Rumours that James McLean has been sent home by Wigan for refusing to wear a poppy.
This poppy shit is getting out of hand. Bunch of squaddies had to sit in the cheap stand at Middlesbrough yesterday and watch those cunts for ninety minutes. Iâd say they are reconsidering the decision to enlist now.
Legend
What a great guy. A FĂor Gael, standing up for Ireland and refusing to bow to jingoistic and imperialist sentiment.
Shane Long didnt wear a poppy yesterday
.
Yes, he did. I can exclusively reveal that he changed jersey at half time. The second jersey didnât have a poppy embroidered into it but the first half one did.
The photo I saw didnt show one, shame on me for assuming, thank you for that Bandage mate.
Youâre welcome, pal. Feel free to award me an informative rating.
â@Ciaran_O: Was told to keep an eye open when James McClean went to Wigan, of all places, given the number of locals with military service.â
[quote=âPeter G, post: 859043, member: 1758â]This letter has swung me back to being resolute in my dislike of the poppy. I had waivered over to the âAh sure what harm crowdâ but now Iâm back in the camp.
Harry Leslie Smith
Poppies
âCome 2014 when the government marks the beginning of the first world war I will declare myself a conscientious objector.â
Over the last 10 years the sepia tone of November has become blood-soaked with paper poppies festooning the lapels of our politicians, newsreaders and business leaders. The most fortunate in our society have turned the solemnity of remembrance for fallen soldiers in ancient wars into a justification for our most recent armed conflicts. [B]The American civil warâs General Sherman once said that âwar is hellâ, but unfortunately todayâs politicians in Britain use past wars to bolster our flagging belief in national austerity or to compel us to surrender our rights as citizens, in the name of the public good.
Still, this year I shall wear the poppy as I have done for many years. I wear it because I am from that last generation who remember a war that encompassed the entire world. I wear the poppy because I can recall when Britain was actually threatened with a real invasion and how its citizens stood at the ready to defend her shores. But most importantly, I wear the poppy to commemorate those of my childhood friends and comrades who did not survive the second world war and those who came home physically and emotionally wounded from horrific battles that no poet or journalist could describe.
However, I am afraid it will be the last time that I will bear witness to those soldiers, airmen and sailors who are no more, at my local cenotaph. From now on, I will lament their passing in private because my despair is for those who live in this present world. [B]I will no longer allow my obligation as a veteran to remember those who died in the great wars to be co-opted by current or former politicians to justify our folly in Iraq, our morally dubious war on terror and our elimination of oneâs right to privacy.
Come 2014 when the government marks the beginning of the first world war with quotes from Rupert Brooke, Rudyard Kipling and other great jingoists from our past empire, I will declare myself a conscientious objector. We must remember that the historical past of this country is not like an episode of Downton Abbey where the rich are portrayed as thoughtful, benevolent masters to poor folk who need the guiding hand of the ruling classes to live a proper life.
I can tell you it didnât happen that way because I was born nine years after the first world war began. I can attest that life for most people was spent in abject poverty where one laboured under brutal working conditions for little pay and lived in houses not fit to kennel a dog today. We must remember that the war was fought by the working classes who comprised 80% of Britainâs population in 1913.
This is why I find that the governmentâs intention to spend ÂŁ50m to dress the slaughter of close to a million British soldiers in the 1914-18 conflict as a fight for freedom and democracy profane. Too many of the dead, from that horrendous war, didnât know real freedom because they were poor and were never truly represented by their members of parliament.
My uncle and many of my relatives died in that war and they werenât officers or NCOs; they were simple Tommies. They were like the hundreds of thousands of other boys who were sent to their slaughter by a government that didnât care to represent their citizens if they were working poor and under-educated. [B]My family members took the kingâs shilling because they had little choice, whereas many others from similar economic backgrounds were strong-armed into enlisting by war propaganda or press-ganged into military service by their employers.
For many of you 1914 probably seems like a long time ago but Iâll be 91 next year, so it feels recent. Today, we have allowed monolithic corporate institutions to set our national agenda. We have allowed vitriol to replace earnest debate and we have somehow deluded ourselves into thinking that wealth is wisdom. But by far the worst error we have made as a people is to think ourselves as taxpayers first and citizens second.
Next year, I wonât wear the poppy but I will until my last breath remember the past and the struggles my generation made to build this country into a civilised state for the working and middle classes. If we are to survive as a progressive nation we have to start tending to our living because the wounded: our poor, our underemployed youth, our hard-pressed middle class and our struggling seniors shouldnât be left to die on the battleground of modern life.
[/B][/B][/B][/quote]
This man is a war criminal and a cunt. Expect him to join Martin oâneills back room team.
Itâs gone completely fucking weird over there with the poppies in the last few years. It used to be an optional thing, youâd see it and think fair enough thatâs what they do. But now it has become a machine. Not to wear a poppy seems to be treason and people of all walks of life are being bullied into it. They talk about remembrance but itâs all about fooling themselves that they are still a military power. Squaddies are getting their P45s almost every week.
Agree. I used to think it bizarre how militaristic the USA was when I visited there but now we have this shit on our own doorstep.
There was a disgusting stage managed reunion between a little girl and her father at some festival of remembrance thing this weekend. Kid in the choir not knowing that her father was about to walk in the door. Of course he was a desk warrior in the Seychelles. No chance it was a squaddie dodging IEDs they used.
A saw a few folk wearing these in the Limerick market Saturday and on the streets of Dublin yesterday⌠
In Dublin it would be tourists over for the weekend
In Limerick its soup takers. Remember ,people from Limerick are servile, they surrendered to Cromwell
[quote=âThe Wild Colonial Bhoy, post: 859280, member: 80â]In Dublin it would be tourists over for the weekend
In Limerick its soup takers. Remember ,people from Limerick are servile, they surrendered to Cromwell[/quote]
Pal, the pale was the seat of British control for over 800 years. It never had to surrender because it was always British.
And more dubs support the poppy per capita than any where else in the world⌠They stick it in their arm rather than their chest.
[quote=âMark Renton, post: 859282, member: 1796â]Pal, the pale was the seat of British control for over 800 years. It never had to surrender because it was always British.
And more dubs support the poppy per capita than any where else in the world⌠They stick it in their arm rather than their chest tho[/quote]
Support the troops