Poppy season

Wily Trout

Neather

Frank Sutton

I notice that von Rompuy, the EU's unelected president, chose this date to proclaim that Euroscepticism leads to war - tasteless timing for a naive notion.

Chuck Unsworth

11:00. Stood beside the memorial in the pouring rain at this morning with the old boys (and old girls). Padre soaked to the skin, read the prayers etc. Surprising, maybe saddening, how many younger people were also there. Two Standard Bearers battling the wind and rain. We'll be back there on Sunday for the Parade and March Past.

Then back home to dry out and listen to 'students' complaining about their lot and attempting to weasel out of any responsibility for yesterday's events.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Chuck Unsworth
November 11th, 2010 2:33pm
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Chuck, I have a feeling you are quite a young man. Pause for a moment before you condemn teh young students. Our brave military fought in the past to give them the right to protest. That's democracy. Many of the 'Brave Few' who flew in the Battle of Britain were once the wildest of wild students, same goes for the Daring Young Men who went off to fight in that travesty of a war, World War One. Today many of those who became officers would be mocked as Hurray Harrys. Heaven forbid, if in the future we are called upon to defend this coutry, I believe these wild young students will be ready to stand in its defence.

Norman Dee

AWK I certainly hope you are right, but age is fortifying my cynicism, and I just don't believe that some of the scenes we saw yesterday are from some "wild spirits". More and more we see people sink to levels of civil disorder that could not have been contemplated in the UK when I was their age, or earlier.

Dave

My Canadian girlfriend is proudly wearing a Canadian Poppy (obtained from the Canadian Embassy where they have them). They are made of a velvety material but are like the Scottish ones anatomically correct.

Naomi Muse

Interesting insight, Fraser. As a child I went with my mother to sell poppies, for remembering those who died involved, very much doing something beside remembering for two minutes whilst wearing a poppy. Later on, whilst working for a bank I found myself volunteering to count the collections. This was in the Mayor's Parlour in a Surrey town, where we sat and counted all of the contents of the collecting boxes on a Saturday night, totted it up, bagged it up in coloured paper coin bags, and put it in the safe along with the total collected.

Poppies used to be bigger, have two sets of two petals, have middles made of a form of black sealing wax and be sold with a large-headed pin. Huge wax poppies were sold to fix to the radiator grilles of cars too.

It is vital that we remember those who died and look after those who fought and lived.

IanB

I seem to recall that when I was growing up English poppies didn't have leaves either. It's a relatively recent addition.

Holly ......

I always put money in EVERY collection tin
/box,but have NEVER worn a poppy.
I remember them all year round,their mums,
dads,children,wives & girlfriends.
I can only imagine how it must be for the soldiers posted in evil places and the fears
of their families back home.
My heart goes out to them.
The older veterans..I am so very proud of you and I will forever have the utmost respect for what you and your generation did.
I do not need to wear a poppy to respect the
dead,or the troops still in harms way.
It is unconditional and guaranteed.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Norman Dee
November 11th, 2010 3:11pm

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AWK I certainly hope you are right, but age is fortifying my cynicism, and I just don't believe that some of the scenes we saw yesterday are from some "wild spirits". More and more we see people sink to levels of civil disorder that could not have been contemplated in the UK when I was their age, or earlier
===========================
Hello Norman,
These violent street scenes arw not that new. My father and several of his brothers were in bloody combat with both the Black Shirts, and the police protecting the fascists. This in London, when Oswald Mosley was stopped from speaking in Cable Street. Later, World War II and my dad and five brothers volunteered for military service. Even earlier, my gentle, ladylike grandmother caused a scandal when she cut her hair, removed her headscarf and was arrested with other suffragettes. My understanding is that there was a lot of violence on both sides, culminating in grandmother being locked up in the cells.

George

Well said!

AdamDR

For what its worth, I'm a student and a current member of my University Officer Training Corps. I will be attending service tonight, in uniform, at my Hall Chapel, and have a full parade on Sunday. I abhor the violence and idiocy displayed by some of my fellow students yesterday, as do most students that I've spoken to around today.

Widmerpool

I wonder if that little toad the chief Euro bureacrat ever pauses for a moment at the Menin Gate!

TrevorsDen

I would like to wear some kind of poppy pin, and pay the cost as well, which would be easy to switch from lapel to lapel. I have no objection to making several donations - if I lose a poppy I buy another - but it seems to me a lapel pin which effectively lasts forever is a neat idea, you can still make a donation every year or indeed at any time of the year.

Alison

You can get metal buttons - I have one which I bought in Wiltshire. It is small and bright and does have a leaf, but the ones that grow in my garden do too.

Chuck Unsworth

@ Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Hah! Flattery, eh? Depends on your definition of 'young', doesn't it? I'll tell you that I served in the Middle East (Aden for the Withdrawal), the Far East (Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, VietNam) and various others including Australia - Per Mare Per Terram. My time in the military was extensive and informative - in so many ways.

