Irish voters 'hostile' to poppy symbol

The commonwealth who, according to you went it alone, made up about 25% of the population of the planet at the time.
And I think France would take issue with your revisionism.

As for Britain being known as the cradle of democracy - no, you're mixing up Britain with Greece. Britain isn't even the earliest democracy in the West.
And given that they in effect denied democratic representation to Catholics in the North up until the 1970s, it could be argued that they were barely a democracy at all.

But Britain isnt even a democracy today!

Head of State - Unelected

Upper House - Unelected.

Lower House - Partially democratic (FPTP is not representative).

It was not the poles who captured the first Enigma machine.

 It was the British destroyer HMS Bulldog in 1941 which forced the U-110 to surface in the North Atlantic. A boarding paty from the destroyer captured the machine before scuttling the sub.

The Americans made a film about the Enigma machine capture giving the impression it was the Americans who captured it first but it was not.

The Americans were years late in to entering ww2, like in the first world war. Yes they did lend Britain money in ww2, which was paid back every year and was only fully repaid about 20 years ago. The British practically bankrupted themselves fighting ww2.

Nobody denied some brave Poles fought alongside British and other forces in ww2. It was Britain who declared war on Germany after Germany invaded Poland.

Ireland did not go to the defence of Poland, though of course over 100,000 Irish people helped the British war effort in one way or another, inc many who served in their armed forces.

Like many other posters here you have a lot to learn.

Nobody is ignoring the others. My view is that, in this day and age it should be mandatory for a country to be a full democracy to be a member of the EU.

My point still stands.

There was a lot more to enigma than that and the British done most of the work on cracking enigma after that.

And you still know very little about the Enigma machine, and how the Allies could not decipher it fully In the early years of the war. So no I would not trust you.

If your irish and not hostile to the poppy you more than likely dont know your history and have zero patriotism or respect to the hero's who fought for this country.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyzmx5k1zzo

McClean told Talksport: "I'm in my workplace and I feel I should never feel threatened in that workplace... I wasn't waiting for him to make the first swing. So I did."

"Somehow, there were four male Cardiff fans - late 20s, early 30s. They recognised me [and] immediately started running their mouths off at me. I ignored the first jibe. The second, I responded to and I confronted them about it. Words were said. One of them, a tall chap with glasses, made a hostile move towards me."

McClean added: "People need to understand just because we play football doesn't mean people can try to take liberties without their actions having consequences. That was it. Nothing further happened. And the situation was dealt with."

Fair play the lad, he doesn't say what the argument was over, but the BBC article does mention his poppy stance, so I'd say it's fair to assume

I've genuinely never understood this whole poppy nonsense. I'm the son of a man who fought in WW2 in the Royal Engineers and the grandson of someone who fought in WW1 whose two brothers died in France.

None of whom ever wore the poppy or would ever had the compunction to. It was never, ever, a thing for them.

Its a truly bizarre load of absolute bullshit.

I read this and thought it was a typo, didn't realize it was Katie McCabe

https://m.independent.ie/opinion/comment/donal-fallon-poppygate-has-gone-too-far-britain-must-respect-peoples-right-not-to-wear-the-symbol/a1505293699.html

There are few things you can set your watch by in the news cycle, but Poppygate on our neighbouring island is a reliable certainty every November.

A new flavour is added this year, with Irish footballers Katie McCabe and Caitlin Hayes replacing James McClean in headlines for refusing to wear the remembrance symbol of the Royal British Legion on their jerseys.

Fair play the girls

It seems to be a uniquely English fetish. Countries like France and Belgium do commemorate WW1 and WW2, but to nowhere near the same levels as in Britain - there is no 'poppy fascism' debate raging in either country, nor accusations of people disrespecting the war dead. The role of the British right wing press seems to be a key element here.

Well The Great War hit a lot of British families very hard. In fact, even after the Second World War many considered it to be much worse in that respect. There's, literally, thousands of monuments and statues dedicated to the fallen of WWI throughout Britain. So the poppy symbol became mostly a way for veterans and families of the war dead to remember them.

But since then, and especially in the last decade or so, it's been hijacked by politicised wankers and used as a way of pointing fingers at people who choose not to wear it, as if they're somehow being offensive to some made up sensibilities. Especially galling are those who admonish others for not wearing one that have no connection to the military whatsoever.

If people want to wear a poppy, they're more than welcome to. But others remember the British military's not so shining history too, especially those from countries that were subject to British rule, and they shouldn't be made feel uncomfortable because they choose not to wear one.

And if you also read wiki on the Enigma you will see how the Nazis further developed the Enigma after war broke out, making it unreadable in scale. The Germans also increased its security at the outbreak of the war by changing the cipher system daily. Wiki says:

. The initial breakthrough was made by Polish mathematicians Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki, and Henryk Zygalski before the war, who first broke the German Enigma cipher and passed their findings to the British. During the war, Turing and his team at Bletchley Park further developed these methods, building on the Polish work and creating a more advanced machine called the Bombe to break the code at scale.  

• Polish Cipher Bureau: Before World War II, the Polish Cipher Bureau, with mathematicians Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki, and Henryk Zygalski, first broke the Enigma code. They used techniques including a "bomba" device and were able to provide critical intelligence to the British just before the war began. 
• Alan Turing and Bletchley Park: After the war started, Alan Turing and his colleagues at Bletchley Park built upon the Polish work. Turing designed an improved electromechanical machine called the Bombe to rapidly process possible settings and find the correct one. 
• Team effort: While Turing is often highlighted for his crucial role, it was a collaborative effort. Other key figures included Gordon Welchman, who significantly improved the Bombe's efficiency, and Joan Clarke, who was part of the team that broke the naval Enigma ciphers. 

There are 8 or 10 good books about the Enigma machine. You should read one of them, very interesting. The Germans kept upgrading its security but never realised the Allies had broken it until after the war. The British were extremely successful at keeping the operation a secret, even within their own forces and government.