Neighbour has put up huge Unite the Kingdom flag

Absolute common sense approach. I see the British flag everywhere, and it was flown in various schools/British values demonstrated in schools wayyyy before it was used by Tommy whatshisface. None of that is racist.

Because usually those that fly those flags don't stop at discriminating against just illegal refugees. Any brown face will do.

Where have I said that I support Poland's slide towards the far right? I would have thought that it was obvious from my comments that I live in England, therefore my grandparents were immigrants here. I find the rise of the far right in parts of Europe and, of course, the USA deeply concerning.

I find it offensive that you are minimising my grandparents experiences in Russian concentration camps, followed by their time in the Polish army and leaving their lives and families behind, to try and bend over backwards to justify support for Tommy Robinson's racist campaign.

I'm the grandchild of an immigrant. My nan wouldn't be bothered in the slightest because she decided to move here and put roots down. My best friend is a second gen immigrant and a Reform voter.

I feel like people are reading far too much into the intentions of other people and making all manner of assumptions simply because the flag of their host nation is flying. It's not a bloody swastika.

The house next door but one where I used to live was an HMO. As was the one opposite. The hotel at the end housed asylum seekers.

The area is rough as fuck but the HMOs and asylum seekers have never really been the issue.

So you object to the flag of the country some of your co-nationalists fought and gave their lives for during WWII?

They gave their lives to oppose fascism. I think they'd be ashamed of what the flag has come to stand for

Siri - what is “intent”?

I object to the flag of my country being co-opted by the right wing to symbolise racist hate. Over time it will be claimed back. I would generally think nothing about someone displaying an England flag during a sports event or a union jack for a coronation etc. Putting up a flag right after Tommy Robinson's march is making a statement, that they want people to understand. It's disgraceful the British and England flags are being used in this way.

What do Polish immigration laws in 2025 have to do with that poster?

How long have you lived there OP and been neighbours either them?

I disagree with much of what you say.

There is cause and effect of course - Reform is merely a symptom of Labour, and previous successive government failure to control immigration. Once Labour are out - immigration is under control, and people are no longer told how to feel, and that they are ‘racists’, the ‘far right’ as you call them, the issue will probably fade away.

I happen to believe that the vast majority are not racist - insist on telling them that they are however, and is it any wonder people feel aggrieved?

World's gone mad.

"Oh, I won't use that cattery because they have a flag of their own country flying"

Don't move to America mate, you'll have nowhere to put your cats, and you'll be mortally offended about every 3 minutes. Sheesh.

Yep. I dont know why people are in denial of that!

Try to ignore the ignorance.
It's sad that the national flag is being misrepresented, if the governments in Europe where taking action to control mass immigration the flags wouldn't be out.
Do you think mass immigration is out of control? My nieces partner's family is from Malawi, my friends is from Nigeria, they both feel Immigration is out of control.
Hotels are closed to the public, there is tents issued by international protection all over the streets.
It's awful for the arrivals too, sleeping in a tent, being verbally and physically abused.
It is a shit show.

Ah, I believe this poster has posted before - along the same lines about her cattery (six months ago).

As you say - the cattery WONT GIVE A SHIT.

The problem with this blanket definition of 'far right' and 'racist' for everyone who thinks very differently to you on politics and how the future of this country should look, and the state of it today and the causes of it, and how to put it right, is that very very soon you will be living in a country run by far right racists, with massive electoral majority support from millions and millions of far right racists. I mean look at it logically. If everyone who voted for Brexit was far right and racist, (as is often posited) and there were 17.3 million of them and Labour won the last GE with a 'landslide' of only 9.7 million, then given the way the polls are looking at the moment for Reform at the next GE, that's an awful lot of nasty far right racists living amongst us.

And they will be your neighbours. Your relatives. Your mum and dad. Your child minder, half of your netball team, that nice lady that serves you in the newsagents, your postman. Your husband's oldest school friend. Your boss and your mum's cancer nurse. They'll be absolutely everywhere. Racists and fascists everywhere, masquerading as regular, nice people. It's the 'surrounded by idiots' phenomenon. Where you are so convinced of your own righteousness that you'd happily believe every single person in the organisation is a total idiot who is too stupid to know what they are doing, than countenance for a second that the problem might just be you and your way of doing things.

I am so sorry you have to deal with that OP, whatever anyone says, this sudden bout of flag flying is not innocent patriotism. A brown skinned friend of mine says she finds the flags in our town intimidating. They are thinking of moving back to their home country, taking her DHs considerable specialist surgical skills with them. A loss to the NHS but here we are.

We have some neighbours who are not flying a flag but have outed themselves as very racist in comments about immigrants and also other neighbours who are not white British. I am keeping my contact with them to the barest minimum.

Why is it nasty to want to unite the UK (the united kingdom, after all)?

OH THE IRONY!

Poland has the toughest laws on immigration and does not have the problem that the UK has, because they eject anyone who tries to enter illegally. Poland is about as "far right" as you can get. How ironic.

PS. A cattery that's almost always full won't give two figs that you use another cattery. They won't even know. 🙄

Someone has a Palestinian flag in their window near me. It says 'free Palestine' on it. No-one, afaik, has protested. I am not overjoyed to see it, but we apparently have free speech and I don't know the people. I think much the same will go for a Union flag or an Israeli one - not tested, however.

Lol!!

It never ceases to amaze me that the flag wavers, who hate being labelled, love lazy generalisations of their own!

What about those of us who would feel as uncomfortable as OP, yet don’t vote labour and live in inner city areas with huge immigrant / immigrant descended populations and have done for most of our lives. Where do we fit in your lazy labelling?

Waiting for @CurlewKate

Thanks though.

The evidence is the flag. If you display a symbol that makes others feel unsafe, and regard your right to do so as more important than their right to feel safe, that makes you selfish but not a racist. If the group of people who are made to feel unsafe by this symbol can be differentiated by race, then you are selfish AND a racist.

I am sure the “Unite the Kindom” slogan is aimed at Sinn Fein, SNP, Plaid Cymru or Meybon Kernow voters, rather than immigrants. It literally means that we don’t want to Balkanise the country, we don’t support separatists here.