How do you feel about poppy wearing?

I also prefer both, I couldn't get a white poppy this year either. Quakers usually sell them but we didn't get any.

Poppies sold, the money should go to all affected by conflict.

I am wearing a red poppy and also a purple poppy in memory of the animals who gave their lives. I think it is important that we remember. I don’t see this as glorifying war.

St Dunstans (which is an offshoot charity of the British Legion specialising in blind and partially sighted veterans) is one of my regular charities. They did a lot for my parents in later life and fought for my father to get a war pension which was initially refused him. However I dont think its necessary to wear a poppy to support these causes. I would never castigate someone for wearing or not wearing one.

So far as the TV is concerned it has become yet another means of virtue signalling when news presenters or personalities feel they cannot appear without one. Rather like one news reader who was slammed for wearing a burgundy tie rather than a black one when the queen died. How petty.

What charities people to support (or otherwise) is a very personal matter.

I don't feel I need to wear anything to "prove" I am remembering the dead, either the countless millions I will never know, or the ones I knew personally from more recent conflicts.

A simple poppy is fine, although mine would be white if I wore one. I dislike how red poppies have almost become a fashion statement at this time of year. There seem to be many opportunities to buy yet more plastic. I even saw a dog with a plastic poppy on its collar yesterday, and have seen large ones stuck on cars and lorries. Just stop all this posturing nonsense.

But poppies on cars or lorries or even on dogs' collars all raise money for charities like the RBL, so what's the harm in them?

HettyBetty

I don't feel I need to wear anything to "prove" I am remembering the dead, either the countless millions I will never know, or the ones I knew personally from more recent conflicts.

A simple poppy is fine, although mine would be white if I wore one. I dislike how red poppies have almost become a fashion statement at this time of year. There seem to be many opportunities to buy yet more plastic. I even saw a dog with a plastic poppy on its collar yesterday, and have seen large ones stuck on cars and lorries. Just stop all this posturing nonsense.

A little harsh, the sale of white poppies would not go to the RBL, the Peace Pledge charity has campaigns that are anti military.
I have a little red RBL poppy badge that comes out every year, I just make a donation.

I wear a red poppy and a white poppy entwined

I do not wish to glorify war of any sort - and feel that (whether or not it is deliberate), that is exactly what the red poppy does. WW1 was purely a war fought between the big nations for markets, nothing to do with protecting any freedoms, except to make huge profits. In all wars the only real beneficeries are the arms manufacturers.
Whereas WW11 may have been slightly different it was largely caused by the over punitive reparations against germany following WW1.

The far too many wars that have been in place in the world throughout all my eighty plus years - have no remance, no glory and have involved death and degradation of more civilians that military personnel.

I wear a white poppy (from Peace Pledge Union), to commemorate ALL those deaths in war, from all nations, etc. I encourage people to ask me why I am wearing this, have never been hassled about it, and would really like to see more and more pople wearing thse in future - and saying NO to war.

HettyBetty, my two dogs will be wearing purple poppies on their collars this weekend. I’ll wear red - neither of these are fashion statements

I do actually agree with you. I just don't think that the war in Iraq (weapons of mass destruction) or that in Afghanistan (revenge for 9/11) fall into this category. There was an alternative and the damage done by going to war has been far reaching

Whatever the rights or wrongs of a particular conflict, I think our armed forces personnel need our support.
For this reason we support the Royal British Legion.

I believe anyone who wants to wear one should. Any anyone who doesn't wear one should be allowed that choice too.

The BBC reporter in Egypt for COP was sporting his poppy last night. The manager of some sports team, I didn't notice which, had put on his poppy between being in the training ground and appearing in a TV interview. I find it hard to believe that in such cases, the wearers were struck by a pressing need to display their support for the RBL but were instead responding to the BBC's requirement to wear the poppy to keep the viewing public happy.

I wear a poppy out of respect.

Hear, hear, V. I find any pressure to show one's virtuousness on any subject is nauseating. That said, I think the massive (and unmassive) poppy displays of recent years are great. They are sufficiently non-personal to fit with Alexander Pope's idea: "Do good by stealth and blush to find it fame."

Baggs

Hear, hear, V. I find any pressure to show one's virtuousness on any subject is nauseating. That said, I think the massive (and unmassive) poppy displays of recent years are great. They are sufficiently non-personal to fit with Alexander Pope's idea: "Do good by stealth and blush to find it fame."

Re First sentence, who on earth has done that? The OP was clearly asking how people feel on one issue, and many responded with exactly that.

boheminan- glad to read I am not the only one.

I have always worn a poppy, my mothers first husband was killed in El Alamein a week after they were married, my Grandfather was injured 3 times in WW1 and sent back to the front each time.
I wear it out of respect for those who serve and are still serving.

As for saying that the wars are money making exercises, they might well have been, for the Germans. IMO they were fought to stop us being taken over by said Germans. For which I am grateful and so I wear a poppy.

Re First sentence, who on earth has done that?

All the people on TV and elsewhere who have suddenly found an overwhelming desire to wear a poppy when their producer tells them to. That's how I feel on the issue.

Re First sentence, who on earth has done that?

FleurP, the Scout Association. you don't really think I'd mention pressure if I hadn't personally felt it exercised on Cub Scouts, do you?

Plus what V says.

For those castigating me for my post above, you seem to unaware thar it is perfectly possible to donate to the RBL or other relevant cause without having to put a poppy on your coat or your dog to prove it. These people fought for our country, they did not fight for plastic tat. And yes, I know some poppies are not plastic.

I always buy and wear a Poppy. I was raised by my grandmother who lost her father in WW1. He's death had a profound effect on her for the rest of her life, so I wear the Poppy to show respect for those who sacrificed so much and for those who were left behind.

Wow! All the people on TV and elsewhere who have suddenly found an overwhelming desire to wear a poppy when their producer tells them to do so.
You can tell the difference between those you mention and all those who choose to wear one for their own personal reasons? 🤣🤣🤣
Virtue signalling can also be done by not wearing a red poppy because you think “it glorifies war” or by giving yourself the right to make judgements on others for wearing them.
I do hope I don’t get banned for this!

Poppy Day has a special significance for us this November. DH’s uncle was posted as Missing in Action during WW2.

We discovered earlier this year that he was killed when his plane came down and he was buried in a Commonwealth war grave in N Africa.

Sadly there is no one alive now who remembers him but my DH has always heard stories about him and we have some photos and mementoes of his life so he is not forgotten altogether.

60 - 70 years ago, when I was at school, the prefects would be sent round to sell poppies. We did not have to simply make a donation. The three kinds of poppy each had a price. I'm not sure if the top price for the biggest was 6d or 1/-. The smallest and cheapest (without a leaf!) was either 3d or a penny. Such class distinction. Did we ever question it or did our parents? I don't know but am very glad that such an invidious system died out and now we all wear the same kind of poppy and give as much - or as little - as we can afford. In those days, not so long after the war, nobody questioned the need to wear our poppy.

No need to buy a plastic poppy. The one I wear is hand made in felt by a local charity. I recycle it each year and send a donation direct to the British legion. As well as my two great uncles lost in WW1 I think of my poor great uncle who was lucky to survive a Japanese concentration camp but never really recovered. So many tragic lives to remember and mark. Nothing to glorify.

Many decades ago when several of us from school were attending confirmation classes* so had to go to Sunday Evensong, I remember a very young clergyman - probably the curate - preaching about how poppies glorified war, so it was shameful to wear one.
Several of the congregation walked out in disgust.

*we weren’t a religious family - it was more of a social thing, meeting up with school friends on an otherwise terminally boring (in those days) Sunday.