Time to reclaim the English flag from the right

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This whole flag thing feels like it’s getting out of hand. It’s blatantly been claimed by the right wing and although you get the ‘why shouldn’t we hang our flag and be proud to be British?’ Brigade, I haven’t seen or heard anyone with left liberal values boasting about hanging the flag. It’s being done purely to intimidate migrants and minorities.
So how do we go about making being proud to be British back to being proud to be a country that believes in helping others, being multicultural, being compassionate , embracing the things that make us all different?
The only thing I can suggest is hanging the same flags but with slogans on that shout out support for all of the things listed above, I can’t think of another way to reclaim it for what I consider the true values of being British?

The issue isn’t racists flying the flag, it’s non racists not flying the flag.

Go and see your neighbours. Tell them you’re supporting the women’s rugby team and stick your flag up.

I assume everyone with an England is football supporter to be honest. But I’m Welsh.

Maybe that’s the answer? Everyone flying their flag to detach it from racism.

Sorry, I would never be proud to fly the 'butcher's apron'.

Honestly, I think the best way currently is to put up a sign of support for the English women's Ruby team. I'm now going to see if I can find a rugby-themed one with the English rose on it.

I remember Cool Britannia in the nineties. Everything had a Union Jack on. Noel Gallagher’s guitar, Geri Halliwell’s dress. Every council and office building should fly the Union Jack. It would cease to be a statement then.

I like the idea of this!

I was thinking this morning that if the English flag suddenly appears on a roundabout/lamp post near me, I will be writing on it “Everyone Welcome”.
I say this as someone who has 2 sisters who have married English but not white Dh’s. They are really scared for their familes at the moment!
It’s all very well for MNetters to say “you should be proud of your flag” and think that’s the end of it. It isn’t, these flags are being put deliberately in areas where there are mixed populations. It’s being done to scare these people, many of whom are English or have been in the UK for many years. Leave them alone you racist bastards!

Think this sums it up!

I saw a post on here recently from a poster who claimed seeing all these flags was racist.

it is the English/British flag. If you are the 3rd generation to be born here, regardless of colour, it is YOUR flag. Why, if someone was to say ‘where are you from?’ You take exception to that and say ‘I’m from Britain’ why do you find the British flag racist? I genuinely do not understand.

It isn’t normally racist but it it being used in a racist manner at the moment!

Yes I actually love this idea!

Donate the flag to ethnic minority neighbours and ask them to fly it.

I don't think flags themselves are racist but because they've been used so often and for a long time by the far right (particularly the St George's flag, except during football), there is an association. I don't find it with the Union Jack. And it is a shame because there shouldn't be an association with anything political just showing your national flag - and yet there is.

This flag was on Reddit.
It’s clever as if the text is scrubbed or painted over again, they're somewhat incriminating themselves and the cause they claim to represent (patriotism and love of country).

As someone who grew up in the 70s I can’t ever see the Union Jack or St George’s flag without associating it with the national front and BNP despite all the Cool Britannia hype.

Looks like Cool Britannia was just a blip and the racists have got their flag back.

This is what many Americans are doing at the moment.

at the moment, flying a flag / hanging it on a lamppost is certainly racist and/ or xenophobic. My OH is an immigrant, DC have dual nationality, my surname is obviously not English. We feel a bit uncomfortable at the moment, even though OH is white and not obviously an immigrant (until he speaks, still has the accent!)

Normally I don’t glance at flags, it’s usually to do with football / rugby / sports of some type. However, at the moment it’s not being displayed out of that kind of pride - it’s begging displayed to tell others they are not welcome, to make them feel uncomfortable.

if any appear around my village I will be out there with the scissors taking them down.

Illegal migrants aren’t refugees. Or minority races, necessarily.

The asylum seeker system is so badly abused it’s failing real refugees.

If you cared about racism you’d do something about that.

I was thinking about this. It needs to be used widely to neutralise it as they do in other countries. When I went to Iceland I was struck by how often you see the flag.

if I were Keir Starmer I’d be flying the Union Jack from every public building including every school, every park, every monument.

Taking the flag back for public buildings would be a good start.

There’s nothing you can do about it. And you shouldn’t. Brits do with their flags whatever they want to. Now go back to clutching your pearls and cry into your Kleenex 😆

The flag should stand for "helping others" and "embracing the things that make us different." Ughh, god, what does that even mean? Being different isn't automatically good ffs. Some cultures oppose abortion and force women to undergo genital mutilation. Should we 'celebrate' those differences? Some cultures still have public executions. Should we 'celebrate' that difference as well?

It seems the only thing you're allowed to be patriotic about these days is 'multiculturalism'. It's like some hysterical new religion. No one voted for multiculturalism. It has been IMPOSED on us. It's a lie that you can have mass immigration and multiculturalism and still preserve your identity. Of course you can't. If ten million Swedes move to South Korea, they'll change the culture and identity of South Korea. If ten million Russians move to Iceland, they'll change the culture and identity of Iceland. It's as obvious as 2 + 2 = 4.

I don't mind people moving here, but they should move here because they want to be British. And they should only come in small numbers. Instead, we've had the mass immigration of people who are either indifferent to Britain or hate it and hate its history. The left don't mind that, of course, because they hate Britain too. The left is a magnet for bitter, hate-filled people, and they've used immigration as a tool to destroy our identity. I will never forget what they have done, and I will never forgive them.

I don't know what you mean by 'right-wing'. Presumably you mean anyone who objects to having their identity destroyed. I have seen people who want rapists deported described as 'right-wing'. It's meaningless phrase. I don't need you or anyone else to dictate my identity to me. My great grandfather was twice wounded in WW1 and my grandfather joined the RAF after the fall of Dunkirk. I already know who I am. My culture is Chaucer and Shakespeare and Wordsworth and Jane Austen and Dickens and George Eliot. It's the poetry of Wilfred Owen and Philip Larkin.

When I was young, I remember watching the Blackadder episode in which they all go over the top. It was so moving because it tapped into our collective national memory. That sort of thing would be meaningless these days. There isn't that shared identity and shared history. I don't know who the left think would defend Britain if it was invaded like Ukraine. I certainly wouldn't.

I point that out to everyone who says “I’m flying the St George flag to reclaim England”

“great - I’m sure our foreign patron saint will be proud” 😂

It was King Edward 3rd and The order of the Garter that he received it from (or because of his association with them). He never even came to England apparently - The irony 😂

It isn’t the British or English flag that’s the problem it’s the way it is being used by a small group. Hung on lamp posts in the middle of the night, not related to anything in particular and at protests outside hotels housing migrants.

I’m generally proud of the England flag it when celebrating the England teams). I’m proud of the union flags at the Festival of Remembrance or the cenotaph - whatever I think of any particular war men and women were prepared to die for my safety.

I don’t take exception to the question ‘where are you from?’

The problem is the people from the first paragraph the conversation often moves to
I’m from Britain’
but where are you really from - I was born in Peterborough (made up)
but where were your parents from - oh London
But where were they born?

As an 18 year old on a train with a large group of young men asking i know to answer the country relating to my ethnicity not British nationality but not how they will respond.

Yet prior to the '70s the flag was a symbol of pride and patriotism especially given the two world wars.
I would regard the '70s as the blip.

I am with you OP, feel the same about the poppy. However to be honest I suspect the best thing to do is ignore it, or put up positive signs
That and the death penalty for those using the phrases “ pearl clutching, woke, snow flake” etc.of course, I am joking