To ask if you agree with ‘the flag flyers’

Sadly all the RG degrees and middle class credentials won't change the fact that mass migration impacts more on those who have less and live in towns that are unrecognisable from where they grew up. There'll be a big swing to Reform at the next election unless the current government gets at grip on the situation and that looks unlikely to happen.

Are you a journalist?

This 100%.

It’s incredibly dangerous, thick and stupid (to pick up on OP’s criteria 🙄) to dismiss what large numbers of people are concerned about. You may think they are wrong but their concerns need to be addressed and they need to be reassured. Anything else would be political suicide for the government and very dangerous for the country as a whole. Farage is where he is because these worries have been dismissed too flippantly in the past.

Xenophobes

So do I!

Political stuff apart, I think the Union Jack is one of the most striking flag designs in the world.

I’m patriotic and whatever Farage or Reform do, I’m not letting them ‘own’ our national flags.

Flags aren't aways a Farage support symbol, or negative. I was driving through Hillingdon today (West London) and noticed a huge amount of flags flying from almost every lamppost it felt like . Googling it showed that they were thete to celebrate Battle of Britain day, which is officially 15th September, but the Battle itself was September and October, and there is a big RAF museum and 2 RAF bases in the area, so it's strongly linked. The flags represented an event where brave armed forces fought for our freedom as a country and won, saving us from a fate far worse than Farage.

To answer the original question - I'm educated and absolutely don't support Farage. But to not acknowledge he is a very real threat is dangerous. And to not try to genuinely understand why people would vote for him and write off anyone who does so as extremely stupid isn't going to stop them. Labour need to make very real, positive differences to people's lives, and fast. I had such high hopes last May, and have been so dissapointed. If Reform do get in I will be placing the blame squarely with Labour.

I believe ignoring the opinions of a huge percentage of the population is a huge risk. No 'intelligent' person saw Brexit coming or Trump winning a second election, and look what happened. Working class people are struggling and the opinions of 'normal' people are being ignored.

Are racist zenophobes poorly educated? Yes, usually.
its horrifying seeing 1930s fascism being recycled again.

Regardless - the dragon is pretty - the geometric patterns are not

Working class (grew up in deep poverty), educated in the autodidactic tradition of the working class and now in the process of obtaining a degree in midlife. I've no time for the flag shagging. I've no time for the 'protect our women' garbage. They're an absolute scourge.

Bachelor degree & retired on about 37k. Totally agree with the flaggers

I love to see flags flying, as in France. We shouldn’t surrender our national flags to any one political group. It might take an effort to do that but it’s worth it.

I'm not a Farage supporter but neither am I comfortable with dismissing and despising sections of the population and deciding they must be thick and uneducated.

I have a BA, an MA and a professional qualification from the time when degrees were degrees, if we’re going to be unpleasantly snobbish on this thread.

The majority of the current ‘flag flyers’ (the ones using cheap cable ties on lampposts and painting mini roundabouts) couldn’t give a shit when the Lionesses won the Euros. They couldn’t give a shit when it was the King’s coronation. They don’t give a shit about the current women’s rugby. They don’t really care about their communities. They don’t donate to food banks. They don’t engage with local councillors and MPs. They don’t attend community meetings. They don’t volunteer or get involved with local charities. They cry “help our own first” but they’re the first to sneer at the homeless people we have on our streets and call them “druggies”.

My local town has recently been flagged. They look awful. Cheap nasty, flimsy material flags, tied with cheap cable ties half way up lampposts. If anyone challenges them for their reasons on the local Facebook group their response is “lefty cunt”. They are knuckle-dragging embarrassments.

My highest qualification is a NVQ level 3, but I also hold a professional qualification and have to be on a register in order to do my job. And I sadly earn below the national average (despite working 40hr/wk).

I am also from a very underprivileged background, and grew up in poverty.

But I definitely don't agree with the flag-shaggers. Their motive is racist and fascist.

I find the slur throwing people the most worrying: I don’t recall seeing such class snobbery before. ‘ thick gammon’? People speaking that way clearly arent educated in any meaningful sense of the word, the derision is very ugly.

Interesting.

In our area it is the far right putting them up so I can't see any reclaiming if it.

Degree & professional qualification and I love seeing them. It lifts my spirits no end.

I see it as us reclaiming our flags from the far right who effectively stole them from the nation years ago.

I’m an immigrant who’s spent my whole adult life in the UK, and I genuinely love the Union Jack. I think It’s one of the best-designed flags in the world. It’s frustrating that it’s been hijacked by racists. Maybe if more people proudly and casually display it, we can reclaim it and take away that power.

That said, some of the flag displays in my town are questionable. People put them up on lamp posts without a tall enough ladder, so now we’ve got flags at half mast all over the place 🤦‍♀️

Middle earner with a degree, and I don’t agree with ‘Poundland Trump’ in the slightest.

I saw today that some of the flags are already starting to look a bit sorry for themselves after the wind and rain.

They’re going to hang there looking a mess for the foreseeable - like sad little corpses hanging in gibbets. A bleak right-wing homage to Tommy Robinson. Lovely.

To add, I wonder how many Brits even know the story of Albion and Brutus, how it is said Albion still watches over this little island so it said Britannia rules the waves. I love stories like this and they do make me feel proud to be British! I don’t recall ever covering it in school, but reading in books!
I wonder if heritage legends like this were used in classrooms, more would feel proud to be British and not feel the need to take down flags.

Degree educated, not a Farage supporter. Not really surprised that flying the flag is gaining traction. The sheer hipocrisy of councils in taking down the various flags of the United Kingdom yet refusing to take down Palestinian flags is inflammatory.

I don’t, middle/high income. Middle class.

Considering nipping that the women's world Cup rugby is on I think it's a bit sad that some may feel embarrassed to show the flag to support them.

Sometimes I think life’s shit! I don’t have a job or enough money to pay the bills, I’m on a waiting list with the NHS for 2 years but when I look out of my window and I see the Union Jack, my heart swells with pride and I think all that hardship is nothing as long as I have a Union Jack to gaze upon.

Does this seem likely? We need real change not silly flags - unless of course the flags are not about national pride but something more sinister…but how could that be it just a flag it’s not a symbol of hate is it? I think we know that it is. And that has been caused by the very people who keep banging on about pride in the flag. The flying of the flag is a territorial warning.