this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2024
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UK Politics

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General Discussion for politics in the UK.
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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago

I've literally never been stopped for not wearing a poppy. People wearing them don't say anything to me about not wearing one and I don't say anything to them about wearing one. It's like me commenting on someone's jewellery. Why the fuck would I? People want to wear what they want to wear.

Is this really such a newsworthy issue?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The person dressed in a giant poppy costume who was jumping side to side and waving their arms at me as I entered the supermarket was pretty funny and made me smile, so I'll have more of that type of poppy mania please.

Some people get weirdly militant about wearing them and decorating with them in Facebook posts, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone behave like that on person.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)

One thing I do find nuts is that the poppys have only just moved to paper stems. Every year they'd be busy handing these things out only for the plastic stem and centre to end up in landfill. I bought one of the reusable metal brooch versions a while ago, and just wear that each year, but it's sad that the disposable nature of them wasn't taken into consideration when they were designed.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I thought they were meant to be disposable so you'd buy anew each year?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

They are, but their stems and centre piece are plastic, which just ends up in landfill or litter. A reusable brooch is more environmentally friendly, but at least now they have paper stems and (im assuming) paper centre pieces so when they get thrown away they're not so bad.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Don't the metal ones have the year on to shame you into buying a new one?

O get them because the lifespan of a paper/plastic one is about 3 days...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Maybe some do, but mine just looks like this:

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago
[–] vzq 8 points 1 month ago

Poppy mania had gone too far in the early 2000s. Now it’s just completely bonkers out of control madness.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

If only wearing one actually fostered true anti-war sentiments, eh..

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Worked in a school where the head refused to employ any of the candidates who turned up for interview because none of them wore a poppy (and one of them wore tan-coloured shoes that hadn’t been polished, too!) Some of the candidates were perfectly suitable and the school needed to fill the post to help reduce workload on the rest of us.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

My girlfriend is a teacher and due to the stories that I've heard I've come to the conclusion that a lot of teachers and particularly head teachers, are total lunatics.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

My first two heads were both involved in fraud. This was in the early days of grant maintained schools. The first one set up a printing business within the school and staff could only do photocopying etc through the printers. He was taking home a nice cut of the “profits”. The second one defrauded the school for about a million pounds in a scam where her husband sold the school computer equipment, got a stupid deputy to sign for empty boxes and then claimed that the computers had been supplied. That head went on the run to Spain. Eventully went to the High Court and she got away with it. We were told by local LEA that if we leaked anything to the press we would be prosecuted.

Also have to mention the heads who pretend you aren’t there when you try to talk to them in a corridor. I was once told never to approach one head because “Kings only talk to other kings!”

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I hope this was a private school. The idea that the state system would be so insanely discriminatory is insane.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Regular state school. I worked in another where the executive head hired a private investigator to keep an eye on staff who were on longer-term illnesses and do “background checks”.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Poppies and the very embodiment of virtue signalling. I hate that every panelist on BBC shows is forced to wear a fresh one. It's ridiculous and makes the entire effort meaningless. All because Mildred up the road will have a hissy fit on Points of View if somebody forgets.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Mate of mine was chatting to a girl online

"What are you wearing, babe?" "Just a thong 😉" "Where the f*ck's your poppy?"

[–] lemmus 1 points 1 month ago

LEST WE FORGET