Sorry, are you talking about advocates of gay marriage or those who oppose it? Or are you simply intent on following me around the forum trying to disrupt the discussion?

and many ex servicemen being supported for helping to maintain tyranny around the World by stopping countries having IndependenceIndonesia, Kenya, Malaya, Aden etc etc.

The issue about poppy day and why it is now de rigeur to have one is that 10 years ago it was very much about WW1 and WW2.

It was about the evils of war.

Now it is about , " our troops", , " our brave heroes in Afghanistan". The wearing of the poppy is now not about remembering those who have died but about those who are fighting and is used to drum up nationalistic support for much less popular wars than WW2 was.

We'd also be f***ed if we didn't have nurses/doctors/teachers/bus drivers/train drivers/etc volunteering too.....The fact is that the modern day soldier volunteers and while they do an admirable job, they shouldn't be hoisted onto some pedestal as some sort of martyr.

By all means, remember the fallen of ALL wars, but don't make the general public feel guilty for being cynical about some of the conflicts that our forces are embroiled in.

Seconded.

I do not often wear a poppy. I have always seen it as something that has been hijacked by the establishment to glorify war. I know that's not what it is supposed to be about but that's how it has usually seemed to me.

Find out which unit they were from and ping the CO an e mail. It will probably achieve more than moaning on RL Fans.

Further, go and post the same complaint on the Army Rumours Service. Be sure to link us to the thread.

It doesn't matter what idiots try and hijack it, the poppy is about remembering fallen servicemen and women (and for the other emergency services as well) and those who choose to wear it should try and remember this, rather than not wear one for any other reason.

Whilst it is personal choice to wear or not wear a poppy, I don't think doing something for a few days a year in support of those who give their lives so that we have said personal choice is such a hard ship.

Most of those claiming it as personal choice would be the first to moan if we were governed like places such as China and Korea.

Well ya learns something new every day.



Personally, I dislike a lot of aspects about how it's presented these days – the seeming competitiveness to wear one earlier than ever or bigger than anyone else; launching appeals with pop stars seems at odds with remembering war dead ... etc.

So while I do choose to buy and wear one, it is done late and only for a day or two. And while I don't personally choose to buy a white poppy because I do not personally believe that, however nice, pacifism is always possible (see 1939), I do personally think of the red poppy as representing all the war dead, and not simply those from one side.

But those are my choices.

Just seen: [url=http://alt.adrianshort.co.uk/blog/2011/11/10/remembering-remembrance/there's a good piece here.[/url

Oh, and now seen [url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9671394/Man-arrested-for-posting-image-of-burning-poppy-on-Twitter.htmlthis[/url. Man arrested for posting image of burning poppy (a paper one) online.

That offends me. Can we have the Telegraph editor and the Kent Chief Constable arrested too?

I don't wear a poppy and never have done.