James McClean and the FA

[hoolahoop]

He hates Britain but is happy to be paid in British pounds. Scum of the highest order, I hope some one breaks his leg.

I hope you or anyone else you know has never smoked cheap smuggled fags.

What a strange and unsettling comment for Axholme to make

[Glyn_Wigley]

He hates Britain but is happy to be paid in British pounds. Scum of the highest order, I hope some one breaks his leg.

I hope you or anyone else you know has never smoked cheap smuggled fags.

What a strange and unsettling comment for Axholme to make

I know where the majority of the profits from smuggled fags goes. And I bet that most of the people who buy them thinking they're sticking one to the government would choke on them if they knew who they were really funding.

[Tarkovsky_Mikluzhkin]

A few years ago I decide to stop buying a poppy for remembrance day. I've now gone fully over to refusing to wear one even if given it for free and I suppose this gives me an excuse to explain that. (Having said that a Serbian refusing to wear a poppy and then having apparent indifference to WW1 seems a bit rich to me, I mean he might as well have had a black hand in place of the poppy).

anyway all my reasons can all fall under the heading: It's about remembering the catastrophe of WW1 and trying to make sure it never happens again... but no-one does that anymore.

1. Ok so now wearing a poppy for a fortnight is a uniform of conformality and anyone who disobeys is angrily singled out (and yes the Fascists would admire that level of controlling the populace wouldn't they, it doesn't take a political genius to figure that out). That now means the majority of people wearing or telling others to wear poppies are not actually remembering or reflecting on anything and are just doing something they think they're suppose to do.

I won't put a number on it but if you think in your own head about this. What percentage of poppy wearers this year would know: Which years WW1 took place in, At least 4 countries on either side of the conflict, At least 2 leaders or heads of state of those countries at the time of the conflict (UK had 3 during so should be easy). and whether the Nazis were or weren't in power (50/50 Question).
Using a trivial analogy I would say it would be roughly the same sort of numbers who wear NY Yankees hats and don't know any current player,any former players, what sport it is or that it even is a sport.

[Tarkovsky_Mikluzhkin]

2. Of those that do know the answers to the very bare basics of WW1 history. The vast majority I've encountered usually still refuse to learn any lessons from it and wear the poppy like a football shirt. "We won, We beat the German Kraut Sausage munching bosh, Just like in '66 and just like when Farage shows Merkel whose boss with Brexit" (I know not everyone who wears a poppy thinks like this but everyone who thinks like this wears a poppy and there's about 17.4 million of them). The lessons of WW1 aren't Britannia rules the waves no-one messes with us or they get it! The lessons should be let's never ever again have such a needless loss of young lives for absolutely no reason.

3. I have an attitude towards the people who served on both sides of the conflict in WW1 that is similar to how I feel about those that suffered the holocaust in WW2. Its difficult to comprehend how we as an entire species even managed to come up with that as an idea, If you were to come up with the worst nightmare you could ever think of you'd still have to times it by 10 to get anywhere near close and not just a few but millions and millions actually lived through it... as a young person might say WTF!

So the money from selling poppies going to those people no-one could ever have an issue with surely. However, those soldiers are not around anymore and the money just goes to people who joined the military voluntarily as a career and the nightmare of trench warfare no longer exists and it's been replaced with press a button to eviscerate a middle eastern village type warfare (I suppose you might get repetitive strain injury). The money once given to the PTSD and mustard gas flashbacks victims of WW1 are now given to competitors in Prince Harry "Worthy" disabled people Olympics.

That's not a charity I prioritize personally (fair enough if YOU do) and resent being pressured into giving money to Prince Harry's vanity project that glorifies Patriotic Warfare when that is almost the exact opposite of what I think money given in remembrance of WW1 should go towards.

Thanks for listening/reading

[Tarkovsky_Mikluzhkin]

If you are wondering what I replaced the pointless poppy with in order to remember and reflect on those forced into action in WW1 it was this:

A weekend of Telly:

> Days that shook the World: Franz Ferdinand Assassination (45min Documentary)
> 37 Days To War (2 part Mini-Series About the lead up to WW1, It's about 3 Hours)
> All Quiet on the Western Front (1930 Hollywood Film about life in the trenches, based on a German book. Probably about 2 hours)
> World War One In Colour (Channel 5 Mini-series narrated by Kenneth Branagh.10 Episodes - Only watched 3 1/2 though)*
+ Random episode of Blackadder goes forth on Gold
> First World War The Final hours (I think that's what it was called anyway - It's a new thing on the BBC Iplayer about the negotiations that brought about the 11 of the 11 of the 11 of the 11 ending)
> Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2 part mini-series about Hitlers rise from Soldier to Leader set mainly in the inter war period and starring Robert Carlyle as Hitler)
> Downfall (2004 German film about Hitler's bunker and the end of the European war)

From princips single shot to hitlers single shot In 7 Docu-Dramas



*World War One In Colour got a bit samey:
Episode 1 :The schillfen plan and other interesting stuff
Episode 2 :A variety of battles in both east and west
Episode 3 :Trench warfare begins - Everyone gets needlessly slaughtered
Episode 4 : Everyone gets needlessly slaughtered
Episode 5 : Everyone gets needlessly slaughtered
Episode 6 : Everyone gets needlessly slaughtered
Episode 7 : Everyone gets needlessly slaughtered
Episode 8 : Everyone gets needlessly slaughtered
Episode 9 : Everyone gets needlessly slaughtered
Episode 10 :Everyone gets needlessly slaughtered. Germany surrenders

[Glyn_Wigley]

You ought to watch They Shall Not Get Old too. It's brilliant.

[Tarkovsky_Mikluzhkin]

Yeah heard good things about that I'll have to get it watched