| The Poppy 12:58 - Nov 2 with 11311 views | union_jack |
FIFA are banning the home nations from displaying the poppy on international shirts.
Outrageous?
Or preventing a floodgate opening for other countries to have their political say on their shirts? |  |
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| The Poppy on 20:08 - Nov 3 with 1928 views | londonlisa2001 |
| The Poppy on 16:59 - Nov 3 by DafyddHuw |
Political banner? I thought it was a statement of fact. |
When have the Falklands ever been part of Argentina? |  | | |
| The Poppy on 20:11 - Nov 3 with 1926 views | Lohengrin |
| The Poppy on 20:08 - Nov 3 by londonlisa2001 |
When have the Falklands ever been part of Argentina? |
Debating with a red, Lisa, is a bit like trying to clap with one hand. |  |
| An idea isn't responsible for those who believe in it. |
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| The Poppy on 20:31 - Nov 3 with 1910 views | londonlisa2001 |
| The Poppy on 20:11 - Nov 3 by Lohengrin |
Debating with a red, Lisa, is a bit like trying to clap with one hand. |
I find that to be true of anyone with an extreme view Loh, not just one political persuasion... | | | |
| The Poppy on 20:36 - Nov 3 with 1904 views | Lohengrin |
| The Poppy on 20:31 - Nov 3 by londonlisa2001 |
I find that to be true of anyone with an extreme view Loh, not just one political persuasion... |
I've got feelings, mind...   | |
| An idea isn't responsible for those who believe in it. |
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| The Poppy on 20:38 - Nov 3 with 1902 views | exiledclaseboy |
| The Poppy on 19:56 - Nov 3 by londonlisa2001 |
We always have a lot all over the tube network Clasie. |
There were six in various uniforms in one entrance to St James's Park station today and at least another six inside. If they were collecting for any other charity it'd be decried as intimidatory. |  |
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| The Poppy on 20:39 - Nov 3 with 1961 views | Lohengrin |
| The Poppy on 20:38 - Nov 3 by exiledclaseboy |
There were six in various uniforms in one entrance to St James's Park station today and at least another six inside. If they were collecting for any other charity it'd be decried as intimidatory. |
Today was the official launch of the 2016 appeal. | |
| An idea isn't responsible for those who believe in it. |
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| The Poppy on 20:41 - Nov 3 with 1956 views | exiledclaseboy |
| The Poppy on 20:39 - Nov 3 by Lohengrin |
Today was the official launch of the 2016 appeal. |
Irrelevant even if true. The appeal launched on 27 October. | |
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| The Poppy on 20:44 - Nov 3 with 1949 views | Lohengrin |
| The Poppy on 20:41 - Nov 3 by exiledclaseboy |
Irrelevant even if true. The appeal launched on 27 October. |
I'm pretty sure the London street collection launch was today. Hence the high profile of uniformed collectors. If you'd gone up this time next week it would have been two old boys in blazers at the station. | |
| An idea isn't responsible for those who believe in it. |
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| The Poppy on 20:59 - Nov 3 with 1940 views | Lohengrin |
The date rang a bell. | |
| An idea isn't responsible for those who believe in it. |
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| The Poppy on 22:07 - Nov 3 with 1910 views | epaul |
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/poppy-symbol-of-racism-never-worn-one-never-
The poppy has become a symbol of racism — I have never worn one, and now I never will
The Entente Cordiale which sent my father to France is now trash beneath the high heels of Theresa May, yet this wretched woman dares to wear a poppy
Robert Fisk @indyvoices 13 hours ago
poppies-2.jpg
The Every Man Remembered sculpture in London, commemorating First World War soldiers Rex
Yes, the boys and girls of the BBC and ITV, and all our lively media and sports personalities and politicians, are at it again. They’re flaunting their silly poppies once more to show their super-correctness in the face of history, as ignorant or forgetful as ever that their tired fashion accessory was inspired by a poem which urged the soldiers of the Great War of 1914-18 to go on killing and slaughtering.
But that’s no longer quite the point, for I fear there are now darker reasons why these TV chumps and their MP interviewees sport their red compassion badges on their clothes.
For who are they commemorating? The dead of Sarajevo? Of Srebrenica? Of Aleppo? Nope. The television bumpkins only shed their crocodile tears for the dead of First and Second World Wars, who were (save for a colonial war or two) the last generation of Britons to get the chop before the new age of “we-bomb-you-die” technology ensured that their chaps — brown-eyed, for the most part, often Muslims, usually dark skinned — got blown to bits while our chaps flew safely home to the mess for breakfast.
