General Chat

[Wainy316]

1 hour ago, tonyh29 said:

I don't think that's true tbh

There are going to be an element of people in society who may use the poppy for political reasons , from the Muslims want to ban our <<insert object here>>>  share if you agree types on social media  to  the white poppy as sold by the Peace Pledge Union way way back   .....

but the poppy is mainly worn by millions of people as a sign of remembrance ..

Agreed, I don't think they're worn exclusively by the right, but they're the ones that use it as a stick to beat people that don't conform to their ideas of being 'pwopa British' with.

[lapal_fan]

22 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Until recently, I've always worn a poppy. But I considered it as being mainly about the two world wars (and I guess, Korea/Malaya), where soldiers were conscripted, to die in huge numbers. Those guys have almost all gone now. At the risk of offending some of our military veterans, I have mixed feelings about our more recent wars, fought by entirely professional, volunteer, armed forces. I also think that our government should take full responsibility for caring for the men and women they send out to be killed and maimed, rather than relying on charities. The poppy in recent years has (rightly or wrongly) come to be seen as suggesting "I unequivocally support our armed forces". Which, frankly, I don't. 

Yea I agree.  Being in the army or military now just isn't the same - it's effectively a career choice.

And whilst this isn't aimed at any of the people who choose to join the military, but the ways in which the military aim their recruitment, through adverts on TV, in the cinema, personnel going into education spaces like schools & colleges and the way in which they target very specific groups to join is frankly **** disgusting. 

My wife worked at Bourneville College a few years ago, as a lab technician, the army came, played their videos, showed the kids how strong they were, showed them their kit, showed them ALL the fun programmes they would be able to do whilst in the army, the places they'd traveled for training , the amount of further education they'd have access to - but absolutely nothing about actual conflict. 

After the event, a few colleagues were talking to the young men (late 20s) who gave the big show to the kids, all of them had tales of how they were the wrong shift away from eating a mortar strike in a god-forsaken military base in the afghan desert.  How all of them knew people who now have to live the rest of their lives with less then 4 limbs, a couple of them who have had to shoot to kill and how many of them have lost their friends.  

I know it would be silly to advertise these aspects of the job, but essentially, if you're 16, out of school, no good qualifications, no social standing - then you're gonna be tied to the side of a Chinook and used as a shield mate. 

[Paddywhack]

11 minutes ago, lapal_fan said:

Yea I agree.  Being in the army or military now just isn't the same - it's effectively a career choice.

And whilst this isn't aimed at any of the people who choose to join the military, but the ways in which the military aim their recruitment, through adverts on TV, in the cinema, personnel going into education spaces like schools & colleges and the way in which they target very specific groups to join is frankly **** disgusting. 

My wife worked at Bourneville College a few years ago, as a lab technician, the army came, played their videos, showed the kids how strong they were, showed them their kit, showed them ALL the fun programmes they would be able to do whilst in the army, the places they'd traveled for training , the amount of further education they'd have access to - but absolutely nothing about actual conflict. 

After the event, a few colleagues were talking to the young men (late 20s) who gave the big show to the kids, all of them had tales of how they were the wrong shift away from eating a mortar strike in a god-forsaken military base in the afghan desert.  How all of them knew people who now have to live the rest of their lives with less then 4 limbs, a couple of them who have had to shoot to kill and how many of them have lost their friends.  

I know it would be silly to advertise these aspects of the job, but essentially, if you're 16, out of school, no good qualifications, no social standing - then you're gonna be tied to the side of a Chinook and used as a shield mate. 

Their "This is Belonging" slogan boils my piss.

[lapal_fan]

1 minute ago, Paddywhack said:

Their "This is Belonging" slogan boils my piss.

Christ I bet you've a hot cock. 

[tonyh29]

8 minutes ago, lapal_fan said:

if you're 16, out of school, no good qualifications, no social standing

haven't you just described every 16 year old North of Watford ?

