Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

Religious group calls for white remembrance poppy



Here we go again, the long established British Legions Red Poppy should not be worn, it should be a White Poppy according to one so called 'religious' group.

Now I don't know about you but I always thought that the Red Poppy and the British Legion, was there to assist the wounded and their families from the many conflicts that we have and still are involved with. They haven't at any time tried to imply 'redemption of any form through war'.
The only political axe they wield is for the benefit of those servicemen, (and women), that have and are suffering because of war.

Whereas I suspect that some political significance can be gleened behind the 'White Poppy'.

What about the donations people make, almost everyone will buy and wear a Red Poppy with Pride, because they know and trust the British legion will be using the money collected for the benefit of the wounded.

Where will the funds raised by the White Poppy go?

I don't know but I suspect it won't be for anything to do with the ex-service people.

If you are out there and feel that war isn't the best thing for mankind that is fair enough, the majority of sane people will agree with you, but please don't try to hijack a symbol that has brought hope and relief to many a poor soul that otherwise would have been left to struggle after doing what they considered to be their duty and deserve all the help they can get.
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch...toms/woody.jpg

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

It will always be a Red Poppy for me because I’m Honouring the fallen and self sacrifice of people in War, including those who have fallen in the past few weeks and days, not the theology of Christian Values.

The Motto of the Royal British Legion is “Service not self” so long may it stay that way.

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

Now if only the people who died in concentration camps could have seen that what was happening to them was 'non violent sacrifice' I'm sure it would have given them solace.

What a load of bunkum.

My RED poppy will be worn with pride, for my Grandad was killed in Normandy aged twenty two and never got to see my Mum, and gave his life for the freedoms we enjoy today, as well as the thousands of others who have fought for democracy.

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

I were one for the reason that others wear them ie to honour the fallan soldiers of all wars who paid the ultimate price for what we have. I will be at the Rememberance Service at the Zetland Park Memorial with my daughter attired with our poppies as I have done for many years (my Daughters 3rd).

Hate to think what the members of the Accrington branch of the Legion would have to say about some of the nonesense being spewed. Or is this the bl***y PC brigade again?

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

Having done work for the Royal British Legion for a few years, the thought of a white poppy makes my blood boil. My grandfather was gased during the first world war and died when he was just 34, My father was wounded in the second world war. The people trying to highjack the poppy do not get the point, The red poppy is i sign of rememberance for those would gave their lives in the two wars and other conflicts, so that we can live in the society we do today, the money raised with the sale of the poppy also goes to support exsevice men and women and their dependants, so as far as i'm concerned they can stick the whit poppy in the nearest bin, the only place far them

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

This really makes me angry. The British Legion have an enormous struggle every year to raise the money that they require to be able to help all the ex-service men & women. I know where i'd like to stick their white poppies, & it wouldn't be in the bin.

Poppy Appeal

The Royal British Legion - Home

Don't forget that you can download a poppy onto your mobile phone.

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

It seems to me that there's nothing sacred, these people have nothing better to think about, I give them a two finger salute!!

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

How sad that such a solemn occasion should be besmirched by this contemptible individual attempting to garner cheap publicity for his previously unheard-of organisation. What he fails to realise is that he has the freedom to do this because so many brave men and women ignored his precious principles and DID resist Hitler - and other enemies - by military means.

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

Perhaps Jonathan Bartley would allow a few of us the chance to PIN his poppy on for him :mad:

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

The Veterans of Foreign Wars here in the USA always uses RED poppies to raise funds for veterans in need. As far as I am aware, no one over here is proposing white poppies.

The only proper response to this nonsense is to proudly wear your red poppy - and give a bit more than previously!

BTW, my grandfather enlisted in the 15th Engineers in WWI, the group whose proud motto became "First to England."

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

I’ve never seen a white poppy growing in a field.

However the RED POPPY does not glorify war. It is just a token of remembrance for those who have fallen (civilian and servicmen alike) in conflicts the world over since 1914. There is no class, colour or creed distinction.

It surprises me to discover that the Church of England newspaper the Church Times actually accepted the article for publication. What were they thinking of?

I know one thing – if I ever see anyone selling white poppies I will make my point to the best of my ability.

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

Well said

This is the second thing, I've found, that I agree with jambutty

What's next?

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

You'll be telling us next that both you and he are in the Rupert Bear Fan Club, now that would be too freaky.:D

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

Well, according a news report recently, some popppy sellers are not allowed to give out a pin with the poppy to avoid any injury to donor !! Health and Safety like ... how much damage can you do with a pin anyway?

Best to ignore these 'white poppy' suggestions .. I am, as most of us will :p
Just makes a good story, and nobody will listen.

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

It's a "weapon of mass destruction" ask Collin Powell.

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

This is spiralling out of control when muppets like Jonathon Bartley are spouting forth their drivel. :(

Having said that, perhaps he will recognise that many British servicemen died and were wounded defending our country so that we do have the right to free speech. I believe he has abused this right.

