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Wearing a white poppy

(251 Posts)
Luckygirl Tue 30-Oct-18 14:18:41

Where do folk stand on this?

I tend to avoid red poppies as the British Legion has in its time had some dubious bedfellows (arms companies for instance - Lockheed Martin for one). I can see no current evidence that arms producers are still involved in supporting the BL financially since the outcry about this in 2014. It is of concern however that they thought this might be appropriate up until then. And also my father (who served in the Far East) refused to wear one.

White poppies are produced by the Peace Pledge Union and represent, according to their website: remembrance for all victims of war, a commitment to peace and a challenge to attempts to glamorise or celebrate war.

Can't argue with any of that. But are white poppies seen as disrespectful in some way?

I would be interested in people's thoughts on this.

oldbatty Thu 01-Nov-18 18:36:48

trisher is oh so simple....left wing=baddies=the PC brigade

right wing=good guys=Churchill=patriotism

Jalima1108 Thu 01-Nov-18 18:38:02

what a ridiculous post

trisher Thu 01-Nov-18 18:38:44

We would still be here lemon perhaps Nazis and perhaps not. TheSpanish after all had Franco, but now have democracy
It's not just innocents here, it's innocents and civilians world wide.

trisher Thu 01-Nov-18 18:41:35

I like Oscar Wilde-" Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious."

Jalima1108 Thu 01-Nov-18 18:47:19

So you remember your soldiers and I'll remember the innocents.
We will remember them all trisher and continue to think of the innocents every day not just when we wear a poppy, white, red or any other colour.

Virtue signalling does not mean you own the moral high ground.

Someone upset you trisher but there is no need to lash out at all and sundry and accuse them of not caring.

Coolgran65 Thu 01-Nov-18 18:58:05

My family always wear a red poppy. ( I have actually never ever seen the other colours for sale)

Never have I considered it to be a glorification of war but rather a remembrance of those who perished.

My dh and I visited Ypres and the Menin Gate. We spent 5 days also visiting the many graves, the trenches and the craters.

No way would I glorify war but I will remember those who died. Having listened to the sole trumpeter playing the Last Post at the Menin Gate at 8pm as is done every night ........that feeling will never leave me.

Jalima1108 Thu 01-Nov-18 19:01:36

Having read several books about the suffering of so many European civilians in WW1 and WW2, especially the French, then I am appalled that anyone would think that wearing a red poppy to remember both them and their saviours is wrong.

oldbatty Thu 01-Nov-18 19:06:14

the German people suffered very badly too.

Jalima1108 Thu 01-Nov-18 19:08:36

Las time I looked, Germany was in Europe oldbatty.

ready to pounce grin

oldbatty Thu 01-Nov-18 19:20:19

Oh clever old you.....but does us wearing a red poppy signify our support of the losses suffered in Germany? No , of course it doesn't.

EllanVannin Thu 01-Nov-18 19:43:42

Like I said trisher, nobody has set foot in this country to start their wars since 1939/45
Because our service people attended wars etc in other countries was their way of keeping the aggressors out of this one. Should we have sat back and done nothing or allow those with a tin-pot regime come here and start running our country ?

oldbatty Thu 01-Nov-18 19:48:10

Ellan, hilarious, They are here in droves running the country. They are called organised crime which is the biggest threat to this sceptered isle.

trisher Thu 01-Nov-18 20:06:49

Actually Ellan isn't it since 1066 that no foreign soldier has set foot in this country? We don't of course count the thousands killed by troops from this country when they were trying to acheive freedom. None of them wanted to run our country just their own. And actually it's not to do with them wanting to come here, it is about us using other countries to try out our latest weapon developments and flogging weapons to anyone willing to buy them (and that included Saddam Hussein)
And as you wear your red poppy perhaps you will also think about the dead and dying in Yemen, bombed by weapons supplied by the same arms manufacturer that subsidised the organisation that made your poppy.

lemongrove Thu 01-Nov-18 20:07:38

oldbatty organised crime has been with us for a long time and has zilch to do with foreign armies and wars.

lemongrove Thu 01-Nov-18 20:11:05

Fortunately, most of the people in the UK buy and wear a red poppy, where are all the white poppies.....none to be seen, wear one if you must but realise you are in the minority trisher both on GN and in the RW.

oldbatty Thu 01-Nov-18 20:19:57

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46050428

Fortunately, most of the people in the UK buy and wear a red poppy

No they don't.

trisher Thu 01-Nov-18 20:23:23

Being in the minority doesn't make me wrong lemon any more than being in he majority makes you right. After all most Germans supported the Nazis.
And your red poppy is stained with Yemeni blood.

lemongrove Thu 01-Nov-18 20:23:34

Funny, because just about everyone I saw today when out in a local town was wearing one...a red one.
Have never in my life seen anyone wearing a white one.Not a single one.

GrannyGravy13 Thu 01-Nov-18 20:23:56

My AC was in Iraq trisher, our armed forces protected Iraqi civilians.

Easy to be a keyboard warrior quoting statistics. Statistics are routinely manipulated to support a point of view.

Our current armed forces do more to keep the peace than ever before, they help in a multitude of natural disasters worldwide.

trisher Thu 01-Nov-18 20:30:05

GG13 I haven't said anything about troops or their involvement. But do you not realise that he was in Iraq because our government had supplied Saddam Hussein with weapons and then decided to remove him? Protecting civilians is wonderful, but wouldn't it be far better if they had no need of protection?

lemongrove Thu 01-Nov-18 20:31:13

Oh trisher you do say the weirdest things ( as in unpleasant weird) when not getting your own way on threads.
Being in the minority with your white poppy is fine, perhaps stop lecturing others though, as most people do prefer to wear a red poppy of remembrance.
If people had your views during WW2 then as you acknowledge upthread....the Nazis would have taken over here.No doubt concentration camps as well, for all Jews, disabled and gypsies.So thank God most people thought otherwise.

merlotgran Thu 01-Nov-18 20:34:53

And your red poppy is stained with Yemeni blood.

Tosh!

oldbatty Thu 01-Nov-18 20:36:48

I'm not surprised nobody in your little enclave was wearing something unusual lemon. Just like nobody is gay/trans/a person of colour.

Tweedle24 Thu 01-Nov-18 20:39:06

I am from a military family and am ex-service myself. I would only ever wear a red poppy, if only because the proceeds go to the British Legion and the sterling work it does to support those service people and their families affected by conflict.

GrannyGravy13 Thu 01-Nov-18 20:39:50

trisher - I assume that you are an educated female, therefore you must realise that Utopia does not and never will be a reality.