What disturbs me is that subsequent generations have fought in Blair's Wars and now continue to fight and die in Afghanistan. These immensely brave and admirable young people have mostly not had the privileged background that the rioting students have been blessed with. We have appallingly badly let them down, and their kith and kin, too.

Compare and contrast. Which do you think are worthy of our thanks and support?

@ Adam DR

Well done, and well said. If you do take up a career in the military you'll never regret it - and you'll always remember your comrades.

@ TrevorsDen

Well you've possibly left it a lttle late, but such things certainly exist. They're on sale at the doorway of several of my local supermarkets with the old boys and their trays of poppies. I buy both types. That's because every year I make a point of chatting to them and thanking them.

Marcher Baron

@Widmerpool "I wonder if that little toad the chief Euro bureacrat ever pauses for a moment at the Menin Gate!" Rumpy intends that every war memorial will have an EU plaque! The EU plague, if you ask me. What a waste of money (which we'll have to provide)! Trevor, you can buy a small enamel poppy lapel badge (suggested donation £2.00, I believe) from the British Legion - at least you can from the poppy co-ordinator in my area. I saw a woman wearing a very smart crocheted poppy as a brooch when I was shopping this morning.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Hi Chuck,
Forgive me if you thought I'd resort to flattery to make a point. It's all relative, but I guess your name 'Chuck' has a youthful ring. I don't like violence either, but the students seem to have been deceived and let down. I had such relief to see Brown and his gangsters go, but Clegg has not only failed to keep promises, but shown weakness by stating he didn't know how bad the economy was! The same thing is happening with Chase Farm Hospital, where Cameron made a pledge that the E&A and Maternity Units would not be closed down. Seems we have old wine in new bottles. Cameron isn't making a referendum concerning us remaining in the EU. Seems we have all the bad aspects, such as being unable to deport terrorists, 'human rights' etc, but not free university education like to name one country, France. No wonder the young are unhappy.

Edward McLaughlin

The Scots may think they are cute with their cheaper version, but when it comes to frugality, they are rank amateurs.

I am proudly sporting my Yorkshire Poppy which I dug out last week for the 16th year running.

Chuck Unsworth

@ Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Well the young may be unhappy as you say - but a) should we ignore the rioting on that basis and, b) what about those others who may be unhappy - you know, like the elderly, ranged in armchairs round the walls of the lounges in their rest homes, staring vegetatively into space and gradually turning in on themselves through lack of proper human contact, waiting to die?

No, there's much wrong with society generally, but these young rioters are selfish and remarkably self-centred.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Sorry, missed out an important word: ALMOST free university education. Apologies.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Chuck Unsworth
Chuck, you have a good point about the unhappy old-timers. I understand, being in my eighth decade, but I was born a rebel, and angst still feeds my soul. Perhaps if these good citizens sitting vegetating in armchairs had not been so passive and obedient, they wouldn't have been sold down the river. Those poor forgotten souls are the ones who financed the NHS and paid taxes all their working lives, much of the money being wasted on idlers and crooked politicians who are a waste of time and space. They should have gone out on the streets and torn the corrupt politicians out of their seats, taken over the running of the institutions they had financed. Whilst they still had physical strength they should have stood tall and shown their power. But no, decent people don't protest, they don't demand justice, they don't make waves. So how do they finish up? One day they fall off their perches in the Home's lounge, and are taken to the geriatric ward. A combination of starvation, dehydration, indifferent doctors, and no real nursing soon finishes off two-thirds of them. And that is what they worked all their lives for. But on their grave stones it can be written, they were good people.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Chuck Unsworth: Don't want to drag this on, but will mention that longevity doesn't involve being 'nice and good'. Many of my relations who lived into their late nineties, maintained independence, and were known for being dictatorial, rude, and extremely unconventional.

Fergus Pickering

Anna, have you forgotten the University of Essex back in the 1960s? I can't for the life of me remember what their beef was but they pursued it violently, the way students do. Good heavens, I had a girl friend in those days who went to |Paris and spent a happy week heaving bricks and mortar down on les flics from the tops of tall buildings. Were you asleep when these things took place? Then there were the Poll Tax riots. remember them? Breaking windows and breaking heads is what the young do. Sometims their own heads are broken in return. This time the police didn't do that.

Oh, and I nearly forgot Arthur Scargill is his left-wing hat. Arthur was an old fool but many of his supporters were students and the like.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Fergus Pickering
November 12th, 2010 3:35am
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Hello Fergus,
You know what They say, if you were living the 60s you can't remember them. It seems that both you and I were having a good time, because I can't remember much either.
Arthur Scarsdale, that little creep, a horrible little man, ugh!