Jock's Place - Conservatives, co-operators, war or peace? - Comments

Poppies

Mark Wadsworth — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 21:03:18 +0000

I did a post here t'other day but it seems to have got lost in ther ether. Anyroad, I wear a red poppy because it's respectful to the old folk who actually lived and fought through all this crap. As an abject coward and radical pacifist, I'd prefer a white one. A bloody white feather would do me just fine. Is anybody brave enough to split the difference and bring out the Pink Poppy?

It is not an insult to want

Jock — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 20:36:26 +0000

It is not an insult to want to remember all the dead of all wars - such as the holocaust of up to 10 million children over just the last decade in wars around the world. I used the phrase "glorious dead" as that is the phrase used on many memorials that are predominantly only to service personnel and for no other reason, pejorative or celebratory.

As a public schooler, I have many friends who have served or are serving in the forces, and I support them to the hilt, especially in the face of inexcusable government incompetence that puts them there without the kit they need to minimise the risk to them, but in so many cases, including the current two main theatres in Iraq & Afghanistan they should simply not be there. They are politicians' pawns. And the spineless ones lining up in the front row before the cenotaph tomorrow need not just to remember their sacrifice, important as that is, but need teaching never to forget the consequences of their bellicose policies.

I expect we can as he won't

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 20:00:25 +0000

I expect we can as he won't want to insult the memory of the soldiers who gave their lives for us. Do you honestly think people joined up to fight Hitler for the "glory"?! They did so to stop a murderous facist fanatic and we should all be extremely grateful to them for our freedom instead of insulting them so completely.

Conservatives, co-operators, war or peace?

Jock — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 17:15:43 +0000

Here's another thing about the Conservative party and their tenuous claimed link with the Co-operative Movement. It is no coincidence that the international rainbow flag for peace is also the international co-operative movement's flag. Nor that it was the Co-operative Womens' Guild that instituted the idea of wearing white poppies to promote peace instead of red ones that commemorated the "glorious dead". It is axiomatic that the Co-operative Movement strives for peace - the very phrase "Peace and Co-operation" encapsulates the ethos.

So, will Dave be wearing red, for the more traditionally Conservative Remembrance of War, or white for the traditional Co-operative Promotion of Peace? I think we can probably predict pretty well which it will be, don't you?