 

 

[Xela]

Agree with the sentiments about poppies. I never wear one now. I donate to the cause but like a lot of others have said, its an agenda now. Its like them being on football shirts and that furore when England wore them on their armbands. Why now? We got through the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and 00's without the need to plaster a poppy on everything. 

[Paddywhack]

3 minutes ago, lapal_fan said:

Christ I bet you've a hot cock. 

You better believe it, cupcake  x

[Xela]

Not sure what to think about this Philip Green 'revelation'. 

I think my overriding concern is that it appears ok to name someone without any evidence or charges against that person. 

[Rodders]

Injunctions by the rich and powerful are shit, but so are allegations as yet unproven, nevermind that two of the 5 complainants explicitly supported the injunction for fear of being identified:

https://inews.co.uk/opinion/comment/what-lord-peter-hain-didnt-consider-when-he-rushed-to-name-name-philip-green/

 

Quote

....Crucially, as well, two of the five complainants expressly stated that they supported the injunction – they did not wish for the man to be named or for any details to be made public, presumably through fear that they would be capable of being identified from the details of the complaints (“jigsaw identification”, in trade jargon). Finally, the settlements contained provisions that allowed the complainants to make “authorised disclosures” to regulatory and statutory bodies. In other words, if a crime or regulatory offence had been committed, the NDAs did not prevent the complainants from reporting to the police or other authority. These are all factors which, the Court of Appeal said, were not given sufficient weight by the High Court.

 

 

[NurembergVillan]

19 hours ago, Shropshire Lad said:

Not quite one for the piss me off thread (it doesn’t really), or things you don’t get thread (I kinda get it). 

Where I live, they’ve started to put up those large poppies that you see on lampposts and bollards.

1

The whole of the Stockport area is covered in the **** things.  At least it's not just us.

I'd sooner the money was being spent on fixing potholes, funding schools, or digging Northern Rail out of their contract.  I just find the whole thing to be somewhat crass now.  It's turned into a country-wide patriotism competition.

Respect to anyone who is brave enough to join the military.  I wouldn't - I'm a **** coward.  But I have a different view of soldiers from WWI and WWII who were conscripted compared to those who have made a career choice.  They're fighting rich men's wars, the battle for territory, status and oil.  It's dressed up as "protecting our country", but I can't remember the last time I saw ISIS rebels walking down my street with rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

[Xela]

4 minutes ago, NurembergVillan said:

 but I can't remember the last time I saw ISIS rebels walking down my street with rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

Have you been to Sparkbrook recently? 

[snowychap]

44 minutes ago, Rodders said:

Injunctions by the rich and powerful are shit, but so are allegations as yet unproven, nevermind that two of the 5 complainants explicitly supported the injunction for fear of being identified:

https://inews.co.uk/opinion/comment/what-lord-peter-hain-didnt-consider-when-he-rushed-to-name-name-philip-green/

Add in that it appear Peter Hain

Quote

was appointed by Gordon Dadds in June 2016 to act as the firm’s Global and Government Adviser.

link

Gordon Dadds, apparently, are the firm who represent The Torygraph in this particular injunction case.

Edited October 26, 2018 by snowychap

[Mark Albrighton]

1 hour ago, NurembergVillan said:

The whole of the Stockport area is covered in the **** things.  At least it's not just us.

Definitely not just you.

Someone has a parody Twitter account praising the gratuitous use of poppies and all Remembrance Day related things. 

The person has been doing it a while apparently, this BBC article was written a year ago. Some of the  stuff with poppies slapped on them is laughable.

Quote

The person behind the "Poppy Watch" account says his mission is to "highlight the absurdity and obscenity of what's happened to Remembrance Day."

"You've got town councils around the country covering buildings in poppies, hanging them from lampposts, sticking life-size 'Poppy Mannequins' onto park benches like they're waiting for the Chelsea Flower Show judges to come round and give them a score. So I started giving them scores," he tells BBC Trending.

