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The Royal British Legion

Started by Petey Pate, November 08, 2018, 11:48:48 PM

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NoSleep

Quote from: kngen on November 09, 2018, 03:47:36 PM
Might as well put this here - just got back from my 6-year-old's 'Veteran's Day' pageant or whatever the fuck they call it at her school. Jesus fucking christ on a Triumph Bonneville, I knew this country was pretty fucked up, but now I've seen where it comes from.

The music teacher proudly spoke about her family's military background (her family, not her - she's a music teacher) then barked orders (over the Tannoy) at a Girl Scout troupe carrying an American flag. 'Color guard. ATTENTION! Color guard. MARCH!' ... they marched six or so feet across the hallowed grounds of the school cafeteria ... 'Color guard. HALT!', and then the gaggle of 6 to 8 year olds fumbled with two flags and swapped them back and forth for some arcane reason that I'm sure is a great comfort to millions of grieving relatives affected by America's overseas misadventures in the last half-century. I've wanted to punch many a music teacher in my life, but never so much as I did now.

I think they start drilling kids with this shite after the Vietnam protests in the late 60's; never wanting another generation to grow up asking awkward questions.

NoSleep

Quote from: KennyMonster on November 09, 2018, 05:57:59 PM
It was oil wasn't it?

Robert Newman's History Of Oil goes into this. I recall it began with Germany wanting or starting to build a pipeline to the Middle East.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIpm_8v80hw

shiftwork2

I bought my poppy today and I wear it for quiet remembrance.  Only too aware of how this idea has changed in some quarters since I was a kid (when 'Haig Fund' was written in place of 'Poppy Appeal' on the central black bit) but I think there's plenty of us left.

kngen

Quote from: bgmnts on November 09, 2018, 06:01:07 PM
I always assumed it was less about oil or resources or ideology and more just the complex system of alliances that existed during that time. Weren't they masterminded by Bismarck?

I think it's a bit of both. The superpowers of the time realised that they better act sharpish to lock down the sources of oil etc to support the growth that the modern era demanded, but what exacerbated the whole thing was Kaiser Wilhelm failing to appreciate or realise the complexity of the Gordian knot of diplomacy that Bismarck had left behind. So when he breenged through Belgium to get to France, the whole house of cards collapsed. Why did Germany attack France? Because Serbia had attacked Austro-Hungary, and the Russians ... no, wait ... Germany said to Russia that France ... hang on. Shit. Thought I had it there, lads. Nope. It's gone. Sorry.

KennyMonster

Quote from: NoSleep on November 09, 2018, 06:33:19 PM
Robert Newman's History Of Oil goes into this. I recall it began with Germany wanting or starting to build a pipeline to the Middle East.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIpm_8v80hw

Yeah that is what I am going on, which is why I added the caveat that I'm no expert historian (although I don't trust most historians because of the old adage that history is written by the victors - and there's so much propaganda from mainstream historians).

BlodwynPig

Dont think there would have been a war if oil had been bitcoin instead


kalowski

I'm a white poppy kind of guy. From some on the statements that have come in my direction I may as well be wearing a little picture if Hitler and Abu Hamza arm in arm over the dead body of Madeline McCann.

KennyMonster

Quote from: kalowski on November 10, 2018, 08:49:34 AM
I'm a white poppy kind of guy. From some on the statements that have come in my direction I may as well be wearing a little picture if Hitler and Abu Hamza arm in arm over the dead body of Madeline McCann.

Me too, I think I fit in even less well at work now.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Luckily there's been no great thing about not wearing one at work this week, the way the dates have fallen has probably helped with that. Still might get lynched in the city centre but I shall just say "are boy Tommy though and the paedos" and will win them round.

finnquark

60% of my teaching time this year is on the paper 'The British Experience of Warfare, 1790-1918', which has given me plenty of time to mull this one over. Without boring everyone, timetabling means I teach different wars simultaneously, so this week I was teaching lessons on Pitt's domestic repression during the French Wars, and then 1916, so Verdun, the Somme, etc. I didn't like the idea of teaching this paper but the decision was out of my hands, and in actual fact I quite enjoy it. It's an opportunity for young people to engage in a more complex way than normal with questions about war, being an A Level paper. The course is a mixture of strategy, tactics, technology, organisational changes, and a large section on the role of the people. Teaching the First World War to a relatively high level of complexity has given me a greater appreciation of the desire to remember. When I taught a lesson on recruitment and conscription last year, I ended up choking back tears in front of a class, which is the only time that has ever happened. We get the students to understand the grinding poverty and shameless exploitation that the working class faced in Britain in 1914, and then juxtapose that with the complexity of reactions to the outbreak of war. I was using some diaries of men from slums, and students were asking about the lack of political power, economic and social safety nets these men had, asking why did they volunteer to fight in such high numbers. That's what made me emotional, because the men who volunteered, and were later conscripted, were powerless in 1914, and so many of them saw war as a route out and an escape. I'm sure we all have our own ways in to thinking about these things, but one book which really stuck with me is The War The Infantry Knew, which was written in the post-war years and is an account from 1914-1919 made up of different recollections stitched together. I wear a white poppy.