Yes, I rage against the poppy disgrace every year. And yes, my father — 12th Battalion The King’s Liverpool Regiment, Third Battle of the Somme, the liberation of burning Cambrai 1918 — finally abandoned the poppy charade when he learned of the hypocrisy and lies behind the war in which he fought. His schoolboy son followed his father’s example and never wore his wretched Flanders flower again.
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Theresa May: Fifa ban on poppies outrageous
Oddly, the dunderheads who are taking Britain out of the European Union on a carpet of equally deceitful lies — and I include Theresa May and her buffoonery of ministers — are guilty of even greater hypocrisy than the TV presenters whose poppies, for just a few days a year, take over the function of studio make-up artists (poppies distracting viewers from the slabs of paste on their TV faces). For the fields of Flanders, the real mud and faeces and blood which those vile poppies are supposed to symbolise, showed just how European our dead generations were.
British soldiers went off to fight and die in their tens of thousands for little Catholic Belgium, today the seat of the EU where Nigel Farage disgraced his country by telling the grandchildren of those we went to fight for that they’d never done a day’s work in their lives. In France, British (and, of course, Irish) soldiers bled to death in even greater Golgothas — 20,000 alone on the first day of the Somme in 1916 — to save the nation which we are now throwing out of our shiny new insular lives.
The Entente Cordiale which sent my father to France is now trash beneath the high heels of Theresa May — yet this wretched woman dares to wear a poppy.
READ MORE
In the carnage of Aleppo children die on both sides of the city
When Poles fought and died alongside British pilots in the 1940 Battle of Britain to save us from Nazi Germany, we idolised them, lionised them, wrote about their exploits in the RAF, filmed them, fell in love with them. For them, too, we pretend to wear the poppy. But now the poppy wearers want to throw the children of those brave men out of Britain. Shame is the only word I can find to describe our betrayal.
And perhaps I sniff something equally pernicious among the studio boys and girls. On Britain’s international television channels, Christmas was long ago banned (save for news stories on the Pope). There are no Christmas trees any more beside the presenters’ desks, not a sprig of holly. For we live in a multicultural society, in which such manifestations might be offensive to other “cultures” (I use that word advisedly, for culture to me means Beethoven and the poet Hafiz and Monet).
In pictures: 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' poppy installation in London
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show all
And for the same reason, our international screens never show the slightest clue of Eid festivities (save again for news stories) lest this, too, offends another “culture”. Yet the poppy just manages to sneak onto the screen of BBC World; it is permissable, you see, the very last symbol that “our” dead remain more precious than the millions of human beings we have killed, in the Middle East for example, for whom we wear no token of remembrance. Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara will be wearing his poppy this week — but not for those he liquidated in his grotesque invasion of Iraq.
And in this sense, I fear that the wearing of the poppy has become a symbol of racism. In his old-fashioned way (and he read a lot about post-imperial history) I think my father, who was 93 when he died, understood this.
His example was one of great courage. He fought for his country and then, unafraid, he threw his poppy away. Television celebrities do not have to fight for their country — yet they do not even have the guts to break this fake conformity and toss their sordid poppies in the office wastepaper bin. |  |
| The hair and the beard have gone I am now conforming to society, tis a sad day
The b*stards are coming back though |
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| The Poppy on 04:59 - Nov 4 with 1871 views | Lohengrin |
Pretty disgraceful that, Paul.  | |
| An idea isn't responsible for those who believe in it. |
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| The Poppy on 07:29 - Nov 4 with 1853 views | epaul |
| The Poppy on 04:59 - Nov 4 by Lohengrin |
Pretty disgraceful that, Paul. |
In your opinion Loh. Personally I don't wear a red poppy, but absolutely have respect for those that died protecting our freedoms, sadly there is an air of poppy facism against those who don't. | |
| The hair and the beard have gone I am now conforming to society, tis a sad day
The b*stards are coming back though |
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| The Poppy on 07:37 - Nov 4 with 1848 views | epaul |
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/i-stopped-wearing-poppy-when-it-no-longer-meant-never-a
I stopped wearing a poppy when it no longer meant 'never again'
Celebrities, sports teams and colleagues brandish poppies on their lapels like patriotic bloodstains.
