The James McClean Sponsored Poppy Thread

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

2 hours ago, Tony Ferrino said:

There was this snotty woman a couple of weeks ago, who in the foyer of our local supermarket after I'd said no thanks to a help for hero's lottery ticket, very loudly said "enjoy your bottle of wine", behind my back as I walked out.

Will probably still give a pound, but little things like that rile me and will probably give the poppy a miss.

You should have reported her to the council.

Charity collectors aren't supposed to even rattle their collecting can/bucket to collect donations.

She was just being a self righteous bitch hiding under the umbrella of someone doing good.

[The OP]

If those are the rules it doesn’t seem to stop people yelling “DO YOU WANT TO HELP CHILDREN WITH CANCER?!?!” at you in train stations and shopping centres.

A lesser man than me would blanch at saying “Naw, f**k ‘em” unfortunately.

[Finch road]

10 hours ago, jimmy boo said:

Classy as always.

Lol

[chomp my root]

9 hours ago, Bishoptonbankie said:

I wish there was some way to ensure your poppy donation only went to support causes for ww2 vets etc, people who join the army and fought in afghan etc knew what they were signing up for and tbh the government should be looking after them instead of spending billions on brexit and big ben pish. Gonna get myself a white poppy this year, guaranteed to illicit seethe at work.

The last conscripts weren't demobbed until about 1963, they didn't have a lot of say in the matter and we were engaged in all sorts of 'minor' conflicts during the breakup of the Empire.

9 hours ago, Bishoptonbankie said:

Thank you, im running in 2020! But they did its not like anyone forced them to join up. I don't have to wear a daffodil for fallen fire fighters or a rose for deep sea fishermen so why should another risky job be lauded above all others, I come from a family with strong military links but they viewed their time as just being in a job.

Totally agree, it makes your motives for wanting to wear a white poppy a little iffy though.  On a slightly different subject, does anyone else get hacked off with STV and the BBC constantly plugging their charities ???? 

I don't know a single guy (or girl) who joined the Forces for noble reasons, we all chose to do it, I joined twice, both times because I wanted to and there was definitely no noble causes involved. 

8 hours ago, Booker-T said:

Normally my default position on such  controversial matters is

1. Meh, I don't give a f**k

2. To each his own

3. What you eat doesn't make me shit

...

Anyway, I regularly pop a few coins into any tins when I see an old soldier collecting.

In my head it's a collection for the really really old guys who were conned/bullied into fighting for nothing more than an imperial territory in world war 1 under the guise of good vs evil, or the really old guys who fought against the nazis, no illusions about the cause here either but we were certainly on the far lesser evil side.

The niggling thing that annoys me about the poppy appeal that gets under my skin is that it's not those old guys that are actually benefiting from donations  - it's the people who should be looked after by the government who are the real beneficiaries of (or are completely reliant) of the appeal. Again, no getting into the ethics of war or these people knowing what they were signing up for but the fact is, they got hurt while working for their employer, their employer owes them a duty of care. It shouldn't be reliant on charity.

If the Government had to deal with this themselves properly then it might make them less willing to get involved in sending the military into conflict. While generally the Forces aren't that badly paid, the 'after care' provided is poor and that charities have had to pick up the slack still baffles me. Hedley Court is/was getting an absolute fortune in donations when it should have been the governments responsibility, one they were happy to palm off to save cash. 

[Glenconner]

How many Scots died in WW1?

[Booker-T]

2 minutes ago, Glenconner said:

How many Scots died in WW1?

100,000 - 148,000 

https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/learning/first-world-war/scotlands-people-and-the-first-world-war

 

[Ranaldo Bairn]

I seem to remember reading that we had the greatest losses per head of population of anyone involved in the thing.

[Glenconner]

3 minutes ago, Booker-T said:

100,000 - 148,000 

https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/learning/first-world-war/scotlands-people-and-the-first-world-war

 

I know 18,000 died from the Glasgow contingent of 200,000. A further 90,000 were injured. So just over 50/50 chance of you being killed or injured.

[Glenconner]

I remember the old man saying as a child in Glasgow in the 1920s the place was full of men with one arm or a missing leg.

[Booker-T]

2 minutes ago, Ranaldo Bairn said:

I seem to remember reading that we had the greatest losses per head of population of anyone involved in the thing.

I think a lot of that is due to the percentage of population in relative poverty (in both living standards, narrow views of the world and education) at the time  - so when reliant on vounteers, our towns and cities were just emptied of young working class males looking to escape or even adventure.

[Glenconner]

Seems hard to believe a 100 odd years on but newspaper reports of the Government calling the country to war brought thousands on to the streets cheering and dancing. It's reckoned 50,000 turned up in George Square to cheer the news of the start of WW1.

Crazy Bazzas.

[Booker-T]

5 minutes ago, Glenconner said:

I know 18,000 died from the Glasgow contingent of 200,000. A further 90,000 were injured. So just over 50/50 chance of you being killed or injured.

For me the wrong lessons are being pushed from the first world war....

f**k patriotism, the focus of remembrance should be the sheer folly and pointless loss of life in that war (on all sides) and it's ongoing impact on those who did manage to make it home.  

[Booker-T]

2 minutes ago, Glenconner said:

Seems hard to believe a 100 odd years on but newspaper reports of the Government calling the country to war brought thousands on to the streets cheering and dancing. It's reckoned 50,000 turned up in George Square to cheer the news of the start of WW1.

Crazy Bazzas.

The press had worked those of the working classes who could read into a frenzy in the lead up to the declaration of war.

[Glenconner]

2 minutes ago, Booker-T said:

For me the wrong lessons are being pushed from the first world war....

f**k patriotism, the focus of remembrance should be the sheer folly and pointless loss of life in that war (on all sides) and it's ongoing impact on those who did manage to make it home.  

Within a generation they did it all again.  Some might argue WW1 never really finished until the end of the Soviet Union.

[Booker-T]

7 minutes ago, Glenconner said:

Within a generation they did it all again.  Some might argue WW1 never really finished until the end of the Soviet Union.

the ending of WW1 guaranteed another war

 

 

[Jacksgranda]

9 hours ago, Zen Archer said:

You should have reported her to the council.

Charity collectors aren't supposed to even rattle their collecting can/bucket to collect donations.

She was just being a self righteous bitch hiding under the umbrella of someone doing good.

Correct - unless things have changed greatly since I did it. I don't think you're allowed to speak either, although I used to say "Thank you" to folk who donated.

[Jacksgranda]

1 hour ago, Ranaldo Bairn said:

I seem to remember reading that we had the greatest losses per head of population of anyone involved in the thing.

I think I read that, too, although that might just have been for the UK (including the whole of Ireland which was part of the UK then).

[Jacksgranda]

1 hour ago, Glenconner said:

I remember the old man saying as a child in Glasgow in the 1920s the place was full of men with one arm or a missing leg.

There were quite a few knocking about in the 60s post World War Two, too.

[chomp my root]

50 minutes ago, Booker-T said:

the ending of WW1 guaranteed another war

 

 

The winner taking some sort of prize or reparations from the loser was how wars were fought, it wasn't exactly a novel approach. Arguably the world wide financial crisis led to WW2, at least in Europe, Japan was flexing their muscles in the East anyway.

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

1 hour ago, Glenconner said:

I remember the old man saying as a child in Glasgow in the 1920s the place was full of men with one arm or a missing leg.

This coincided with a third of Glasgow cobblers going into insolvency.