To ask if you agree with ‘the flag flyers’

I think we do need to reclaim our country and make it great again though. I don’t know the correct wording to use so apologies if this offends but we need to get a point where our flag is something we are all proud of. Whatever your skin colour if you’re British then the union flag is yours and it should be something you’re proud of not scared of.

The government should reclaim it and stick it on schools like they do in North America. Children should be proud to be British and know what our British values are.

The government need to be more protectionist and make damn sure British and international companies are investing in British workers.

Not running around scared of everything, pandering to everyone and standing for nothing.

I wouldn’t vote for farage though. All of the above doesn’t involve racism or abuse. It’s inclusive, for everyone.

It's a sad state of affairs that a country can't fly its national flag without negative connotations. I've see more Polish and Syrian flags flown in my city until recently. We should be proud to fly it, reclaim it from the far right connotations. I would hope anyone offered the opportunity to live here would be proud to fly it too.

Whilst I have no issues with an England flag (or union flag) being flown in England, I do have issues with the rhetoric behind the current wave of flags. Reminds me of when the third Reich put up Nazi flags.

So flags for sporting events, jubilees/ royal celebrations - yes.

Flags to "reclaim our country" - no.

So everyone else can wave their flags frantically in support of whatever they're passionate about....but not people who want Britain to be great again

Maybe we ought to have hats with ‘MUKGA’ on them. Not very catchy, though…

I’m a degree educated professional from a working class background. We have some flags up along a main road in our village and I quite like them!

if you go to central London there lots of union jacks flying around and I like it! Seems that’s the only area which can be proud to be British by having the flags constantly!

i think English people want something to be proud of- our nhs, education and job opportunities are a mess. We are priced out of a nice life and yet for most of us we should be grateful we were born in the U.K. We have a democracy, we have freedoms and a not too corrupt legal system and don’t fear death for having an opposing view to the government.

Labour should have helped the working/ unheard/ ignored class feel proud and let them have the flag and encouraged it along our ‘British values’.
It shouldn’t have been taken over by a few in the far right or those on the left calling it a racist symbols! We have to change it from those views and calling everyone a racist, thick who has or puts up a flag doesn’t help. It feeds into Tommy Robinson / reform hands which no one wants.

I think middle class people are becoming more aware of the problem since so many migrant hotels have popped up on our door steps.

There’s a problem with it, a big problem. Doesn’t matter what people say on here, it’s like brexit. People are scared to be branded racist if they speak up. Middle class people will sit quietly. They won’t fly the flag. They will vote accordingly at the next GE.

What scares me is how much all the educated, well off boomers in the family absolutely love farage.

This is a great post.

Didn't finish my degree.
Minimum wage job.
Live on a council estate/HA area.

I do not like flags on lampposts.
Neither does the nice young girl over the road who got drunk last weekend and climbed a lamppost and removed one for me.
I owe her a bottle of wine!

That's not thick though. That's a well thought out ethical position on whether art or ecology are most important and what kind of protest would gain most attention.

It's based on facts about the way oil is impacting the world we live in.

You just don't happen to agree with their analysis, or their priorities or their way of protesting.

However, what makes people who are anti immigration open to the charge of being "thick" - not that I think they are thick, but there is a charge to be met - is that they aren't drawing on accurate evidence and are being swayed by emotive tribal rhetoric. It's a lack of insight which often goes along with unpractised skills in abstract thinking.

I don't think working class people are thick at all. In fact I think most of them/us have been treated shamefully by late capitalist interests - tech companies, finance companies, housing policy, the financial markets, and by successive govenments who have drained the life out of our communities and made public services a hollowed-out transactional shell. People want good, warm, community solidarity for them and their families, and people to engage with them and help them as part of our shared welfare state, and they don't have it. They are quite legitimately looking around for who to blame. It's not a "thick" response to do that. everyone does.

It's a tiny bit thick, though, when someone with some knowledge says "hang on, those people aren't the problem, here's some evidence of the bigger picture" to just ignore it.

Problem is, no authorities are trusted now to provide any evidence of anything.

We've never ever been a big flag waving nation. It isn't anything to do with patriotism.