Harry Leslie Smith By Harry Leslie Smith
November 3, 2016 13:56 GMT
Poppies
iStock
In the grey of November when the clouds above hang low and move through the sky with the grim pace of a funeral dirge, the high streets of Britain blossom red with paper poppies. As long as I have lived I have known we are not a nation of people who easily wear our hearts on our sleeves because we prefer to hide our sorrow behind closed doors. But in the 21st century, when it comes to our war dead we put aside our reserve, our critical thinking and like soldiers in their millions volunteering for the First Great War, we follow the crowd no matter where it take us.
Our news presenters, our sports teams, our celebrities and our co-workers all now brandish poppies on their lapels like patriotic bloodstains. Now a person can't get away without wearing a poppy unless they are willing to take scowls or outright condemnation from friends and strangers alike for a perceived failure to show respect to the dead. It is as if those who don't wear the poppy are seen as no better than people who trade state secrets to our rivals.
More from IBTimes UK
Why is the remembrance symbol controversial?
Fried chicken and swimming really aren't pressing issues for Black British youth
Dog strangling aside, Lord Heseltine helped detoxify the Conservative Party
For me, I can no longer wear a poppy because it's meaning of respect for the fallen and the motto "never again" on the First World War memorial has been profaned by our wars to maintain our empire after the fall of Hitler, and our modern conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. I feel now that wearing the poppy gives a blank cheque to our politicians to justify their folly in wars of questionable merit, as well as the needless deaths their sanguine votes for boots on the ground costs both our soldiers and innocent civilians in foreign countries.
Wearing the poppy today lets our politicians off the hook for their symbiotic relationship to the arms industry and their criminal disregard for the refugee crisis. We have lost our right to collectively mourn our war dead if we are unwilling to at least investigate the notion that our military industrial complex might not have our country's best interests at heart when they sell bombs to tyrants. It is why the insistence of certain media outlets to name and shame those who don't wear the poppy is not only reprehensible, but jingoistic, and will ultimately help lead us into conflicts that will threaten the lives of thousands of our young like the First Great War did.
Wearing the poppy gives a blank cheque to our politicians to justify their folly in wars of questionable merit
I did not always feel this way about the poppy, but then again I was born five year after the guns grew still on the Western Front in 1918.
I can remember the 10th anniversary of armistice because the people's grief was as jagged as shattered glass since everyone in this country had been touched by war.
On that long ago Sunday I don't remember whether the people wore poppies or not because the grief from that war was as fresh and as raw as lost love. Back then the need for symbols to remember the dead in war wasn't seen as it is now — as a means to prod the collective memory of our citizens towards patriotism without reflection on whether some wars are less just than others.
We understand so little now about the hardship and heartache that my parents' generation or my generation endured from either the First or Second World War because we are more intent on honouring the clichés of war rather than looking to end the suffering it unleashes.
We are more intent on honouring the clichés of war rather than looking to end the suffering it unleashes
I am old, so I can't help but look back on the grief from that time long ago when my family and my community went to the Cenotaph to remember our dead. But I also remember with anger how those Tommies who fought in the trenches but came home damaged beyond repair and were left to die in abject poverty during the 1930s. Even though I was haunted by the shameful treatment I saw doled out to the soldiers of the First Great War, I didn't shirk from taking the King's shilling for the Second. My war was good because I came back in one piece, but the carnage I saw and helped caused changed me, it made me understand that between nations, between regions and between people, there is more that unites us than divides us.
It is time that we stop remembering the dead if that makes us forget the suffering of the living. So as Remembrance Sunday rolls on like it has done every year since the War To End All Wars ended almost 100 years ago, I will recall the mates I lost during the last just war — our battle against fascism. But I will also remember to do my duty to the living by fighting for the rights of the vulnerable and speaking up for those caught in the great sorrow of this modern refugee crisis.
Harry Leslie Smith is a 93-year-old Second World War veteran, activist and writer. His first book, Harry's Last Stand, was published in June 2014 and his second, Love Among the Ruins, is out now. Check out www.harryslaststand.com and follow him on Twitter at @Harryslaststand | |
| The hair and the beard have gone I am now conforming to society, tis a sad day
The b*stards are coming back though |
| |
| The Poppy on 08:14 - Nov 4 with 1832 views | trampie |
The Irish national football team remembered the 'Easter Rising' on their shirts. |  |
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| The Poppy on 10:31 - Nov 4 with 1806 views | Highjack |
| The Poppy on 07:37 - Nov 4 by epaul |
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/i-stopped-wearing-poppy-when-it-no-longer-meant-never-a
I stopped wearing a poppy when it no longer meant 'never again'
Celebrities, sports teams and colleagues brandish poppies on their lapels like patriotic bloodstains.
