To ask if you agree with ‘the flag flyers’

Flying a flag is about as effective as clapping for the NHS - it doesn’t change a thing. If gven all the problems people have in this country all we need to do is enforce flag flying to make the discontented feel better - they are bigger idiots than I thought!

No. I don't see the point of flags other than maybe at an airport or outside the UN. The US are flag mad, forcing kids to pledge allegiance to it every morning, crazy.

If you need a flag to tell you what country you're in then you need serious help.

I think that is absolutely the intention

You can’t. So when people talk about process and screening it’s not this.

It’s worth remembering that if educated people think X is great and uneducated people think it’s not, sometimes that’s because X affects the two groups differently, not because the latter are thick.

Working class, degree, disagree with the flags. Also disagree with you linking being working class and on a low income with racism. WC people are typically those most likely to live side by side with POC in friendship and community. Please don't make the little England mindset a new stick to beat us with. You'll find it as much in the chocolate box all white villages, where the wealthy people think the flags lower the tone, but agree with Farage nonetheless.

Degree educated, working class background , 1 set of grandparents moved here from Middle East, father born here.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with flag flying. I think it all started when that girl was sent home from school for wearing a Union Jack dress for culture day. Absolutely ridiculous, there’s nothing to be ashamed about being British, and no reason not to be proud or celebrate it! There are certainly people mostly British who I’ve encountered who seem to feel that British culture shouldn’t be given the light of day and hopefully forgotten. The complete opposite to Americans and their patriotic nature, many countries have a happy in between. Britannia rules the waves! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

About immigration, I do find it odd there seems to be an influx of immigrants who don’t seem to want to integrate into Britain, including adhering to British laws. And I do think this is a problem. My grandparents managed to integrate and adopt British culture without forgetting their own. As do many others - they’re not the problem. I find the people taking it down would probably also be the ones who let grooming gangs crack on in fear of being called racist.

i am not a high achiever educationally wise, dont earn much, but from a middle class upbringing.
can't stand the flags!

I’m well educated, I have a master’s from UCL and have worked in NHS on and off for nearly twenty years. I live in London and I love seeing the flags elsewhere in the country - especially the city I grew up in.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

How on earth do you do a criminal background check on someone from a country with no public record infrastructure?

What criminal background checks would you like to do from people escaping from the Taliban? Do you imagine they have some kind of gov.afg portal we could log in to?

i don’t agree with the flag flyers, degree educated, run our own business - high income.

There isn’t a criminal background check on British people unless they need it for work.

I grew up on a scheme and left school at sixteen with five GCSEs. And I think Farage is a cunt.

The latest polls show a clear intent to vote Reform into the Senedd.

I live in a disadvantaged area and I’m not concerned about migrants.

"We don't allow 100s of people to come into the country without a background check on their criminality."

You're quite right, it certainly isn't "100s". In fact, it's tens of thousands. In the 12 months to June 2025, 111,100 individuals applied for asylum here. There isn't a single background check on criminality done.

I don’t agree with the shabby unco-ordinated nature of them. I’d be wholly supportive of a centralised government campaign to raise money to put up a load of flags properly. I’m in the US at the moment and while their politics are nothing to aspire to, the patriotism and flags are impressive and a positive feature.

It would also take the wind out of the sails of the bigots if it was reframed the flags as a welcome to the UK, an aspirational place we are proud of.

I’m from a working class background, have a degree and seven years of postgraduate master’s level qualifications, live in a town with a high Muslim population and I’m tired of hearing about flags.

Fucking hell, I’m embarrassed for you. The working class and fat people; the last two groups it’s still socially acceptable to be really offensive about. And then you wonder why some people consider ‘middle class’ to be an insult.

Why do you feel the need to gather “evidence” just to back up your own narrow minded viewpoint? You’re entitled to your opinion, but what does further education have to do with it? I studied classics myself and never once had to denounce my working class background or indoctrinate myself against other perspectives.
Life outside of university has shown me that there are always exceptions to stereotypes — a reality you seem unable (or unwilling) to grasp from your ivory tower. I wonder how far back you’d have to go to find your own working class roots. Most of us have them, after all.
Flying flags can be condemned as a thick sport, but your blatant classism and close minded views somehow gets a free pass? Interesting double standard.

I’m very wary of any kind of public bandwagon: as far as I’m concerned, it’s how we ended up with members of the public turning on each other in 2020, dobbing each other in for “having the grandchildren round”, rushing out for toilet paper, banging pots and pans and shaming those who didn’t, putting up rainbows, etc. I think the flag waving now has parallels to that, although less extreme. In 2020, it was politicians spreading panic (and yes, I’m certain that was deliberate) about “that nasty virus”, and now, as whispered by Farage and his ilk, it’s “those nasty immigrants”. (Not MY words!) Somebody popularised the clapping in 2020: the government denied this, but it was clearly deliberately “marketed” by somebody, many people jumped on the bandwagon, and tried to shame those who refused. Now, it’s shaming those who object to the flags everywhere, and I think the ambiguity over whether the flag means “national pride” or “go back home” is deliberate. Suppose they had invented a new symbol like a swastika to mean “immigrants, go home”; it would have been eradicated quickly by an angry public. Using an ambiguous symbol like the flag keeps people talking about it (including us).

But a flag doesn't do that.

Investing in education and healthcare does that. Taking care of our poor. Supporting others and providing good quality and plentiful social housing. Supporting disabled people and being a place where we stand up to discrimination. I don't see how a flag does any of that.

When I think of British Values I think of the country that went to war to fight fascism, fought genocide, opened its doors to refugees who were being persecuted for their faith, created one of the first and most inclusive free at point of access health care systems and was one of the first to give women the vote and fight for equality. I don't see any of the people local to me who are encouraging people to put up flags espousing any of those values. So I suspect part of the issue is that we can't agree on what British values actually are.

Working class and no I don’t , we do have a place for young asylum seekers in a town near us , so plenty of flags .