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?

@Decorhate I don’t need too thanks! I have respect for the British Forces and always will, I come from a serving forces family.

Wow, is nothing sacred in our country anymore.

Do you really not think that honouring the sacrifice of a generation of young men who died to save our country from tyranny (think about that for a second, your husband, brothers, sons all risk their lives and you know some won't return) is worth a small contribution?

If you can't afford £1 then I'm sure a smaller contribution would be accepted, but given that most families, including those probably spent at least a tenner on Halloween last week, I really don't think £1 is Alot to expect.

People who are against remembering are a fucking disgrace. The world would be a very different place if they hadn’t sacrificed their lives. You should be ashamed

You have the choice to wear a poppy due to the soldiers that gave their lives so that you have that choice.

Exactly - choice! They fought against those who made badge-wearing compulsory.

Now some people want to make badge-wearing compulsory. The irony is rather lost on them.

Yes. I no longer wear a poppy. That became my choice after wearing it started to mean nothing as people became coerced, and even bullied into wearing them.
Choosing not to wear a poppy doesn't mean that I don't think about those people who gave their lives and continue to do so. I've visited war graves in many countries and been deeply moved.

But the attitude nowadays is such that I don't want to be part of the coercion and lip service. And anyone who thinks that wearing it is obligatory is undermining what those people fought for.

But Glitterb not everyone does respect the armed forces. If the poppy was just about the waste of WWI and the sacrifice of WWII I'd gladly wear one, but it isn't. I'm not going to wear one in support of the British army who went to Iraq or Afghanistan, or the parachute regiment in NI.

Different people have different views and that's ok.

@fuzzyduck1 - All you people that say you won’t / don’t want to wear a poppy are the people that should be remembering the sacrifices that ordinary people gave to allow you the right to freedom of thought the freedom to make your own decisions in life.

Except some of the people the poppy is commemorating deliberately deprived ordinary, innocent, people, many of them children, of any opportunity to make decisions in their own life. I am think in particular of the perpetrators of bloody Sunday and the many other murders by British forces in Northern Ireland and Ireland before that.

NB spelling mistakes were not meant to patronise, they were solely mine (the rest of the post was though).

I hated things like this at school because it was embarrassing to say you couldn't afford it, especially in front of your peers. £1 for me was 2 week's pocket money in the late 1990's.

My view, for what it’s worth:

As someone who had Great Grandfathers killed in WW1 and a Grandfather who fought in WW2, I think it’s disrespectful and ungrateful not to wear a poppy.

However the fact is, the freedom that was won included the freedom not to be told what to do/ think/ wear.

Yes, WW1 should never have happened, but WW2 was a clear battle against evil.

If the Nazis had won WW2 there would have been no freedom of choice about what to wear/ say/ think and many of us would be killed just because of who we are (BAME, Jewish, gay, disabled etc).

We owe all the rights we have today to those who fought and won WW2.

It’s like those who bash Churchill by judging him by the standards of our time. The fact is he was the saviour of this country and although he once held views that would now be considered old fashioned, during WW2 he spoke out against race hate, racial superiority and for freedom and democracy.

The RBL is a charity that supports ex-service people. It does not advocate military service
or glorify war.

The Poppy remembers all the fallen in all wars, not specifically WW1.

I will be wearing my poppy with pride.

I respect your freedom not to do so.

Just remember, when exercising your freedom of choice, that people fought and died for that freedom.

Mine are asking for £1 for poppies, £1 for CIN to wear Sportwear, and an extra £1 to join in with Joe Wicks "dance routine" - which obviously most kids will want to do. Then there's "bring in chocolate for the tombola"....

What if you have 2+ kids at school and are a single parent struggling to pay rent? I'm sending my kids in with £1 each for CIN that's it. No poppy, no pudsey stuff. If they won't let them join the dance that's ridiculous.

This time of year is so expensive!

The Japenses knew that they weren't winning but weren't unanimously surrendering. There were different factions who still believed that the war was winnable or to continue fighting to get a better deal. The emperor exerted his influence and the Soviets were asked to act as a intermediary. This doesn't mean that the negotiations would have been successful (indeed, the Soviets had something up their sleeve) or happened in the short term. The pro-war side were still strong within the government. Countless people, civilians and soldiers would have continued to have died during this period. As mentioned, the firebombombing of Tokyo was 100k in one night.