Harry Leslie Smith By Harry Leslie Smith
November 3, 2016 13:56 GMT
Poppies
iStock
In the grey of November when the clouds above hang low and move through the sky with the grim pace of a funeral dirge, the high streets of Britain blossom red with paper poppies. As long as I have lived I have known we are not a nation of people who easily wear our hearts on our sleeves because we prefer to hide our sorrow behind closed doors. But in the 21st century, when it comes to our war dead we put aside our reserve, our critical thinking and like soldiers in their millions volunteering for the First Great War, we follow the crowd no matter where it take us.
Our news presenters, our sports teams, our celebrities and our co-workers all now brandish poppies on their lapels like patriotic bloodstains. Now a person can't get away without wearing a poppy unless they are willing to take scowls or outright condemnation from friends and strangers alike for a perceived failure to show respect to the dead. It is as if those who don't wear the poppy are seen as no better than people who trade state secrets to our rivals.
More from IBTimes UK
Why is the remembrance symbol controversial?
Fried chicken and swimming really aren't pressing issues for Black British youth
Dog strangling aside, Lord Heseltine helped detoxify the Conservative Party
For me, I can no longer wear a poppy because it's meaning of respect for the fallen and the motto "never again" on the First World War memorial has been profaned by our wars to maintain our empire after the fall of Hitler, and our modern conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. I feel now that wearing the poppy gives a blank cheque to our politicians to justify their folly in wars of questionable merit, as well as the needless deaths their sanguine votes for boots on the ground costs both our soldiers and innocent civilians in foreign countries.
Wearing the poppy today lets our politicians off the hook for their symbiotic relationship to the arms industry and their criminal disregard for the refugee crisis. We have lost our right to collectively mourn our war dead if we are unwilling to at least investigate the notion that our military industrial complex might not have our country's best interests at heart when they sell bombs to tyrants. It is why the insistence of certain media outlets to name and shame those who don't wear the poppy is not only reprehensible, but jingoistic, and will ultimately help lead us into conflicts that will threaten the lives of thousands of our young like the First Great War did.
Wearing the poppy gives a blank cheque to our politicians to justify their folly in wars of questionable merit
I did not always feel this way about the poppy, but then again I was born five year after the guns grew still on the Western Front in 1918.
I can remember the 10th anniversary of armistice because the people's grief was as jagged as shattered glass since everyone in this country had been touched by war.
On that long ago Sunday I don't remember whether the people wore poppies or not because the grief from that war was as fresh and as raw as lost love. Back then the need for symbols to remember the dead in war wasn't seen as it is now — as a means to prod the collective memory of our citizens towards patriotism without reflection on whether some wars are less just than others.
We understand so little now about the hardship and heartache that my parents' generation or my generation endured from either the First or Second World War because we are more intent on honouring the clichés of war rather than looking to end the suffering it unleashes.
We are more intent on honouring the clichés of war rather than looking to end the suffering it unleashes
I am old, so I can't help but look back on the grief from that time long ago when my family and my community went to the Cenotaph to remember our dead. But I also remember with anger how those Tommies who fought in the trenches but came home damaged beyond repair and were left to die in abject poverty during the 1930s. Even though I was haunted by the shameful treatment I saw doled out to the soldiers of the First Great War, I didn't shirk from taking the King's shilling for the Second. My war was good because I came back in one piece, but the carnage I saw and helped caused changed me, it made me understand that between nations, between regions and between people, there is more that unites us than divides us.
It is time that we stop remembering the dead if that makes us forget the suffering of the living. So as Remembrance Sunday rolls on like it has done every year since the War To End All Wars ended almost 100 years ago, I will recall the mates I lost during the last just war — our battle against fascism. But I will also remember to do my duty to the living by fighting for the rights of the vulnerable and speaking up for those caught in the great sorrow of this modern refugee crisis.
