Britainology 26: Poppygeddon

when you say medicine wasn’t the same during ww1, it’s worth it to spell out that it was specifically antibiotics and anesthesia (the kind that didn’t cause high death rates by pulmonary aspiration) that weren’t developed or widely available until the 1930s and 40s. Even if someone survived an attack with a nonfatal wound the probability of an excruciating death was still extremely high

Thanks for the information about the Conscientious Objector at Cleethorpes. Looking through Google, it was difficult to read about - mostly buried under tourism articles. I've lived in Cleethorpes for all of my upbringing, but left at University. From what I can read, rather than a formal concentration camp for objectors, the famous case was a single soldier from the Manchester regiment stationed in Cleethorpes, who was sentenced to an abysmal treatment, essentially buried in a 12ft pit on the beach. He managed to last 11 days into his 28 day sentence (for being an objector) before his health failed and he was brought out of the pit. He smuggled out a letter, and gave his address as "The Pit, Shame Camp, Cleethorpes". The case of James Brightmore was subsequently reported on by the Manchester Guardian and this read out in parliament. If you Google for "Shane Camp Cleethorpes" - a misspelling - you do get a Hansard exchange of the Parliamentary question of his treatment. There is some local reporting from the early 2000s recounting the story, amongst other examples of Cleethorpes' experience in WWI. In WWII it was notable as a base for the Polish Army in Exile, on what is today Weelsby Woods. After the war, most of the unit chose to remain in Britain.

Anyone got any more info about the satanic zone?

Ahh the 90's when they told us to join military just for the GI Bill rather than making into some heroic moral act.

so glad yous found the whitby dracula Remembrance Day post…that image just lives in my brain now

Was just listening to "sister pod" Corner Spati and yelped when the host mentioned “Cool Britannia.” oh gawd. The London Olympics logo. Please help me scratch this awful scab of a memory.

I genuinely think it's important hearing all this somber military history - thank you so much for this

I should mention there's guy in my village who has two sleeve tattoos. His left arm is some generic Polynesian patterns, looks kinda cool. HOWEVER, on his other arm he has AN ENTIRE ww1 despition of tommies airdropping down into trenches through dappled sunlight between clouds and Bombers flying overhead, bordered with loads of poppies. It is a sight so cursed I wish I had the courage to ask him for a picture so I could show you this madness. He's cool usually, but I hesitate to ask him about his politics. There's also another guy in my village who, in a similar fashion, has on arm, the Ska skanking mascot of The Specials, but then on the other, a more recent, single photorealistic giant poppy below his bicep. Complete with dramatic drop shadow. Just such completely jarring aesthetics from two very different British cultural niches. Again, nice guy, but I try not to prod him too much, just in case. I don't normally comment on people's tattoo's because it's their personal choice as to what they have, but fuck me, both of those do a number on me when I see either of these guys in the village shop!

And now I have an insatiable need for more serious Milo.

I could be wrong but I think it was revealed that the head of Royal British legion has a salary of £4 mil per year, which feels pretty messed up when a lot of veterans do end up homeless and disabled after being blown to bits.

as an american hog, i would like to point out that modern anti vaxx nonsense did start in britain. im pretty sure milo was talking about covid vaccines but i wouldnt want to pass up an opportunity to rage about Wakefield

We've had drama in my town as despite the fact there was a well attended Rememberance Sunday ceremony at the war memorial, some people were not "invited"(?) and there was not a parade this year. Also cars on the next door road weren't stopped for the 2 minutes silence. This has now escalated to the point the local Tory MP has agreed to an emergency meeting and people on Facebook are calling for the council to be brought down

It has to go back at least to 2012 when James McClean started getting death threats about not wearing a poppy on his jersey

Another case of Australia leading the anglophone world in shitty trends. Here there was a huge ramping up of nationalistic war commemorations in the 1990s. In the 1970s and '80s during Anzac Day ceremonies there were pitched fights between police and feminist groups demanding that sexual assault be recognised as a war crime. Hundreds of women occupied the Cenotaph in Sydney to disrupt the dawn service. By 2017 journalist Yassmin Abdel-Magied was pretty much chased out of the colony for the innocuous tweet "Lest. We. Forget. (Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine …" [Manus and Nauru being two countries forced to host Australian gulags for refugees. And all four being places where Australian soldiers fought]. Another journalist, Scott McIntyre, was merely sacked in 2015 for a tweet pointing out Anzac war crimes in WW1. Really, since the late 1990s it has been impossible to dissent from the Anzac mythology.

Did my first poppy season in benighted Albion this year as a sort of foreigner and it was truly strange. 40% of the people on the street were acting like it was Yuletide, but for the Uncles and Cousins War instead of the birth of some baby.

Glaring dissaprovingly at my hated neighbor for refusing to wear a poppy to the dogging session

I remember the troop worship culture being massively pushed by the sun and mail during Iraq/Afghanistan as a way to build up support for the war and rememberence day being rolled up into that.

From South Africa, black dude in my mid-30s not too long ago bumped into a very emotional WW1 "remembrance" event. I now live in an area with too many 'test' bases, a huge ass 'gymnasium' and obviously very boer. I read so much about SAs involvement in WW1, the [white] politics around it and the foundations of "the soldier of fortune" shit.

The Centenary really didn't help in 2014, it was months of Aestheticisation of the poppy symbol but everyone who remembered serving in The Great War was dead, and Michael Gove was actively working to destroy the cultural memory of it.

Wonder if some of this started as a response to the poppy burning protests from around 2010. I remember thinking the backlash at the time was a little over the top (and also wishing they'd just burn real poppies because I was a dumb teenager at the time). Maybe right-wing resentment towards a few angry Muslims exercising their right to protest also helped transform the holiday into the jingoistic embarrassment it's become?

How dare you denigrate the Poppy Pizza? It was good enough for our boys at Vimy Ridge! What next, making fun of the Kap'yong Memorial Tapas Bar?!?

Was there a Britainology for Top Gear or did I just imagine it?

Hell yes. Canadian hog here and one of the delightfully diseased bits of British culture we've retained is the fucking poppies and mindless glorification of getting gassed at the Somme. I'm excited to compare and contrast.