No poppy thread this year??

Francie banned from CA. You just don’t get many 18 hour a day merchants anymore.

They don’t make SF apologists like they used to… or in the same qauntity…

Still plenty of non far right knuckle draggers that wear the poppy.

Although I agree that Tommy Robinson and co dont help in that regard.

I think the whole event has been overshadowed by the Palestinian marches in London this year.

Why thankfully, if I can ask?

Because of the association now with the far right?

I was in a couple of supermarkets in the North of England over the last few days.

The mild mannered middle class people I spoke to on their little stalls with badges and poppies for sale were anything but far right.

The same British army (WW1) that was blowing Dublin city centre to bits and murdering Irish civilians at the time? at least there was a certain logic of Ukrainians joining the SS, enemy of my enemy and all that. Just shows how people can be manipulated , if young men just wanted excitement the IRA was probably recruiting at the time.

Maybe someone forgot to update the bots on what to be upset about today.

There's a white poppy thing going on over there now, to cover losses on all sides. I don't know where the money goes though.

I've always been of the opinion that the defence budget should fund whatever the poppy charity funds, and that there shouldn't be a need for charity.

Governments did after all sent people off to get killed and wounded on their behalf.

And what better way to remember WWI than fundraise for the terrorists of Bloody Sunday, Ballymurphy, Dublin and Monaghan - anyone who thinks it goes to the descendents of WWI soldiers in Ireland is merely deluded

Worth remembering, the Brits refused to pay the pensions of the above

Poppy is nothing more than a British imperialist symbol, their version of the swastika, always was

Poppy watch on twitter is always good at this time of year for the sheer lunacy of what goes on over the water

Nobody allowed on British TV shows atm without one it seems.

Recent photos of Charlie the third not wearing a poppy might leave him suffering the same fate as Charlie the first. Perhaps he's had enough of the poppy BS as well? 😛

Spotted Roy Keane and Shay Given wearing them recently so yeah could be a production stipulation now. Mental of thats the case.

Did you really 'lol' or 'lamo' ?

What part of British Imperalism did you miss ?

(My own Grandfather served in the Connaught Rangers in Flanders Fields at the tender age of 15)

Exactly.

You'll find it was around the time of the illegal Iraq invasion, that the spin war started as well, and they got it into the nations psyche that you HAD to wear a poppy or else you were against the war effort.

Then you HAD to wear one to appear on tv.

Then it wasn't just for a week around Armistice Day, it became all of November. Then certain channels or presenters wanted to be the first to be seen wearing it, so it began to appear in October.

It's been marketed really well, so much so that any public figure who refuses to wear one us vilified and cancelled. So for fear, 99% go along with it. I would have thought someone like Keano would have had more backbone, but perhaps he's happy enough to don one?

Admittedly, there seems to be no controversy around it this year. Probably because the slaughter in Gaza is making so much of the news.

The women presenting Big Brother live evictions last night had her poppy on the side of her outfit at the beginning of last nights show. She was out after the first ad break with it moved to the front of her dress. Someone must have highlighted that it wasn’t very visible. It’s a ridiculous state of affairs over there these days.

I would suggest too that much of British politics and the media has moved further to the right in the last decade or so and seem to interpret the poppy as some sort of symbol for right wing British / English nationalism (even if many people are still wearing it for the correct reasons).

I've never understood when people say "sure many Irish people died". Just because something has a link to Ireland doesn't mean you have to support or honour it. By that logic you should be wearing a republican Easter Lilly.

The relations are quite distant anyway, I have 3 great great uncles who died in WW1. It is interesting to read information about them but I don't feel emotional about people who died before my grandfather was even born. I've never worn a poppy nor has anyone in my family.