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?

Somebody give that local authority extra funding, and a knighthood to whoever is in charge of the plan.

England is not Northern Ireland.

The moment you start calling everyone who puts up a flag a dumbwit or not recognising why someone who cant get a legal job resents those who have a job is when you join the people who want to create racial hatred.

The mines have closed, the steelworks have mostly closed, the factories have closed. You cant get an apprenticeships unless you pass maths and english or your family own a business and will train you. Even the army wants maths and english, although they may let you take a proficiency test. Being dyslexic or having dyscalculia and having a family who cant afford to pay for tutoring should not rule you out of finding a job.

We are denying young white men who would previously have worked the opportunity to be part of society. Then we jail them if they kick off.

The English flag wouldn't have become a symbol for the right if the left hadn't spent so long sneering at anyone or any institution that displayed it. If you trace this movement over 40 years it mirrors the left parting ways with the working class and the flag has become a symbol that the working class are more comfortable with. Middle class not so much.

Young white men?

Guess what? The times are a’changing! If it wasn’t the norm before for English people to fly flags, it will be now. Good for them!
And just to clarify: modern-day far right is not what far-right was during nazi Germany. Anyone who denies it and equates modern far-right with racism is ignorant. In nazi Germany the far-right’s agenda was to arm up to the chin, kill the Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, the handicapped, the disabled, the neurodiverse, plunder Europe (and beyond) and enslave the non-aryans. I don’t see anyone wanting to do anything remotely similar in modern-day Britain or Europe. Far-right now is more about protecting traditions, national heritage, Christian values and democracy.

Is there any other country in the world, other than England, where flying the national flag is seen as a racist gesture.

I agree with a pp that the way to reclaim the flag is to fly it everywhere. That way the power of its use by racists would be diminished.

It's certainly a complex picture in Spain, particularly in Catalonia.

@BlueEyedBogWitch Yes. https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/education-skills-and-training/11-to-16-years-old/a-to-c-in-english-and-maths-gcse-attainment-for-children-aged-14-to-16-key-stage-4/latest/

In large asian families someone is likely to be in a position to train you whether you have qualifications or not.

Far-right now is more about protecting traditions, national heritage, Christian values and democracy.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what the Nazis said.

But , got you. Far Right are the good guys.

We should get the government/king to officially reclaim the flag in some kind of ceremony and say flying the flag says that we are inclusive and generous. And they also need to emphasise to all the racists that St. George wasn’t a cockney knees up mother brown jellied eels eating fella and was actually a foreigner. They’d be designing a new flag for themselves in no time.

I don't think it's racism as such, it's that people are just so pissed off at the utter soft touch/ laughing stock our country has become, with hordes of mostly young male illegal immigrants coming in daily, playing the system, and
and the government's lack of action. Many people find this objectionable, and rightly so IMO so this seems to be the only peaceful way of showing that objection. Not that it will change anything, and yes it is a shame that our national flag is now associated with racists when it's not in fact racist to object to this situation. Funny though that when there is ACTUAL textbook racism shown to Jewish people here, nobody objects to that much.

Wouldn't it be eaaieat to let them get on with it, others just fly flags for your sports events and so on without all the mega drama which is just adding oil to the fire?
Of course the more anti flag backlash happens, the more flags happen.

Isn't basic British motto "Keep calm and carry on" ?

I just explained what the nazis did….but you only want to hear what you want to hear, so it makes you ignorant too 😶

They're a mess. All I see is landfill and defaced public property.

As for reclaiming the flag from the right, there may be something in that. A small market town local to me has union flags mounted on angular flagpoles outside its high-street shops - I'm assuming leftovers from JG day. Local councils might choose to fly these over their guildhalls - properly hung - not the motorway-bridge messes we're seeing right now - rather than viewing English/British flags as a symbol of shame. It works for the US and Wales, Ireland and Scotland; even Cornwall.

Were that to become widespread policy - as opposed to viewing the flag simply as a football mascot or remembrance parade symbol - people might get used to its presence and it would disempower right-wingers from misappropriating and pissing all over a formerly benign image the way they did the poppy.

With the way things are at present and with the divisive politics swirling around, more toxic than any I've known in my lifetime, wild horses wouldn't persuade me either to wear a poppy - I wear a silver dove-of-peace brooch and donate to PTSD and homeless charities rather than the Legion - or string up a flag outside my home. Gods forbid anyone would associate me with 'them'.

Yes, all the Pearl clutching about the flags is creating much more of a drama than the flags themselves.

Oh yes , thank you. I wasn't aware of what Nazis did until you educated me.

I'll repeat what you then said:

Far-right now is more about protecting traditions, national heritage, Christian values and democracy.

I suppose as long as their attention is being taken up with flinging red paint around and hanging flags badly on public property, at least they're off the streets and not rioting en-masse.

Or advocating setting fire to buildings with people inside.

Oh stop scaremongering. I would bet there are more places in England not flying the flag than are flying the flag at the moment.

Most people are too busy getting on with their lives to worry about who's flying a flag and who isn't.

Which is how the far right in America badge themselves. And now they are taking a case to the supreme court to ban gay marriage, openly saying women should not be in leadership roles, making it significantly harder for married women to vote, threatening those who speak out, just speak, against them with legal and financial punishment, turning US troops on Americans, deporting and detaining legal citizens without due process. Removing healthcare and benefits.

We do not need to be far right to ask questions about how we safely integrate and how we ensure asylum seekers are legitimate. We don't need to be far right to support democracy. We don't need to be far right to respect Christian values.

Far right means what it has always meant.

I think it’s a hobby: the perpetually indignant. It distracts them from dealing with their own issues. There’s the people putting up flags, then the people Pearl clutching over it, and then there’s the rest of us, saying “ this too shall pass”.

I was wondering the exact same thing last night.

So England is the only country in the world where if you fly your flag you’re an intolerant racist? The UK is not a racist country and what if everyone had an England flag on their house? I think it would be quite nice. I’m from Scotland for a while it had a bit to do with the SNP but that’s over. It’s seems like some people want us to have Palestine flag up instead? You know I think a lot of people are recognising the country is in serious difficulty and we can’t stick our head in the sand about. We are borrowing too much and it’s unsustainable. 900 immigrants crossed the channel over the weekend. No one wants taxed more, No one wants to cut their benefits, then it’s we must take in lots of poor people from third world countries and keep them.

The flag of St George has not been “ hi jacked” English people should fly their national flag proudly and not be accused of “ being racist” it’s ridiculous!

How do you know if people have racist motives? The Welsh flag is seen more often than the English one but lately we’ve had loads more Welsh flags appear so how do you decide who’s gets to stay because not everyone who puts up a flag will be racist, and more importantly why should you get to decide what others do? Do you feel morally superior to others and believe your judgement is better? What about the ones on people’s houses? Are you going to deface or remove them and if so what right do you have? The more you get triggered by them the more they’ll appear, if you don’t agree I wouldn’t give anyone the satisfaction of knowing how much it’s annoyed you.

I agree with you but I suspect the far right will use it as fuel for England being stripped of its heritage etc etc.

OP I think it’s a wonderful idea to reclaim the flag but how to do it is the question I don’t have the answer to.