Flags..

Sounds like you're really nailing it with how your handling your feelings - brilliant idea to try and turn it into positive energy. Wishing you well OP x

And she has done the right thing as I suggested reaching out for proper mental health support

Fantastic that your therapist has been able to help you put into perspective. flags are everywhere atm. it just happens to be outside your house. If it wasn’t outside yours it would be outside some one else’s.

Thankyou!

You're very kind and have made me feel heard.

to other posters. I have no issue with flags. Fly them with pride.

Just don't go outside other people's houses in the night and hang them there please.

My therapist used all the reasons that have been on this thread as to why people can hang them anywhere. He said lots of people have wanted to talk about flags this week. It was a video call so I took him to the window and showed him. 'oh'.
It's huge. It blocks the sun to my house. It makes a loud noise when it's windy. It casts a constantly dancing shadow throughout my home unless I shut the curtains. Even at night as it's under a street lamp. It is horribly intrusive. It is the only flag that has been put up in at least a 5 street radius.

I am dealing with it by using my positive energy to be kind to others, and override any negative emotions from the consequences of someone else's actions.

I'm saying no such thing. I just think someone who's said they're struggling with anxiety is more of a priority than our opinions on the flag!

So are you saying we should just agree that the English or British flag is a terrible thing. If this is affecting her mental health surely reaching out for mental health support would be better than people just confirming her fears

Oh plenty of people are complaining about the Palestinian flag being flown. If she now considers England her home, then the English flag is her flag.

The poster said she was an immigrant. And why not? People are flying the Palestine flag and no one is co,planning so why not other flags?

If the above are referencing the pp, I think it wise to refrain from making it too personal. She's already admitted to suffering with fragile m/ h and the flag is triggering her anxiety. Whatever your thoughts on the rights or wrongs of them being flown, best to be sensitive. We're all human at the end of the day!

Why would you fly foreign flags? Surely the poster is British so the flag being flown is her flag.

Why don’t you put a bigger flag of your own country out? Celebrate your heritage and reclaim flags? Some people have done thst in our town and it looks fab.

Take care of yourself and try not to overthink too much. Easier said than done, I know x

Sorry this is happening to you

i would want it down as well, especially if it was outside my house and someone thought it was mine!

I totally do 🤣
And ADHD.

Thankyou!

I am completely trying to ignore the flag but it's big and I can see it from every window and my front door, so all my coping mechanisms are having to restart every time I see the bloody thing. It's been 6 days now.
Even when I think it's not personal, and distance myself, I am reminded that it was personal to the great moron that put it up there. I have made an appointment with my therapist for Thursday already. Tbh I'm impressed I've lasted this long without losing it.

Do you have an anxiety disorder? Apologies if not, but I recognise some of the emotion behind your words. If it helps, I don't think anyone is deliberately targeting you although I understand it feels personal. Try not to hyper focus OP, it's easy to get into a loop of negative thinking if you let it take hold

This!
A thousand times this!

The flag is directly outside my bedroom window. It is just beyond my reach. Someone, hidden, went up there with a ladder. I went to bed at 3am and the lady opposite messaged me at 7 am to ask why I'd put a flag up. It's creepy and threatening. Why should I just leave it there?! Why should this person not get in trouble?!
It's really horrible!

There's a group of men dressed all in black with their faces covered currently going around my town at 10:30pm with a ladder placing flags very high on every lamppost they find.

If this was just a lovely, normal show of pride in the country and the flag with no dark / xenophobic / racist side to it, why aren't they doing it in the daytime, or showing their faces, or wearing suitable reflective clothing for the night time?

Surely the best solution is to assist in these countries where there are similar cultures for the refugees though. So maybe provide funding to these countries to help with the refugees.

We signed up to these conventions when the refugees landscape was very different the situation needs a complete overhaul.

we need to support people to improve the countries from which they came. Otherwise the problem is going to keep building. Most of the countries from which people are fleeing appear to be heavily religious..maybe we need to be encouraging more secularism as a counter to the theocracies

The Facebook idea has not gone well.
I should, in retrospect, have asked on my page instead of the local group.

2 people are arguing about who is the real rascist, and someone has asked if they can borrow my ladder 🤷

Thankyou for the idea though, it has at least kept me entertained!

No they shouldn’t. What if the first safe country they reach is a tiny, poor country. Look at Lebanon. Their population is only 5 million and 1.5 million of those are refugees. That’s like us taking about 30 million refugees. There is nothing in international law to say that refugees must stay in the first safe country. It’s impractical, unfair and quite ridiculous.

We are signed up the UN refugee convention. We have a legal, as well as a moral obligation to take our share and frankly we take far fewer than most countries of our size and standing.

I appreciate what you're saying and I have honestly tried. I kept quiet and reported it with no fuss or involvement of anyone else. The highways agency were very understanding and placed it on a 28 day removal notice.

To get an email telling me this had been overridden by my reform council 5 days later felt like a kick in the face. To have an organisation openly hostile to immigrants telling me to suck something up that would usually be taken down by the council feels like an endorsement of irrational hatred.

Either one of my neighbours has put it up (in which case they know exactly that I'm an immigrant) and is pretending they haven't,
Or, someone from outside the community has come up in the dead of night and placed it away from themselves into a community other than their own. Both acts are hostile.

I cannot ignore something that is directly outside the front of my house. I live in a dead end road. There is no through traffic. I have spent all week trying to rationalise it and being understanding. I have now had enough.

Does anyone know if I can legally remove it myself if I find a ladder?

Which other comparable country currently has a far-right driven campaign of daubing paint on mini-roundabouts and other infrastructure, and spraying racist slogans on immigrant-owned businesses ?

Your comment just shows how misinformed you are about the world right now.

Normal countries don’t have far-right driven campaigns to spam them up lampposts, in this case directly outside an immigrant’s house.

We should not have to put up with public infrastructure being co-opted by the far-right and vandalised.

I would just leave it. It’s most likely a coincidence about where it is. If it has been placed there on purpose it will probably be replaced which will no doubt make you feel worse.

The less fuss made about flags the better, it will just become normal to fly the flag like most other countries.