hugolover

Major LOL this thread. Dissenting opinions quickly beaten down, BAEC FT at its best.

mkjr

Here Here!!!!

mkjr

Does not look weird in Canada.

hugolover...you have to be kidding me. yours is the only trolling comment.

MickV

Don't be apologising to the people on the internet. Personally I don't see what's offensive about what you said. Looking objectively at it, your point is rational. Should BA (a public company operating worldwide) be doing this? Can I understand that there are parts of the world that would find it offensive considering some of the things that have happened, of course, that is plainly obvious. The poppy hysteria that has taken over the country has gone too far. A presenter on TV was recently harassed because her hair covered her poppy. Forcing people to wear it or take part in a two minute silence is going directly against the grain of what it should represent, but that is OMNI territory.

My personal view is that the two minute silence is a nice thing to observe, I am glad BA do it at T5. Importantly you are not forced to observe so if you are that way inclined don't worry about it. You or anyone else not observing the 2 minute silence or not wearing a poppy will not in any way offend me.

mario

So first you say that you think that British Airways should have a British CEO. But now it should behave as an "international" airline? Isn't that contradictory in the slightest?

DocWatson

Completely OT, but the reason for 'ambient' noise, with birds tweeting or distant traffic, is to give some sort of output to prevent the poignant silence being disrupted after 20 seconds by the crash of a dead air filling track, meant for technical difficulty. I used to work in rock music radio and this was especially important - you don't want the emergency Iron Maiden minidisc to come in on November 11th!

I like that BA did it. My big multinational company announced the silence, asked staff to refrain from printing and noise out of respect for others, and announced the end of 2 minutes.

sebastiansw3

I was roundly put back in my box for thinking that British Airways should be British by some of the very people in this thread who are now demanding it be British. I suggest that I am not the one expressing contradictory opinions! You can't have it both ways!

TheTakeOffRush

Fascinating thread to follow from across the pond (twice over, I suppose). In the U.S. we call it Veterans Day since 1954, and it's become more a focus on living veterans, trading places with our Memorial Day in May, which focuses on the dead. From what I've seen, I think you Brits (generally, of course) honor today with more institutional reverence and more dissenting voices. Here most everybody is somewhat blandly for "it." But it's most striking that you've kept an eye toward the specific event 104 years ago.

^ Thanks for the numbers, jcm9000.

Flying Doctor

Personally I think that this is entirely fitting and appropriate.
I have been working in my NHS Hospital and it is observed.
I used to work in M/S and it is observed.
Today even the Overground managed to observe it.

It is not just about Brits in 2 wars it is about all those who have laid down their lives in conflict. They made the ultimate sacrifice so that we hopefully never have to.

I have the utmost respect and I find it 'weird' anyone finds it different. For 2 minutes of silence and respect we all get 525,598 minutes of freedom. It surely cannot be too much to ask.

Good on BA - the right and proper thing to do......

FD.

Kreative03

There was also a 2 min silence on Sunday (11/8) and back in July (7/7). The entire airport grinds to a halt, which is amazing to see.

Swampz64

FlyingB1975 I'm assuming you are from the USA and know about the Vietnam War? If so you will know around 57000 US soldiers were killed as a result of this war.

In Britain Remembrance Day now covers all wars but is still primarily linked to Workd War I which of course had nothing to do with the USA, or did it? Well actually 116000 American service men died in Workd War I, very nearly double Vietnam. So yesterday your men were being remembered alongside ours.

Hoch

I think it should be pointed out that poppies used to be distributed in the US by the American Legion. As far as I know, some American Legion halls still do it. However, unlike in the UK this is not done leading up to Armistice Day (Veterans Day in the US) but Memorial Day, which falls at the end of May.

Poppies on Memorial Day are not as common as during the period leading up to Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day in the UK, but they are there and the tradition does exist in the US.

H

Waterhorse

The method or day that we remember the dead is not important, it is the act itself. Armistice Day is an important focus and helps formalise the process. I am proud to honour that tradition and it helps me to have a quite moment to remember that two of my relatives were respectively gassed in the trenches and torpedoed in both WWI and II. I respect some others may not understand our traditions of memorial but would ask them to be polite enough as to respect them. That a British Company chooses to honour this tradition should be of no great surprise, except maybe to those that do not understand the British. I would happily honour the US Memorial Day traditions and the ANZAC day memorials and indeed any remeberances held for war dead around the world be they for our allies or for those we fought against, I would not force others to do the same. Wear a poppy or don't but try to show a little respect for the memory of the dead.

paul4040

Absolutely.

I have reservations about our country's relationship with Remembrance but it is important to remember that the vast majority of British people find it a worthwhile and constructive event. I always partake in the silence and I would defend anybody's right to stand up for the tradition, even at an international airport. It's two minutes of your life.

simons1

Keep what private? Half the country comes to a standstill for those two minutes as people pay their respects. I can't see the CCR staff are any different and whether they do it in public or private will still result in a 2 minute delay to someone's BA burger.