I think that its more true to say that we have often flown the flags for various things, but there has always been a large group of people that have either taken the piss or flat out derided those that have done it.

I can remember various world cups where people put flags on their cars and the joke was either the more flags the worse the driver, the thicker the driver, or the more racist the driver.

I'm a Farage supporter. I have a degree, professional qualification, am a higher rate tax payer and a senior professional job.

We've never ever been a big flag waving nation. It isn't anything to do with patriotism.

That's not quite true. I'm middle aged and remember flags and bunting at my primary school fetes, in shop windows, at sporting events, on public buildings/flagpoles on special occasions. You could even buy mini paper flags for sandcastles. Union Jacks on T-shirts were everywhere in the 90s (cool Britannia).

We need a sub forum for posts about flags

Educated to degree level (2 separate quals) professional/chartered status. Very comfortable income. Dont really like what the flags stand for in some people's eyes but I also agree that something really needs to be done about migration. I do like seeing them though taking all that out of it.

I have been surprised that the most staunch flag supporters i know have been other professional colleagues/peers, so very different experience to you.

Not all WC people live in social housing. Some of us own our own homes.

No, those are the only ones who admit it.

Nothing wrong with a welsh dragon or three but not the rest. I realise of course that other nations may have different views on their own.

Another fucking flag thread? Seriously OP.

I'm educated and middle class and no, I don't agree with the flags or Farrage. I'm traditionally a Labour voter if relevant. However, the working classes have more to lose than the middle classes when it comes to "uncontrolled" immigration. Asylum seekers are far more likely to be housed in their areas and if they are on a council house waiting list, they are going to be angry when social housing is given to migrants. I think that many of the posters who feel that allowing thousands of unchecked men into the country will have no repercussions or is even a good idea might feel very differently if they lived in disadvantaged areas.

WC ,no degree. I don't agree with racists.

So the people who've lost their papers? I understand some ex Taliban have made it in and there's now a question over some of the Afghan migrants. Not to mention the economic migrants.

Islam is nothing like Christianity. Islam is not merely another religion.

I have a degree in Biology and Microbiology, as well as a professional qualification. I’ve worked in a professional role for over 20 years. I would say I’m from a middle income family. I have two children who are state-school educated, but they also take part in extracurricular activities such as piano lessons, climbing, and ballet.

Do I agree with the flags? Yes, I do. The reason is that I’m fed up with being made to feel as though we should be ashamed of the Union Jack and the St George’s Cross. Every country has parts of its history that are regrettable, but that does not erase the good, nor should it mean that current generations are held responsible for events that happened centuries ago. A flag represents shared identity, pride, and belonging today, not the mistakes of the past.

A lot of people try to reduce this issue to racism, but I don’t believe that’s what it’s really about. To me, it feels far more like a rebellion against the left which often pushes the idea that national pride is somehow dangerous, outdated, or offensive. That kind of thinking leaves ordinary people feeling silenced and alienated. Flying the flag is not about hate, it’s about refusing to accept the narrative that loving your country is something to be embarrassed about.

I also can’t help wondering whether some of the negative narrative being pushed online against flying our national flag is actually deliberate. Could it be part of a wider attempt by rogue states like Russia, to weaken our sense of national identity? If, heaven forbid, we ever found ourselves in another world war, we would be on a much weaker footing if people felt ashamed of their country. After all, if you’re made to feel ashamed of your flag and ashamed to be British, you’re far less likely to want to stand up and fight for it. I genuinely suspect there could be an element of this at play, and it worries me.

People in other countries celebrate their flags openly without being branded racist, thick, or extreme. Why can’t we? Why should we be the only ones made to feel guilty for showing national pride? If anything, refusing to allow people that outlet just fuels resentment and division.

Yes, some of the sprayed-on crosses on roundabouts look scruffy, but the actual flags themselves look striking and dignified, especially the Union Jack. They symbolise unity, heritage, and belonging, and there is nothing wrong with being proud of that.

We already now that a lot of people on here consider those flying the fly, thick, racist, and other words that have racist connotations but consider themselves not in the least racist, xenophobic or white saviours.

So your sample and intention on here is already skewed towards your own beliefs and bias.

Whilst this exists there will never be a true discourse about it and those with the more extreme views will win