In the news

It really isn't.

Isn't it tho'?

Nope

It is tho

Probably quite a few.

Although worth pointing out that the majority of Oligarchs escaping arrest and asset seasure came over in the Blair years. Given the huge wave of legislation created under that government and Brown's tight control on the financial structures, it is remarkable so little was done to tackle the cleaning of money from the former USSR.

You're forgetting the "you're not wearing a poppy in mid October, you must be an unpatriotic communist" types AKA the Daily Mail and its ilk. There is a right wing element to it

Edit: should have refreshed

White poppies are available.

Often the same arseholes that bitch and moan about Easter eggs, happy holidays and blue passports.

They make things worse - you're seen as the worst kind of anti-militaristic, forriner-loving, commie scum if you wear one of those.

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.

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.

Maybe I'm viewing this through the rose tinted glasses of my youth, but I never felt the poppy was a contentious symbol until the last 10 years or so. In the early noughties in coastal West Sussex at least it was a symbol of respect for the war dead and surviving veterans and nothing more. Pretty much everyone would wear one for the period coving Remeberence Day and Armistice Day and then take them off. Mind you my home town was 99.9% white British, so there wasn't exactly a lot of cultural tension available to be stoked up by groups with an agenda.

I fall out with my Mrs about this every head. She is an anti militaristic lefty, but was brought up to believe the poppy is about remembering the millions of poor young men that have been sent to their death- which is a worthy cause. I refuse to wear one because they are so associated with the current army- they are normally sold to you by someone in fatigues, and where do you even start on this photo op -

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Can comprehend the one on the left, but 'future soldier' is horrifying.

I'm all for remembering the dead but not when the whole shebang turns into a divisive right wing jingoistic mourn pornfest... War is shit, most of them are illegitimate, young men and women dying for strategic gain...

I always thought it was to remember conscripted soldiers, something I have a hard time being mean spirited about.

I think people take it to mean different things (As is the case for anything I guess). For me it is to remember all victims of war. My father was in the army, and although he didn't die on live duty, he suffered from ptsd, which led him to severe alcoholism and an early grave, so I see him as a victim of war.

https://www.henleyglobal.com/residence-united-kingdom-res-cit/
The Tories brought in two new 'investment'/timescale levels to the Tier 1 visa in 2011.

So, the main British Legion page just focuses on the Crae poem In Flanders Fields and rather glosses over Moina Michael, just attributing to her the making and selling of the first poppies
https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/remembrance/how-we-remember/the-story-of-the-poppy/

But this branch page includes her recycling of the main motif in In Flanders Fields in a rather more jingoistic poem called The Victory Emblem.
http://branches.britishlegion.org.uk/branches/shipston/poppy-appeal/history-of-the-poppy-appeal/

So it seems to me that this tension between the red poppy qua memorial of the fallen and qua symbol of militarism has been baked in right from the start.

Have we had this?
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/mar/28/senior-tory-mps-accused-of-accepting-money-from-former-soviet-states

Thanks.

I was already familiar with it in general terms.

Honestly I can't really see an issue with the scheme in itself. It encourages investment into the UK and excludes property and property investment.

The issues with it are in practice and ensuring proper AML is carried out.

My point was that the first major waves of ex-soviet magic money came during the Blair-Brown years, and were freely allowed to. That follows the period when you can fairly confidently say it was all stolen wealth. While I have no doubt plenty of money has been spent with Tory party members, it isn't much a stretch to expect that that same went to Labour cronies. I don't think greed is unique to politicians of any party.

About time. Labour need to jump on this to try and get away from the other nonsense.

Got to say I've been fairly impressed with how Tom Tugendhat has been shaping up.

The poppy has definitely been hijacked by the far right, and politicians whose military service amounts to fuck all. Katie Hopkins called her daughter Poppy, which pretty much kills of this debate.

So is it perspective or is his head the size of a poppy?

Conservative with extreme small man syndrome?

What have I missed - why are we discussing poppies in March?