Ultimately, yes the US did want to test the bombs on places that hadn't already been firebombed and areas of military importance. Whilst horrific for civilian death, it did put an immediate end to fighting and potentially saved millions. It was terrible but also not without a purpose.

@StreetwiseHercules

If not for the nuclear bombs millions of Japanese and Americans would have been killed when the home islands were stormed. Russi would have come from the North and the two islands might well have ended up partitioned like Berlin.

The Japanese army in Burma was probably saved to a man by the surrender. The allies were closing in and knew what had happened in Singapore and weren't taking prisoners.

YABVU. I do not agree with war and have some German and Irish relatives but I will be wearing a poppy. I like some other previous posters find some of the comments on here rather insulting to ex military of any nationality.

This is the second post people are throwing out their WW2 serving grandfathers as evidence of their emotional attachment to the cause. It’s completely commonplace to have grandfathers who fought or died in the war. That was the whole point of conscription!

All you people that say you won’t / don’t want to wear a poppy are the people that should be remembering the sacrifices that ordinary people gave to allow you the right to freedom of thought the freedom to make your own decisions in life.

Remembering has absolutely nothing to do with what you pin to yourself, though.

And of course school have no business insisting on any pupil spending £1 on anything. Whether it be the poppy or something else. In a climate where families are missing meals, and compulsory poppying of child(ren) would in some cases have to come out of the basic necessity budget, it's simply inexcusable.

Whilst I agree it shouldn’t be enforced I am not sure of your specific objections for your child wearing one ?

If it is the £1 you can buy none elsewhere. If you object bin principle to the poppy I would email simply so your dc doesn’t get questioned.

The school should not insist on a anything voluntary, never mind the politically -laden poppy issue.

I personally don’t like nor do I respect the armed forces. And that’s allowed!

It’s not something I talk about with my children though, they can form their own views.

There is one good side to this annual circus and it’s the humour in watching the competition to see who can be seen to be remembrancing the hardest. The Poppy Watch account on twitter is genuine, high quality biting satire.

I refuse to wear a poppy for all the excellent reasons given here. And yes, I have one remaining living relative who was alive and active during WWII. People can wear one if they want, but I would ask everyone to have a think about why they're doing it first. You don't need a bit of paper on your coat.

However, for my child, as my mum did with me, I will just get them a poppy for school like everyone else. It's too big and complicated a subject for a small child to understand. Hopefully as he grows up he'll start to understand, as both his parents did.

I do think £1 is a lot to expect people to pay in a deprived area, but realistically the school probably can't afford the materials for it to be a craft project. It shouldn't be mandatory.

The Poppy isn’t political.

16 year old boys were forced into the trenches and if they didn’t go they were sent to jail and made an absolute mockery of.

Deserters were shot.

“Refusing” to wear a Poppy is ridiculous, it’s like refusing to vote. Choosing not to however is different.

School cannot make a charitable donation compulsory and should not.

People who are against remembering are a fucking disgrace. The world would be a very different place if they hadn’t sacrificed their lives. You should be ashamed

I'm always amazed that people who post this sort of thing cannot understand the sheer irony of it. We fought WW2 precisely to stop the sort of bullying and intolerance that this demonstrates. My father who was wounded in the war and lost brothers and comrades didn't give a flying fuck whether people chose to wear poppies or not.

And what makes me laugh is that the Poppy symbolism was brought to Britain by a French women, it has absolutely nothing to do with British politics.

As pp have pointed out, WEARING a poppy DOESN’T mean you are remembering MORE than someone who isn’t. Just as crying or wearing black doesn’t mean you are mourning more than someone who doesn’t. HOW can anyone think that?

Like other pp, I wear a white poppy - which is an act of respect and remembrance, but at the same time refuses to glamourise war and acknowledges all casualties, including civilians, deserters, etc. If you're uneasy with the politics of red poppies (the enforcement of wearing one, the associations with the military, where the money goes, and so on) I strongly recommend them.

I’m probably one of the few on here old enough to have been brought up by a father who was active in WW2. He was involved in the liberation of prisoners from camps in the Pacific. My mother’s first fiancé was killed when his ship was torpedoed in the Med. So closer than most. Neither of my parents supported the wearing of poppies. They saw it as glorification of war even then- they died in 1984 and 2015.