Flags..

This feels pretty sinister to me. Unless you think they just really love curry?

What evidence have you seen that it’s sinister?

There is lots of hearsay and people coming with outlandish accusations like ‘far right’, but as even mentioning that we’d quite like our borders back under control is deemed ‘far right’ by some, that’s not very informative.

It strikes me that we need to normalise flying our own national flag in out country - it is worrying that it makes some people feel uncomfortable. Can you imagine people from France saying they are uncomfortable flying Le Tricolore? If we don’t fly our flag, it leaves space for another flag.

Anti semitism is still not taken seriously and rarely makes mainstream media. I saw a clip of a bus load of Jewish schoolchildren in London I think being harassed, stuff shouted. Clearly an anti semitic attack, hardly reported. Sorry was a few months ago. @TheGirlWhoWantedToBeGod I really feel for The Jewish community at the moment.

England HAS been allowed and I honestly have no issue with them, I think its great that people are patriotic.....HOWEVER .....this is NOT what this is and anyone claiming/believing it is are in denial. I find it quite hostile and worrying as to where it is going!

You seen to have mistaken me for one of the simpletons climbing a ladder with a cable tie and a cheap flag

They’ve just gone up where I live all over town .. I’d like to rip them all down

Yes funny that isn’t it - how people fail to see the blatant hypocrisy is beyond me. There will be a cohort on both sides using the flags as a front for their hateful views in the name of legitimate support but only the right is “bad”.

I don’t like it.

Tell me you don’t understand what’s going on without telling me you don’t understand what’s going on.

‘Shankill ✊🏼Chic’

LOL. Am stealing this.

I've not said anti semitism doesn't exist but I don't currently think that is the main driver for the protests and use of the Palestinian flag and as I said I think Israel have acted appallingly and so have hamas. But we can't take every instance of someone protesting against the atrocious actions against innocent Palestinian people as anti semitism. I equally don't blame every Israeli or Jewish person for what the Israeli government is doing at the moment
Obviously anti semitism is disgusting and use of nazi symbols and attacks are completely unacceptable.
I do think the main intentions behind the recent push to display the st George's flag and graffiti everything is coming from people who want to make clear they don't want anyone they don't think fits their definition of English in the country and spread hate

In answer to your question “is it making you uncomfortable?”, yes it is.

It’s plausibly deniable as there’s nothing racist about a flag in itself, as umpteen posters on here will have already said.

But it feels like racist intimidation and territory marking.

This is very sad. It's time we reclaimed the St George's from the knuckle dragging halfwits. You don't have to "look" English or British to fly the St George's or the Union flag. The flags represent the people of England or Great Britain not just the white, indigenous population. If you want to fly the flag please do so, you have as much right to as anyonelse.

The woman's Rugby World Cup started on Friday so some of the flags will be because of the tournament. Women's rugby has grown massively in popularity.

I didn’t actually say your’s was!

Just that we’ve had pages of it! They just die down & then another one pops up!

Naive yes, faux naive no.

I don't think anybody is worried about how the flags make any communities feel, mainly because nobody is really bothered about the English flag flying. It's a flag. Despite what some grifters would like you to think nobody in reality is offended by a flag.

There are weekly reports of antisemitism in this country, including a teenage boy being shot with an air rifle and swastikas being drawn on Jewish houses, both within the last week. As with most hate, those who aren’t the target rarely acknowledge how bad it is because they don’t experience it and are not part of the affected community. However, the high levels of antisemitism in the UK has been widely reported.

Intentions are important, but so are consequences. You can argue against the Israeli government’s actions without allying yourself with people who attack Jews but far too few people have condemned the antisemitism that has occurred within pro-Palestinian groups, emboldening the perpetrators and giving the impression (rightly or wrongly) that you endorse their behaviour.

Whatever your views about flags (love, hate, don't care), I think you should be willing to recongise the extreme views in the debate and push back on these, on both sides.

😂😂

We’ve had nearly a week of this! Faux-naïve posts, all ‘oh look at the pretty flags’which stirs up pages & pages of disinformation & hate speech!

Hence the reaction to the original post!

I think we should take back our flag from willy waving racists the more flags there are the less of a "shock" factor it has the more normalised it is

Maybe mumsnet doesn't spend a lot of time with the 70/80/90 age bracket but I have and lately they are full of memories from when they were children and there were flags out it was normal behaviour nothing racist or threatening about it just a lot of fun memories

I quite like the flags. Not so keen on the badly painted roundabouts.

Agreed,it's been done to death and unless the op has been living under a rock I'm sure they know what it is about and all the connotations that surround it.

👆👆👆

There will be some people who are only using the Palestinian flag to show their anti Semitism, but I think in this country I have rarely if ever heard someone spouting horrible views towards Jewish people. Not saying it doesn't exist but I think the support for Palestine at the moment is linked far more to the fact people are seeing innocent people starving to death and being bombed, I think people are fairly legitimately outraged at Israel's actions against Palestine, they're not all terrorists and yes the terrorist actions of hamas are also disgusting and they should be punished. I don't think people's intentions in most cases are to make Jewish people feel uncomfortable and I think intentions are important
The sudden patriotism for the English flag isn't currently because people are feeling more national pride, it's a flag that has been overtaken by the far right to promote their racist views about what a 'true English person' is, I don't mind the flag being used when there are national holidays/events or on council buildings etc but this latest influx of 'pride' is just mildly veiled racism. I say this as a white English person, who isn't their target, but i don't like being lumped in with the knuckle dragging morons who seem to forget that they have been treated by immigrants when in hospital, their parents are being cared for in care homes by immigrants, their local Indian restaurant where they get their favourite curry is run by an immigrant. The country would be incredibly boring without the mix of cultures and people