Children asking about the current influx of England flags…

[aperolspritzbasicbitch]

How do you explain it?
children are 11 and 8, just walked through an area with a few houses that are all grouped together with a LOT of flags displayed, they asked what was happening, I said nothing is and they’ve asked why there are so many flags. I’ve tried to explain it but to be honest I don’t really understand it fully myself, and think I’ve just bumbled out a lot of rubbish that they don’t really get.
Any ideas on an age appropriate way? I’ve even looked at newsround for guidance 🤣 but nothing doing!

I would tell them that while people usually use the flag to demonstrate love or pride for their country they are currently being used to demonstrate hatred and anger.

I will be telling my large brown scruffily dressed son to avoid any areas or groups with flags in the current climate.

But it’s not simply what they’re doing, is it. They’re making other people feel excluded.

Exactly @fungibletoken

If you don’t want to lie, I would say that it’s being displayed for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s football/other sporting events, sometimes national pride but there is also a group of people who have hijacked it as they have right wing beliefs and give some basic examples of right wing views. They’re old enough to understand that.

You’re either ignorant or lying to yourself if you think the current use of the flag is anything about celebrating this country. Or really you know the truth and are pretending it’s all about good old Blighty.

Anyone else struggle with how a person can be proud of a flag? Or a country? Never been able to fathom it.

This.
Awful that some posters think it is okay to indoctrinate their DC that people flying the English flag are ‘racists’

https://hopenothate.org.uk/2025/08/22/operation-raise-the-colours-organised-by-well-known-far-right-extremists/

I've summarised this for my children. They know who Nigel Farage is, and that he's a nasty piece of work, and that he and his mates are stirring up racism and anger and doing their best to make minorities feel uncomfortable.

This poem by John Agard.
Is he racist?

Question, why do you think that lots more people than usual are suddenly displaying flags?

Many of them might not be racists..But some are. As a brown woman I can't tell which so I avoid large groups of flag wavers, football fans, drunk men... etc.

What would you like me to do instead given I am a child of the 70s? Rush to embrace flag wavers and be met with a" P**i go home"?

Just tell them that some nasty delusional racists are openly displaying their true colours and trying to take us back to 1930’s Nazi Germany and would they like to read up on how WW2 started?

I'd go with the approach of : People display their flags for a variety of reasons. Some are jumping on a trend of the far right, some are proud of their country, some people want to make their political views known, some are doing it in support of their national teams, some people have always done it and some people want to tell the government to stick it.

This a long side Reforms new "Operation restoring justice" bill is worrying. They will wrap it up as something we should all want. While eroding protections from the European convention of human rights to do so. It's a scary thought and seems to be something we are getting closer and closer to.

We were driving after holidays and I thought the same, flags were nicely placed along the middle of a dual carriageway. 😂
But then we turned and I clocked that something wrong as flags were in very strange places

In our area some of the people responsible for hanging up the flags are very vocal on the local FB group.

I know they can’t spell because I can see their comments.
I know they hung the flags the wrong way round because I can see them.
I know they’re racists because of the things they say.
I know they’re not people I’d want to associate with because they have lengthy arrest records and took selfies of themselves with the flags while smoking weed.

Recently, a group of people desecrated muslim graves (including children/babies) in the nearby cemetery. Some behaviours and attitudes are indeed bad.

In Wales no-one has a problem with people flying the y Ddraig Goch (The Red Dragon), must be an English problem😁

I’m surprised that all the racists who have jumped on a racist bandwagon to fly flags are so outraged at being called racist. I thought the whole point was to proudly display your racism?

Can I just clarify - I don’t think people flying the flag is racist….i think the people who suddenly have decided that they must display the flag when it’s never been a concern of theirs before are probably racist.
i think the influx is designed to scare and intimidate non white and non English born people, and that is something I cannot get behind.
and actually, they’ve succeeded really well, because I, a white, born in England citizen, felt massively uncomfortable and couldn’t wait to get out of the area.

I agree people are doing it for different reasons in different places

Some undoubtedly are racists

Some don't like asylum hotels being in their local area

Others are pissed off at (left wing) local council rules that apparently allow other flags to be displayed but not the English/UK flag

Some are just jumping on a bandwagon and probably aren't thinking too deeply about it

@WhenYouSayNothingAtAllbut why does it matter that it’s the ‘wrong way’ or something isn’t spelled correctly? Perhaps that’s symbolises that they have been delivered a more difficult upbringing and less chances than the ‘highly educated’ left (which is highly debatable in itself!) There are awful people, racist people, and people who do bad things. That includes British people and immigrants and all people everywhere. But you cannot say every single person who wants to hang or ‘reclaim the flag’ is all of the things you say ‘they’ are. It’s a reductionist argument and it simply cannot be true.

My neighbour has an English flag. He's had it for years. He's actually a lovely man whom I have hosted many times. He just puts it up for every sporting win.
I am not wary of him.

But I reserve the right to be wary of people I don't know who are suddenly waving flags about. Better be safe than sorry if you are not white.

It reminds me of Brexit - you aren't necessarily a racist if you voted for Brexit, but every racist did.

It’s an imagined English problem. We’ve had households flying the flag for years here , either permanently or specific events. It has never been an issue. Ironically, some of them took them down after all this nonsense.

Yes, we can agree that people suck.

I’m not claiming everyone is. I can state that the organised group doing it in my local area is. It’s that simple. They want their country back , for England to feel like home and reclaim “their” streets, hence filling up whole roads.These are not individual people flying the flag in their homes , which plenty of people have done for years , for various reasons and it has never been an issue.