Link

The twitter account can be seen on that link but has stuff like this in it -

Edit - the picture comes with the obvious line about that excavator being handy for the trenches, etc etc

Edited October 26, 2018 by Shropshire Lad

[tonyh29]

1 hour ago, NurembergVillan said:

  It's dressed up as "protecting our country", but I can't remember the last time I saw ISIS rebels walking down my street with rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

that just shows what a good job they are doing 

 

[il_serpente]

The poppies over there sound a bit like the American flag lapel pin for politicians over here.   Although it's only politicians, particularly candidates for federal offices, who feel compelled to wear them, it's year-round here.  Any failure to sufficiently worship the flag is automatically labelled an affront to our troops who secure our freedom (which apparently doesn't exist anywhere outside the US.   How does it feel to be enslaved over there in the UK, by the way?) and therefore means you hate America.  I'm so glad our troops are protecting me from the evil Yemeni civilians who are hellbent on taking away my freedom.

[TheAuthority]

3 hours ago, NurembergVillan said:

The whole of the Stockport area is covered in the **** things.  At least it's not just us.

I'd sooner the money was being spent on fixing potholes, funding schools, or digging Northern Rail out of their contract.  I just find the whole thing to be somewhat crass now.  It's turned into a country-wide patriotism competition.

It's a similar phenomenon to Christmas. Decking out the house in a gazillion decorations, different hot chocolate served in a Christmas themed mug, a stupid amount of gifts, I even saw Santa Claus salt & pepper shakers yesterday in a shop.  How many days of the year would you use that tat?

I think it's because people are basically empty in their lives - walking zombie-like through their lives going from one consumer satiation experience to the next. Of course capturing it all on their iPhone for instagram & Facebook. Poppies everywhere! Christmas everywhere! No wonder the population is so easily manipulated to vote for inane political ideas that are not in their own interests.

Quote

Respect to anyone who is brave enough to join the military.  I wouldn't - I'm a **** coward.  But I have a different view of soldiers from WWI and WWII who were conscripted compared to those who have made a career choice.  They're fighting rich men's wars, the battle for territory, status and oil.  It's dressed up as "protecting our country",

I agree with all of the above quote.

[Mark Albrighton]

Quote

A Lion Air Boeing 737 passenger plane with 189 people on board has crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

Flight JT 610 was headed for Pangkal Pinang, in the Bangka Belitung Islands, when it lost contact.

Rescuers have recovered some remains and there is no sign of survivors

BBC link

Awful news.

[villa4europe]

On 26/10/2018 at 16:37, NurembergVillan said:

The whole of the Stockport area is covered in the **** things.  At least it's not just us.

I'd sooner the money was being spent on fixing potholes, funding schools, or digging Northern Rail out of their contract.  I just find the whole thing to be somewhat crass now.  It's turned into a country-wide patriotism competition.

Respect to anyone who is brave enough to join the military.  I wouldn't - I'm a **** coward.  But I have a different view of soldiers from WWI and WWII who were conscripted compared to those who have made a career choice.  They're fighting rich men's wars, the battle for territory, status and oil.  It's dressed up as "protecting our country", but I can't remember the last time I saw ISIS rebels walking down my street with rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

But facebook keeps telling me they are banned?

[NurembergVillan]

16 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

But facebook keeps telling me they are banned?

Only in no-go zones, like Birmingham and most of London.

[NurembergVillan]

On 26/10/2018 at 16:59, Shropshire Lad said:

Definitely not just you.

Someone has a parody Twitter account praising the gratuitous use of poppies and all Remembrance Day related things. 

The person has been doing it a while apparently, this BBC article was written a year ago. Some of the  stuff with poppies slapped on them is laughable.

Link

The twitter account can be seen on that link but has stuff like this in it -

Edit - the picture comes with the obvious line about that excavator being handy for the trenches, etc etc

"JCB - Official Sponsor of Mass War Graves".