, that’s life.

Bollocks would you.

I truly would.

Missing the point of this thread but the firebombing of Tokoyo by the United States (operation meetinghouse) was the single most destructive and deadliest attack in human history.

And I am ashamed to say, that I, in my late sixties, so probably more in touch with the effects of WW2 that younger posters, have never heard of this.

I too have stopped wearing a poppy these last few years, sharing reasons give by others above.

I have 3 metal pin badges that I keep and wear each year (not at the same time!) and I donate into the collection tins without taking a paper poppy.

Of course we can all remember without wearing a poppy and noone should be forced/coerced into it, but personally I think wearing a poppy and the one minute silence isn't much to ask for, to show we are united in remembering the sacrifices millions made, or were forced to make, and continues to be an important message to pass to the next generation. Lest we forget.

YANBU OP. I despair at another thread full of people who have no concept of the number of children living in utter poverty.
There are working families with 2 or 3 kids who don't have the money, or the glue or the paint.

You voted for austerity and you have no fucking clue.

I don't need to wear a poppy to remember those who died, the civilians too.
I don't think there was a family that didn't lose somebody.

I don't need a poppy to remember the thousands of Jews, Romany, disabled, who were murdered by the Nazi's. I look at the list of family names.

Please remember when you wear your poppy that some people wear one and think that's it, their duty is done. Their day of remembrance over, not to be thought of for another year.
I remember when I feel like it, when it comes into my thoughts, when I speak with family, not just in November.
I won't be wearing a poppy.
I've attended a Requiem remembrance already this month, minus poppy.

I don’t understand why some people are so hell bent of finding fault with it? Are you just eager to prove that you are sufficiently anti-establishment or something? You've got it right there.
I don't wear a poppy but always chuck money in the tin.

Awful lot of people in this thread who would have handed out white feathers back in the day.

As I said, I wear one when I can, or donate, but I don't think people should be forced or guilt tripped into wearing them. You can show your respect in other ways. Lighting candles and saying the Mourners' Kaddish, for instance.

Well from what I've seen, the army nowadays are armed bullies. I'd certainly be disappointed if my child was brainwashed into joining.

Hundreds of people were incredibly grateful to see my armed bully a couple of Christmases ago when he volunteered to go help them in the floods. I bet you wouldn't tell him to sod off if you needed his help.

Even though the military is in my blood I disagree that being in the armed forces merits unquestionable respect above any other job/career choice.

I remember growing up seeing many examples of appalling behaviour, racist and sexist attitudes and horrible bullying all excused because the perpetrator was either wearing a uniform or married to someone who was.

I observe the silence every year. I stopped buying poppies for my children to wear the same year that a huge "support our soldiers" display appeared on the wall of their classroom, with a poppy-wearing child at its centre.

I am from a military family, going back for at least 6 generations. None of those generations has to my knowledge escaped damage of one form or another. So I remember, but am careful not to glorify. I tend the graves of some unknown (and possibly not even Allied) sailors in my local graveyard and I am not alone in that. They are remembered even though we do not know who they are. I remember without wearing a poppy, and I don't assume that wearing one is a special act of remembrance because in many cases it isn't.

My reasons for not wearing a poppy are complicated and deeply personal. I don't feel I need to justify them to anyone, any more than I would ask a poppy-wearer to justify their actions to me. It disturbs me greatly that anything other than total conformity meets with such vitriol (and I think this is a tendency with more than just poppies).

I wonder if this school is giving a choice in colour? Or just offering the red ones.

I work in a school, in fact Ive worked in several and trust me when I say the poppy indoctrination starts very young. They are encouraged to buy and wear poppies from reception class onwards.

Indoctrination might seem like a very strong word to use, but thats how I see it now. The whole thing has been hyjacked by right wing loons who launch attacks on anyone in the public eye who dares not to wear a poppy in public. I wonder if these people have any idea what they actually stand for? I bet they don't.

As a side note, my grandfather who was a WW2 veteran never had any time for the RBL because he'd personally found them to be unhelpful. In fact I believe thats why charities like Help for Heroes and Combat Stress were set up, because they RBL were so useless at providing support for service people coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Did anyone see the news yesterday about the veteran on his way to London from Preston.
It was so emotional, I was weeping. The poor chap thought it was for someone else, and was quite overwhelmed.
What was interesting was his constant stance of "I'm not a hero" I went because I had to.
The heroes are those that died, the brave are those that came back and we should remember and honour both.
With or without a poppy,of various colours.

Yes, it's for "REMEMBRANCE", we can all agree on that. But remembering what?

A person. A living breathing human being. Someone’s Mum or Dad, brother, sister, friend, comrade.

But a person. Who gave their life for their country.

They weren’t political, they didn’t always agree with what they were fighting for, but they still went and they still do go. And for some, they gave their life.

When you say ‘for what’, you’re focussing on an outcome you don’t agree with. Rather than focusing on a person, on over 16,000 people who’ve died on duty and in service since the end of World War II, who made a sacrifice in the belief it’s for everyone else.

It’s entirely your choice how you remember them. Poppy or not.

My child’s school asks for a minimum donation of 20p but the donation or poppy wearing is not enforced. I suspect that this is more about the certificate they will receive thanking them for raising ‘X amount’ which will probably find it’s way onto any social media pages the school may have and/or the local paper?

My reasons for not wearing a poppy are complicated and deeply personal. I don't feel I need to justify them to anyone, any more than I would ask a poppy-wearer to justify their actions to me. It disturbs me greatly that anything other than total conformity meets with such vitriol (and I think this is a tendency with more than just poppies).

Yes. Suddenly we're required to prove our acquiescence. It's quite disturbing, and could well be the thin edge of a wedge to come.

Forces wife.

Poppy nonsense been a fairly consistent source of tension at this time of year for the last few years. Cookie Monster being made to wear one felt a particular low point.

To address the point of the thread, of course noone should be made to buy one or wear one.

(And I don't believe my husband or many of our best friends to be either mugs or bullies but as with yesterday's goady military poster, life is too short to engage with that kind of thing)

I always wear a purple poppy.

My Grandad fought in world war 2 and hated the whole thing. He hates the fact that children and other innocent people had died because of him and the glamorous spin put on war. As though the human loss doesn't matter........he didn't speak of any of this but after his death in the early 80s we found his letters to my nannie where he wrote about how ashamed he was.

He sank into a deep, depression afterwards which he never recovered from.......his only nod to the war after the whole thing was over was him tossing all his medals over the side of a navy ship a few months much to my nannies horror.

And in modern times I'd take no pride in bombing and killing innocent, already destitute civilians who to top it all the UK refuses to offer refuge to unless they can prove how worthy they are.

“ They weren’t political, they didn’t always agree with what they were fighting for, but they still went and they still do go. And for some, they gave their life.”

That’s not something I can respect. Poor conscripts had no choice and they didn’t lay down their lives, they had their lives taken from them.

People who sign up in the modern day and who agree to fight to kill in order, whether they agree with it or not are making their own decision, but it’s not one I respect.

Purple Poppy was discontinued a few years ago, and it's a Purple Badge now