Polish population in the UK. Can't wear my'Poppy With Pride'

[Ian Raleigh]

I live in Mansfield and i have been told that i can't wear my 'Poppy with pride' in Mansfield !
This is because the Polish don't agree with it and don't want to see them. ! I say to the Poles...

IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY IN OUR COUNTRY AND DON'T AGREE WITH HISTORY AND YOU ARE NOT WILLING
TO LEARN OUR WAYS AND OUR LANGUAGE.........BACK TO YOUR OWN COUNTRY AND LIVE US BRITS IN PEACE.

A polish man has gone up to an old war time Vet' and ripped his Poppy off his blazer and stamped on it and has shouted
untold swear words in his own polish language, then he ran off ! How brave of him.

WHAT SORT OF GOVERNMENT DO WE ALLOW TO RUN 'OUR COUNTRY' AND ALLOW IDIOTS INTO THIS COUNTRY FOR WORK
ONLY FOR THESE MORONS TO DO AS THEY PLEASE AND TELL US BRITS WHAT WE CAN AND CAN'T DO !!
IT'S ABOUT TIME A LOT OF FOREIGNERS WERE BOOTED OUT OF OUR COUNTRY FOR GOOD.

Sorry if anyone on this forum is polish/Russian/Latvian who are good fellas but i'm sick of them
where i live it used to be all English residents but the is a Pole to every four houses now.

[rualexander]

So, besides your xenophobic ranting, can you tell us why the Polish community have an objection to you wearing a poppy?

[Ian Raleigh]

You tell me !

[Cunobelin]

It is (or should be) a personal choice

I have no right to tell one to wear them, equally I have no right to tell someone not to wear them

[rualexander]

You tell me !

Well, you said that the Poles don't agree with it and don't want to see them, so how do you know this isn't just the opinion of the one person you refer to?
To extrapolate it to the whole Polish community seems a bit extreme if you don't know the reasons.

[Mike Sales]

Where did you get this nonsense from?

A polish man has gone up to an old war time Vet' and ripped his Poppy off his blazer and stamped on it and has shouted
untold swear words in his own polish language, then he ran off ! How brave of him.

This sounds like one of those urban legends. Can you give us any authentification, or did you just hear this from a friend of a friend?

[al_yrpal]

Some Poles think that we were responsible for handing Poland over to the Soviets at the end of WW2 too easily, especially as we went to war when the nazis invaded Poland. Around here we have the remains of camps in the forest that housed thousands of Poles after the war. These people didnt want to go back for obvious reasons. Lots of Poles and their descendents live around here. I have never seen any animosity from them though, I have found every Pole friendly and very glad to be here.

Al

[PW]

I worked with plenty in the pits. All nice blokes and usually proud of what they did as very young men. I think Ian's got a wrong 'un, they exist in all nationalities.

[thirdcrank]

I was confused by this so I googled <poppies mansfield> and it seems to refer to the Kettering Town Football Team. (Recently beaten 3-0 )

On a more serious note, I often read newspaper obituaries and a couple of weeks ago there was one for Tadeusz Sawicz - the last surviving Polish Battle of Britain pilot. When Poland was invaded, he shot down several Luftwaffe aircraft, even though he was flying an aging bip;ane. He made the last fight into Warsaw when the city was surrounded, carrying messages for the government. He spent the night repairing the gunfire damage sustained by the plane and flew out the following day, again under fire. He was one of a number of Polish airmen who flew to France to fight on. (Still equipped with biplanes. He was one of those who then made it to the UK and was gratefully recruited into the RAF (some forming the most successful squadron in the Battle of Britain.) He was decorated for bravery while flying with the RAF, the USAAF, and by The Netherlands. I suppose that as a survivor to a great age, he's not what it's about, but to be sure of my facts, I checked the website of the Polish Heritage Society and they seem to have no problem with the Poppy Appeal

http://polishheritage.co.uk/index.php?o ... Itemid=159

(No connection, other than as a grateful member of the public.)

[Ian Raleigh]

This sounds like one of those urban legends. Can you give us any authentification, or did you just hear this from a friend of a friend?

I was stopped in the street by a council official today and was told not to wear a poppy as is would upset the Polish.
The man then told me about the Pole ripping the poppy off the war time vet, so if he's lieing so am i

I worked with plenty in the pits. All nice blokes and usually proud of what they did as very young men. I think Ian's got a wrong 'un, they exist in all nationalities.

I too have worked with Polish miners and they was all good workers.

A factory were i worked at has a 85% workforce of Poles, most of them are good
workers during the day when the gaffers are there, but when they worked nights
they did chuff all.

Alot of todays young Poles are forgeting what the poppy appeal really means to us
i for one have a sence of proudness for 300 Squadron RAF Faldingworth and that was a Polish sqd.

[meic]

Mansfield is renowned for its welcoming attitude to outsiders.

I taught in a Mansfield School for a while, as was the fashion then, they had to have an "equality policy".
The headmaster said "we dont need one their are no ****** in this school"
I expect it has stayed that way.

The headquarters of the NF was just down the road in Erewash.

I have a mate out here who lived next door but one, chatting about our younger days I discovered that he was yet another person who I had been preparing to fight in my army days.He was in the Polish military when we were squaring up against each other in the 80's.

Now he is "over here, stealing our jobs and our women"

So somebody is rumoured to have torn a poppy off someone else's jacket and suddenly its time to lay into the Poles. I thought these Poppies were trouble.

[AlbionLass]

Polish pilots made the largest non-British contribution to the RAF in WW2. By the end of the war, around 19,400 Poles were serving in the RAF.

[tramponabike]

I was stopped in the street by a council official today and was told not to wear a poppy as is would upset the Polish.
The man then told me about the Pole ripping the poppy off the war time vet, so if he's lieing so am i

Surely you asked this "council official" for his id to enable you to report his highly irrisponsible, anti social rumour mongering while on official duty?

[Mike Sales]

At the age of ten I was moved from an island school in Australia to a primary school in a mining village near Mansefield. My only clear memory is this: I was fighting some nasty boy and surrounded, as is usual, by a cheering crowd of children. I was feeling a bit outnumbered when I heard a voice.
"Come on Australian youth, bang 'is 'ead on't wall."
So I did. Good advice.

[DavidT]

Polish pilots made the largest non-British contribution to the RAF in WW2. By the end of the war, around 19,400 Poles were serving in the RAF.

There is a well sign posted Polish War Cemetary in Newark. Always a good reminder when I go past.