Guten Ahbend.
I can say this in jest you see only because of the actions of those who were cut in half by machine gun fire, choked by mustard gas, blown to smithereens or disemboweled by bayonet. Blimey Aitch, tad heavy for a Saturday night, old man…
Well, I tell you this: I just enjoyed a cracking firework show on the Stray in Harrogate. And that was a show! But before I left the house I made sure I had my Poppy on. Then I get home and get a Tweet from a chap – regular or and indeed occasional readers – may recall. Remember a chap by the name of ‘This Is Sammy’?
Well he wrote a superb piece which I was very happy to run out on this blog about the whole David Baddiel fiasco which was HERE.
Well Sammy has unsurprisingly hit another bulls-eye with a piece about ‘the Poppy’ and FIFA which is lengthy and so I would ask you to click HERE.
You know me, I can be an intolerant/flippant git. But stuff like this is important. I hope you afforded it a minute or two and enjoy a great read about a deeply important subject.
And you can let ’em know how you feel! http://www.fifa.com/contact/form.html
The pitch should be covered in poppies thrown on by the supporters.
Tell FIFA to fuck off and go ahead and do what we’ve always done when it’s the right thing to do, which is tell them to fuck off again!
I wear mine with pride – with the ol grandad fghting in Salonika and Galipoli – thanks God it is not us, and the reason for that is them
Great blog post but….the Poppy has been hijacked and become ‘political paraphernalia’ as promoted by the Sun and Daily Mail.
Football is being used more and more as symbol for public grief or remembering things that have nothing to do with the game.
The cenotaph is the place for these services not a football stadium.
I agree about it being hijacked. Bit like the Union Jack and indeed many other flags for that matter. And you’r right about the number of games that have 1 minutes silence etc for stuff that whilst touching to a few, has tenuous links with football.
The poppy embodies a message saying never forget the losses (no matter what sinister economic machinations were taking place in the shadows) and saying never again to such misery.
Nationalism isn’t a bad thing. It is when the BNP and their like try to hide behind it. The poppy ought to be worn with pride by all those who choose to wear one throughout Great Britain.
I can’t think of anything more that ought to be an inherently decent display of nationalism than a Scottish or a Welsh or a English football shirt bearing the emblem in November.
Football is tribal and tribes should be allowed to wear their colours.
I can’t remember who it was that made the distinction between a patriot and a nationalist (could well have been Stephen Fry), but whoever it was said that a patriot loves his or her own country whereas a nationalist hates everyone else’s.
It’s probably an oversimplification, but it does mean I’m proud to call myself a patriot and would never describe myself as a nationalist.
Good point. You only have to look around the UK to see Scots who are appalled to be called British, Ulster Protestants who take offence at being called Irish, and English who deny they are Europeans.
The irony as far as the Scots are concerned, is that since 1745, they have made the greatest contribution per capita to the British Army.
I found the quote below in that grand old work horse called Bartlett’s Quotations. It’s attributed to Sydney J Harris, a Brit born in 1917 who spent most of his life in the United States as a reputable journalist for a leading Chicago newspaper (according to Wiki, which I cannot yet bring myself fully to trust but ought to be O. K. for basic info.)
“The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war.”
Similar to G.K. Chesterton’s, “My country right or wrong is like saying My Mother drunk or sober”
Fry said that on his language programme i seem to remember recently,i thought he attributed it to some french bloke,but can’t be sure
@Kojac.
Don’t know who you were referring to, but both the quotes are correctly sourced.
red?