Harry Leslie Smith is a 93-year-old Second World War veteran, activist and writer. His first book, Harry's Last Stand, was published in June 2014 and his second, Love Among the Ruins, is out now. Check out www.harryslaststand.com and follow him on Twitter at @Harryslaststand |
What's this about heseltine strangling a dog? |  |
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| The Poppy on 11:54 - Nov 4 with 1771 views | Gravy |
| The Poppy on 20:38 - Nov 3 by exiledclaseboy |
There were six in various uniforms in one entrance to St James's Park station today and at least another six inside. If they were collecting for any other charity it'd be decried as intimidatory. |
There's been organised collections for Great Ormond Street all week as well, all over the Underground and at Mainline stations including Paddington. Didn't you see any of them?
The Band of the Grenadier Guards was also playing at Paddington yesterday which might have been a clue that it was London Collection Day
St James Park and Green Park are close to a number of Barracks so unsuprising there was a large presence at those stations...
Personally, it was great to see so many of our Armed Forces, ex and present out mixing with the public in our capital city, many of the younger ones out collecting despite carrying life changing injuries.
It's only once a year and putting your hand in your pocket as often as you can afford doesn't seem like a huge inconvenience to be honest.. |  | | |
| The Poppy on 12:17 - Nov 4 with 1754 views | DafyddHuw |
| The Poppy on 20:08 - Nov 3 by londonlisa2001 |
When have the Falklands ever been part of Argentina? |
Up to 1883. Too difficult to check? |  | | |
| The Poppy on 12:27 - Nov 4 with 1748 views | Gravy |
| The Poppy on 12:17 - Nov 4 by DafyddHuw |
Up to 1883. Too difficult to check? |
1833. | | | |
| The Poppy on 12:29 - Nov 4 with 1743 views | Highjack |
| The Poppy on 12:27 - Nov 4 by Gravy |
1833. |
He should have checked. | |
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| The Poppy on 13:20 - Nov 4 with 1681 views | londonlisa2001 |
| The Poppy on 12:17 - Nov 4 by DafyddHuw |
Up to 1883. Too difficult to check? |
Just not the case. Ignoring that it was 1833, not 1883 since that's irrelevant, the islands were initially half British and half French (in the 1760s). The French gave their bit to the Spanish and they rattled along each owning part until Britain withdrew from their bit in the 1770s.
Spain then were in charge until in 1820 the Argentinians (well actually it wasn't Argentina as such, but Buenos Aires) claimed all Spanish territories in the South Atlantic. Buenos Aires took over in 1829 until they were removed by the Americans in 1831 and then Britain took over again in 1833.
So when you blithely say 'up to 1833', what you mean to say is they were claimed as Argentinian for a couple of years between 1829 and 1831. Not quite the same thing really is it?
It's actually very easy to check! | | | |
| The Poppy on 13:54 - Nov 4 with 1673 views | sherpajacob |
| The Poppy on 13:20 - Nov 4 by londonlisa2001 |
Just not the case. Ignoring that it was 1833, not 1883 since that's irrelevant, the islands were initially half British and half French (in the 1760s). The French gave their bit to the Spanish and they rattled along each owning part until Britain withdrew from their bit in the 1770s.
Spain then were in charge until in 1820 the Argentinians (well actually it wasn't Argentina as such, but Buenos Aires) claimed all Spanish territories in the South Atlantic. Buenos Aires took over in 1829 until they were removed by the Americans in 1831 and then Britain took over again in 1833.
So when you blithely say 'up to 1833', what you mean to say is they were claimed as Argentinian for a couple of years between 1829 and 1831. Not quite the same thing really is it?
It's actually very easy to check! |
all irrelevant in my view.
its a simple question of self determination. |  |
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| The Poppy on 14:02 - Nov 4 with 1665 views | londonlisa2001 |
| The Poppy on 13:54 - Nov 4 by sherpajacob |
all irrelevant in my view.
its a simple question of self determination. |
I agree with you. | | | |
| The Poppy on 19:03 - Nov 4 with 1607 views | trampie |
Looks like FIFA are now taking the Irish on after their players wore a logo to commemorate the Easter Rising, they were apparently bubbled, I wonder who did that ?....hmm | |
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| The Poppy on 19:18 - Nov 4 with 1602 views | Gravy |
| The Poppy on 19:03 - Nov 4 by trampie |
Looks like FIFA are now taking the Irish on after their players wore a logo to commemorate the Easter Rising, they were apparently bubbled, I wonder who did that ?....hmm |
De Valera.... in a U-Boat.... with a Candlestick??? | | | |
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