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I think it was, the white poppy started in 1933 as a "No more war" symbol, suggested by some of the same women who had opposed WWI on pacifist grounds:
http://www.ppu.org.uk/whitepoppy/index.html
It's a difficult one, because I think it's a difficult argument that WWII was futile and should not have been fought.
One thing I find very difficult about the red poppy is that it is still there to commemorate British (and Commonwealth, and Empire) victims of wars only.
The ceramic poppies at the Tower had one for each person who died on the 'right' side in WWI. But surely more than 100 years later we're ready to see that the normal German soldiers were victims too, of a stupid war which was basically a family squabble about Empires among the inbred cousins of the European monarchies.
I think it's too complex to be reduced to one symbol. And for people from Northern Ireland, India, Kenya, it probably represents military power being used to crush resistance or self-determination.
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tbc
@starfish&coffee
Thanks.
So can we at least sort out when the poppy hysteria started? My guess is that it hasn't been a divisive issue since the day WWI ended. If it were, there would be a bigger hysteria surrounding a symbol commemorating the end of WWII.