If I were approached by a vendor of the white poppies, I would politely ask them to return them to Mr Bartley, with the instruction to shove 'em where the sun don't shine! :mad:

Will the last sensible person left in this country please switch out the lights when they leave.

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

If Mr Jonathon Bartley wants to sell white poppies then he had better start at the Houses of Parliment as there are bound to be several hundred bods in there that would be happy to wear them. I will stick to the red one and if offered a white one will find a better use for it.

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

The white poppy is a complete nonsense. How dare this man say that wearing a red poppy "glorifies war"? When the poppies, all red, grew on the fields that had been trenches in WW1 they grew where thousands of lives had been lost so he could live. This stupid man didn't sound old enough to have any connection with the world wars and is probably too thick to appreciate the lives lost in various conflicts since then.

No soldier, sailor or airman goes to war for the glory of it but to serve his country. In the world wars, WW2 in particular, many had no choice, when the call-up papers arrived they had to go. They didn't want to die, they didn't want to kill, they had to fight for our country and we should always be thankful that they did because the alternative to defeating Nazi Germany is too horrific to contemplate.

It's because of what they sacrificed that this man has the freedom to wear his silly white poppy. That he wants to do so is his business but to speak, publicly, against the sentiment behind the red poppy is an insult to all those who made it possible for him to be born in a free world.

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

I bought 2 big RED poppies ,from the lady standing outside Woolies in Cleveleys ,, That lady has stood there for a footnight for hours and hours....same last year.

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

I will always wear a red poppy with pride. My uncle died in the 2nd world war and ive found his grave site on the Commonwealth Graves website. We have a photo of him sat there in his uniform. My brother has his medals somewhere. Wearing a red poppy is in rememberance of him and a way of giving thanks to all the people who have fought in wars through the years. The Royal British Legion do sterling work helping ex soldiers and navy and airforce personnel so why not support them? They fought for us so why cant we give something back to them when they need it?

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

The unfortunate thing is that this is now turning out to be a bandwagon which any third-rate nonentity who wants a little easy publicity can jump onto. Cue Jon Snow, channel 4 newsreader, who will not wear a poppy on screen because he thinks it's making a statement and, furthermore, he will not bow to "poppy fascism". I would have thought that not wearing a poppy made more of a statement and perhaps this buffoon should reflect that he would now be bowing to real fascism if it were not for the brave men and women whose memory he is currently cheapening. Still, I suppose that when your only talent is reading from an autocue, you've got to make your mark somehow.

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

For those who haven't been out or found a poppy seller try this;

This year, the Legion is offering you a different way to give to the Poppy Appeal! By texting the word POPPY to 85099, you can download one of three Poppy images to your mobile phone in return for a donation of £1.50

Poppy Appeal

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

I tried that but I couldn't get mine :(

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

This white poppy thing is just a crass way of trying to muscle in on the British Legion turf and take some of the revenue off them for themselves.

If I come across a white poppy seller I won’t be as polite as you Sparkologist.

As for Jon Snow, well he has the hard won right to decide for himself whether to wear a poppy or not. However his reasons for not wearing one besmirch the names of those who died preserving his freedom to choose. Like my dad.

He served in the First World War from August 1914 until some time in 1921 with the 5th East Lancs Battery, Royal Field Artillery, 1st East Lancs Brigade. He got wounded several times (four I believe) and went on to help the Russians sort out their problems after WWI ended. At the outbreak of WWII he was in Poland as a civilian textile machinery fitter together with my mother, brother and me. The Germans captured us as they overran Poland and he being a British male of fighting age spent the war years in a concentration camp. He died only 3 years after release. My mother spent 6 months in a German prison and my brother and me were incarcerated in a Kindergarten for that time.

As my garden is a wilderness and likely to remain so, last year I sowed some poppy seeds. Sadly none sprouted but come next spring I will try again.

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

May it always be the red poppy! I hail from a long line of Royal Artillery gunners, (traced back 165 years so far), and I proudly bear the name of the patron saint of the Royal Artillery, (and gunners everywhere). This weekend, I'll be honoring them, as well as both grandads, (WWI), and other relatives and in-laws who served in WWII. Also my wonderful husband who took a break from college back in the '60's and volunteered to serve three tours of duty in Viet Nam. Bless them all.

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

Bless ‘em all,
Bless ‘em all,
The long and the short and the tall,
You’ll get no promotion this side of the ocean,
So cheer up my lads bless ‘em all.

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old,
Age shall not wither them nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We shall remember them.

Rest in Peace.

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

How many people are watching the Festival of Remembrance on BBC 1? I always watched it with my mum every year without fail. Im watching it now.

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

I used to watch the festival of remembrance with my Mum & Dad. We usually watch it but we have been watching an archaeological dig about the trenches tonight.
I always wear my poppy with pride.

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

Dispite the fact that the wind of the water could cut you in half me and my daughter wore ours and were at the service. I was surprised though how few kids were there.

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

Re: Wear Your RED Poppy With Pride
 

IN FLANDERS FIELDS.
In Flanders field the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.


We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields. ~~By Major John McCrae, May 1915.~~