How do you feel about poppy wearing?

My mother, who lived through WW2, always said ex-servicemen and women should not have to depend on charities like poppy sales and that their needs should be fully met from taxation. I agree with that view. In the USA there is a Veterans' Administration which supports ex-servicemen and women.

Never a waste of time for you Volver dear!🤣🤣🤣

Thank you to biglouis and everyone else posting on this thread. It has reminded me to donate to the peace poppy and one of the charities that the purple poppy supports. I've already bought (and lost!) a red poppy, so won't be wearing any poppies this year.

Mollygo

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!

Barking up the wrong tree by trying to pick a fight this time Mollygo.

I can't tell the difference between the two groups you mention but you will see in my post that I have made a comment on the people who only wear a poppy to meet some broadcaster's rule. A rule which is in place to satisfy the requirement that some people have, that everyone should wear, not only a poppy, but a poppy they approve of.

And I'm afraid a reporter wearing one while reporting on a conference in a foreign country, does make me suspicious of their motives, which may of course be completely blameless. And I do wonder about the person who hastily finds and dons a poppy when he's being interviewed in front of millions, but doesn't see the need when he's outside. Wearing the same clothes, a few minutes earlier.

We agree about people not having the right to make judgements on those who do wear them. Which is why my earlier post opened with I believe anyone who wants to wear one should. Any anyone who doesn't wear one should be allowed that choice too.

Baggs,
This (these judgments of yours, Mon) may be true, but how would anyone know.
Yes!!! How would anyone know?
Exactly what I said about the judgement of those on TV.

Namsnanny

White poppy doesn't need to be worn or associated with the red one though.

A Peace poppy is a good idea, provided the funds go to a good cause.

But in competition? In November?
They stand for different things ideologically.

Namsnanny Are you saying those women who were the ones who lost most in WW1 had no right to make their own poppy and present them to remember what had happened?
White poppies also stand for the civilians killed and more civilians die in wars now than military personnel, so arguably they are more about remembrance than the red.
They certainly have their place

I don’t think virtue signalling enters the minds of anyone here. I have certainly never heard of it in relation to wearing a poppy. Very few do wear them here because we are such a diverse community half of the people round here would have no clue what it even means.

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.

This (these judgments of yours, Mon) may be true, but how would anyone know? I actually forgot about poppies for remembrance this year because I have other rather grave things on my mind right now, but that doesn't mean I didn't remember on the day, nor that I think Remembrance shouldn't be a Thing in our calendar, nor that I didn't think of members of my own family who were affected by the World Wars, nor that I judged anyone on the poppy front at all.

Thinking about it now, it has just occurred to me that no-one at work wore a poppy. I'd dare anyone to make a judgment about that. we don't know the whys and wherefores of other people's lives.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Plus what V says.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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."

I wear a poppy out of respect.

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 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.

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