‘Had to dodge buying a poppy four times on journey back to London. Sighed a f…k off a little too loudly on the last one’.
The following tweet has caused a stir country wide as it has been shared right across social media with most people shaking their head in disgust.
The person who wrote the tweet is believed to work for the NHS and clearly seems to have no respect for those who gave up their life for us.
The Havering Daily spoke to Carl Neal, a retired veteran and poppy seller from Hornchurch in regards to the shocking tweet.
Carl said :
“She is entitled to dodge poppy sellers if she wants, she doesn’t have to buy a poppy. People who fought in the wars gave up their life for her to have the freedom to choose if she wants to wear a poppy or not.
“She doesn’t have the right to swear or insult people for selling poppies. Last year one of our poppy sellers was spat upon outside a Hornchurch supermarket. I’ve had people lecture me why I shouldn’t be selling poppies. People do swear and can be rude to us but there is nothing we can do except report their abusive behaviour.
“Everyone has the right and the freedom of choice whether to wear a poppy or not but you shouldn’t insult poppy sellers”.
Carl served in the Second Royal Tank Regiment and now spends a lot of his time raising money for the armed services. Carl’s wife Wendy is the coordinator in Hornchurch for the British Legion poppy appeal.
Carl finished:
“We are lucky here, Havering residents are very generous. Last year we raised £56,000 selling poppies”.
Amazing – how insensitive, but then to post about it just shows the level of stupidity of the person involved. Did she think she would receive huge cheers of support?
I was selling poppies in one of the large supermarkets recently and was extremely pleased with the generosity of many people.
I did not face any hostility, and I had a nice chat with some people.
Unbelievable! Did she really think she was going to get rousing support for that? We all have our stupid moments (though not on that scale) but we at least have the sense to keep them to ourselves. The people selling poppies are committed to the cause, they are volunteers doing their bit to raise money for those that gave their lives to allow us to live ours the way we would wish to. They are not ‘chuggers’ being paid to raise money for whichever charity pays them. They don’t force themselves on people so there is no need to dodge them. Don’t buy a poppy if you don’t want one but don’t treat the sellers like scum. You should be extremely ashamed of yourself young lady and I hope your parents/grand parents give you a right earful when you get home. I should imagine your employers are wondering exactly who they have in their offices right now, too.