TrenterPercenter


bgmnts

Is it disrespectful if you have an erection during the silence or last post?

New Jack

Quote from: Buelligan on November 09, 2018, 09:57:31 AM
Bigs, do you ever read or think about, any one else's posts?  Asking for a friend.

I guess the answer is pretty clear by now...!

Quote from: bgmnts on November 10, 2018, 05:20:18 PM
Is it disrespectful if you have an erection during the silence or last post?

Depends. Are your erections noisy? If it sprung up byoioiyoing, then yes, you should be very ashamed. If it silently rose, like a swan gracefully lifting its head out of the water, then nobody can brook a quarrel or kick the fuck off.

If I were you, I'd take my erection to a World War 1 memorial, and have it soak in the stark grim sacrifice made so it could be free.

BlodwynPig

Is there any difference between becoming erect at a WW1 memorial and being aroused at the grave of the furst homo erectus, our ancestor who bravely fought the dinosaur and gave her life so we may become the beasts we are today

dandoystevski

Quote from: bgmnts on November 10, 2018, 05:20:18 PM
Is it disrespectful if you have an erection during the silence or last post?

Not if you use it to raise and fly a flag.  Any flag.


imitationleather

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on November 11, 2018, 09:17:45 AM
Saw a big gammon bloke wearing one of these in the IKEA restaurant yesterday:

https://www.knightsportswear.com/collections/frontpage/products/the-royal-british-legion-remembrance-tech-polo-shirt

Maximum remembrance.

Looks like the sort of thing you'd wear while at the oche.

buttgammon

Delighted to see RTÉ are covering the commemorations today, so I can hopefully watch them - and remember those who died - without a semblance of ignorant English nationalism sticking its head in and missing the point. Thank fuck!

SpiderChrist

A work colleague spent every day last week wearing tops festooned with poppies, accompanied by a poppy on her jumper, one on her coat, and a RBL tote bag. Maybe she just has a very bad memory.

She also set up a stall in reception selling (among other things) a poppy pencil case, for the kiddies and that.

biggytitbo

You'd be shot for getting an erection the trenches as it could give away your position to the enemy.

Cuellar

Don't think I've bought a poppy of my volition since leaving school, when we had to line up at the war memorial and listen to some spotty herbert play the bugle.

im barry bethel

Quote from: New Jack on November 11, 2018, 03:00:21 AM
I guess the answer is pretty clear by now...!

Depends. Are your erections noisy? If it sprung up byoioiyoing, then yes, you should be very ashamed. If it silently rose, like a swan gracefully lifting its head out of the water the ghosts of dead soldiers in J'accuse, then nobody can brook a quarrel or kick the fuck off.



hermitical


Sebastian Cobb

That's a rather optimistic shape of shirt given the people likely to wear it.

New Jack

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on November 11, 2018, 12:23:14 PM
That's a rather optimistic shape of shirt given the people likely to wear it.

The photo is upside down

Blumf

Went past a Co-op funeral service shop yesterday, had a big poster of some WW1 troops in the window, made me wonder if they were offering bulk rates.

Autopsy Turvey

Quote from: finnquark on November 10, 2018, 01:06:43 PM
60% of my teaching time this year is on the paper 'The British Experience of Warfare, 1790-1918',

This is an interesting timeframe, which military experiences do you explore between the Napoleonics and the outbreak of WW1? Opiums? Crimea? Boer? I'd love to have studied this period at school, I was deep into adulthood before I even heard the term 'Pax Britannica'.

hummingofevil

I've only really been friends with one ex-serviceman. Ex-special forces, lifelong PTSD, obsessive behaviour lead to full on drug addiction then died this year aged 45. Combat Stress charity did some good for him but apart from that no-one give a shit until he died then there were plenty of soldier types on Facebook "respecting" one of their own whilst sympathising with his "troubles".

Serving killed him. Simple.

BlodwynPig

What percentage of British soldiers die because of service out of duty rather than battle. I expect quite high these days due to the nature of "our wars".