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Nick........irrespective of the taxes you pay.....its your money and its up to you how you choose to spend it....
personally I feel that I never know when i might need the help of a charity and so I give regulary......hopeing that when I need help then hopefully i will be able to get some........bit like Karma........or even better maybe I will never need the help of a charity again..........although I have had the benefit of 3 or 4 in the past and was very grateful
Oh and BTW so does my OH most years - but he donates to charity too.
Like Seren and I say - it's entirely up to you but paying higher taxes is not justification as to why you don't.
In fact, if you think you are doing the right thing you don't need to justify it do you?
I hadn't looked before this thread started, but did this morning.
Very, very few people are wearing poppies.
I'd say it's less than 5%.
look on sunday at the remebrance parades and at the cenotaphs.........then I imagine 99% will be wearing them......
Basically agree with Peter Collins's posts on this - it is entirely up to the individual whether to wear a poppy or not.
My recollection of the '70's is that this was never an issue, even though there were far more people around who had actually fought in either or both World Wars and everyone had parents/grandparents who had been personally affected.
It seems it's only in recent years that wearing a poppy is viewed by some as a test of "patriotism".
People who are so involved that they are attending parades will undoubtedly wear poppies.
I wonder how many folk just going about normal activities will.
That's fine.
I don't think it is a widely shared view, though, because your logic is flawed. Your taxes don't go to charity therefore your decision not to make charitable donations is entirely unrelated, except in your own mind.
Most people will be able savvy enough to see that.
I liked T-Rex's post. How long do we mourn the dead from the two big wars? There is no one left alive from WW1 and there will be nobody left from WW2 in about 20 years time. I would be weird if we were mourning the dead in the same way from medieval battles. There will come a time when it just becomes part of history.
I know modern conflicts are remebered too but they are more political wars fought by people who chose to go. They weren't exactly stood in front of tanks that are about to roll down Oxford St. There is no " they died so you can moan on here sunshine"
What can't be quantified is (a) how many people wear poppies out of remembrance, (b) how many do it to say 'look at me, aren't I good?', (c) how many people donate but don't bother with the poppy, (d) what people who don't wear the poppy are actually thinking and doing with their lives. And yet some people (not saying you, Wilkie) seem to want to judge people on whether or not they're wearing a poppy. I've said it loads of times, I just don't get it. It's not an issue.
I agree it isn't quantifiable at all.
But I think the different opinions about why anyone should or shouldn't do mean it is an issue - quite an important one - for many if not for all.
So important that people judge a person's whole character on one thing? Ridiculous.
No. But I'm not sure that's what people are actually doing.
And I'm sure it is. My last word on the subject... or someone else's words....
The boys came back. Bands played and flags were flying,
And Yellow-Pressmen thronged the sunlit street
To cheer the soldiers who’d refrained from dying,
And hear the music of returning feet.
‘Of all the thrills and ardours War has brought,
This moment is the finest.’ (So they thought.)
Snapping their bayonets on to charge the mob,
Grim Fusiliers broke ranks with glint of steel,
At last the boys had found a cushy job.
. . . .
I heard the Yellow-Pressmen grunt and squeal;
And with my trusty bombers turned and went
To clear those Junkers out of Parliament.
I just don't get how the government are sending aid money to India when they are firing rockets to Mars.
I wear a poppy. Largely out of a sense of social conformity. Partly because it's a slight nod to those killed doing a dirty job.
I don't agree with the necessity of most of the recent conflicts that the UK has been engaged in, and when politicians use moral arguments about protecting foreign populations from their tyrannical leaders, I wonder how they can keep a straight face whilst ignoring the fact that the UK does a very good turn in selling arms to most of these same regimes. I also wonder why this moral argument is justification for sending ground troops into Afghanistan and Iraq in their thousands, but not Syria (because Russia would respond) or North Korea (because China would respond). We seemingly have a moral duty to help only those people who are ruled by tyrannical dictators that do not have the implicit support of a major world power.
Regardless of the reasons for sending UK troops abroad, and regardless of the fact that conscription ended decades ago, so our armed forces are comprised wholly of willing employees, it's still a dirty job, and I'm sure the vast majority of servicemen and women are not psychotic, trigger-happy idiots, but people who want to do their job, and come home. And I'm sure many of them believe the spin from the politicians and believe that they are helping people. It's sad when anyone loses their life just doing their job, even if they're job involves delivering death to people whom our politicians have deemed to be our enemy. I don't mourn any more for soldiers than I would for a police officer, or fireman, or accountant who is killed at work, or for the civilians who are killed both by our troops and by the groups that they are fighting. But so long as we have a system in place where, for 2 minutes a year I have the opportunity to hold these strangers in my thoughts, and for a few days a year I can pin a paper flower to my coat as a reminder of this, it seems to me that it would be churlish to go out of my way not to acknowldge the deaths of young people, often not long out of school, far from home, or their families who have some of all of their body shipped back to them.
Having said all that, I have no interest in whether other people choose to wear a poppy, nor do I have any interest in what the RBL do with my quid donation.
People fought and died so that we would have the freedom to make our own choices.
Some of those not wearing poppies fall into the following categories: -
We really shouldn't judge, you just don't know the reasons why an individual is not wearing a poppy. The charity you choose to donate to is a personal thing and in the current economic climate we can't support every worthwhile cause.
PS I'm proudly wearing my poppy, I just believe that forcing people into it is against what our Service Personnel fight for.
Indian's must have lied when filling out the Aid form. Obviously not as hard up as they let on.
...and Jesus wept. That has to be one of the saddest lines Ive read on here, and thats saying something.
A bit like when EVERY Australian wore a mullett. No one dared not to have one.
Agree with the mad Aussie for once.
Yes! White poppies came today in the post. Don't like the 'peace' motto in the middle. They need to make a statement without using words.
What I think I'll do is donate to charity by buying a red poppy, take the red petals off and put the white ones on.
Or perhaps I'll find one on the ground ...
Here's another thing. One of my band's solo cornet players is German. I wonder how on earth he is going to feel at the cenotaph while we're playing.
wracked with guilt over the sins of his grandfathers, I assume.
The ignorance displayed in this thread is amazing.
I have been surprised by the strength of feeling this subject brought out!
I've felt largely indifferent to the subject for years, well forever, really, yet others clearly feel very, very strongly about it.
Yes TimR. Every soldier from every country eh? The soldiers that bayoneted pregnant women? The soldiers that gassed jews? The Airmen that bombed babies as they slept? Wake up and smell the coffee. Your ignorance on this subject matches your knowledge of running matters.