OK, I know that the poppy is just a symbol and we should regard it as such when we give our donations. And I know they are all made by disabled people or relatives of war victims. And I know the BL want to minimise costs.
But the past few years we have seen the poppy degenerate into a couple of miserable bits of thin paper that fall out of your coat or button hole in a slight breeze. I'm already on my third this year.
I remember when there were different sorts of poppy and you could make different donations for each. They really looked as though they were hand crafted instead of machine stamped.
Next year I should think the H&S lobby will have outlawed pins and we'll have an even cheaper and nastier self-adhesive poppy badge.
Originally posted by Anonimouse: Next year I should think the H&S lobby will have outlawed pins and we'll have an even cheaper and nastier self-adhesive poppy badge.
This year will see new stick-on and plastic-stemmed poppies leaving Poppyscotland's Edinburgh factory, with the sharp pin replaced for "health and safety and cost-saving measures".
I did hate it at school when you ran the danger of being jabbed for the whole of Novemeber - character building and all that
For some years an elderly veteran was wheeled out to sell poppies in the foyer of our supermarket. It obviously gave him great pleasure to talk to people. About two years before he died I asked him if the Haigh fund had ever helped him, he said no. I began asking around, veterans and relatives of those long gone, if they had recieved help. The answer was always the same, No.
My supermarket is selling poppies without pins-I had to supply my own. I didn't ask but one might assume health and safety issues? Possible litigation? Is it now not a crime to kill patients with avoidable hospital infections but pins are considered too dangerous for the public to use and so outlawed?
Originally posted by mankle: For some years an elderly veteran was wheeled out to sell poppies in the foyer of our supermarket. It obviously gave him great pleasure to talk to people. About two years before he died I asked him if the Haigh fund had ever helped him, he said no. I began asking around, veterans and relatives of those long gone, if they had recieved help. The answer was always the same, No.
I met an old veteran (wearing his medals) the other week, he was sitting on the bench in town. I sat and talked with him for, oh I dunno, 20 minutes or so. I really enjoyed chatting with him, and I think he felt the same
My dad was in WW2, went from France to Germany. He was shot in the leg in Holland and picked up by the Americans. He was taken to a American hospital were he enjoy a five star fortnight. I shall go as I always do to the rememberance service at our cenotaph, there to pay homage and remember those who gave their lives, but I will not buy a poppy.
Poppies were made by disabled people in the RBLI (Royal British Legion Institute). The poppies themselves represented the Haig Foundation, a charity set up by Lord Haig, to help, assist and support WW1 Veterans who suffered disability and poverty after The Great War. The whole point of the poppy is to "remember"...Those that gave their lives for their Country...at a time when that Country did s0d all for them!!! When I wear my poppy, in the run-up to Remembrance Sunday...I just think of the wasted lives and the true futility of war. 2 years ago, I did my pilgramage to the Battlefields of France...and it left me cold! Remembering how millions of working people went to their deaths...For a Country that allows a Royal Mail Executive gets a bonus of £1.8m after the Company presides over losses that range into millions. A person born in 1900, would live to see a War that destroyed a generation...live to see a Government shrink from its "Land fit for heroes"...then undergo a recession, in which welfare was placed in the hands of charity - and yep...The Work House's were still in place...Then another War, but this time, the promise of a fairer deal for ordinary people was promised in the fight against fascism.
The Welfare System ..a foundation stone on which to build the New Jerusalem...then suffered the usual cuts/cut-backs/pragmatic management that snuffed out the idealism of a Country truly marching to the hills of progress, where poverty could be expelled from a Nations memory.
Yeah...The last rites were presided over that welfare system with the victory of Thatcherism, that has planted the ever growing crop of greed, resentment, poverty and inequality that we still linger on in our own times.
Yep..Wear your poppy with pride...Wear it as successive generations have smashed and obliterated the sacrifice that those (Majority) Working class men made, as they emerged from their Industrial hovels to make World "Safe For Democracy"...Sacrificed - Not for a better World...but for a World, where working people are still a mere after-thought. Yep...I remember and I will continue to do so, and it certainly doesn't take the quality or workmanship of a poppy to do it!!!
Yep..Wear your poppy with pride...Wear it as successive generations have smashed and obliterated the sacrifice that those (Majority) Working class men made, as they emerged from their Industrial hovels to make World "Safe For Democracy"...Sacrificed - Not for a better World...but for a World, where working people are still a mere after-thought. Yep...I remember and I will continue to do so, and it certainly doesn't take the quality or workmanship of a poppy to do it!!!
Originally posted by NWK: A person born in 1900, would live to see a War that destroyed a generation...live to see a Government shrink from its "Land fit for heroes"...then undergo a recession, in which welfare was placed in the hands of charity - and yep...The Work House's were still in place...Then another War, but this time, the promise of a fairer deal for ordinary people was promised in the fight against fascism.
Although I don't really share your general political views, I have to say that you are spot on about the lost generations to two WW. It is unimaginable to me what it must have been like in these two WW, and the effect they had in every single continent, and on an entire generation in the UK.
I value the fact that we have this kind of rememberance. It forces me to think outside my normal hectic, enclosed life and realise that my blessings are numerous and varied.
I am reduced to asking a neighbour for a pin! I'm sure there used to be pins with the poppy, and with no button holes on my coat, studs instead, life gets very complicated.
As a lad in the 60s I used to wonder about the emphasis that was placed on Remembrance Day and the poppies. It was not something that hit me until I was older. My parents in common I think with others of their generation did not dwell on the war, they just wanted to remember the people who had given their lives so that we could enjoy the fruits of post war prosperity.
They were extremely tolerant of youth being involved in CND and anti-Vietnam demonstrations because they knew first hand what war was about even though they were generally fearful of communist intentions. It only really struck me later that in 1960 we were just 15 years beyond the end of WW2.
The making of the poppies was originally a way of making disabled ex-servicemen feel useful. Of course at that time (late 1920s) manual work was in short supply for the able bodied let alone the disabled. The Haig fund wasn't really a charity for all ex-service personnel, it was the means of keeping the factory going.
My point in posting the thread was simply that the poppies themselves have become such poor quality that they fail to reflect the importance of the occasion. I appreciate that in days past there was always the danger of some people sporting big expensive poppies for the snob value so I wouldn't advocate that again. But there ought to be an way of making them better and easier to wear that doesn't cost the earth. I think it would be a bit more respectful.
I took a close up picture of a bright red poppy which is now proudly on display on my lap top wallpaper. Does that count or is it just about the money?
I dont give to charity as a matter of principle. If our war vets need support then they should get it - from all of us through state support and general taxation, not just from the poor council families who give more to charity than the wealthy because they have a better understanding of poverty and sacrifice.
I always getonbe and will do so again this year. And a red one rather than a white one. Because I recognise that whilst war is always ugly it is occasionally necessary. (The war in Iraq being an ugly and unfortunately not isolated exception).
The way our soldiers are treated after war is suickeningly bad.
Originally posted by rothgar: I am reduced to asking a neighbour for a pin! I'm sure there used to be pins with the poppy, and with no button holes on my coat, studs instead, life gets very complicated.
My poppy came with a pin. I've never yet bought a poppy without a pin.
