Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not want a flag hanging from my house?

118 replies

PlumFairy2014 · 13/07/2015 16:54

We have builders working on the roof, I've just got home and they have attached a GB flag to the top of the scaffolding. AIBU to think you shouldn't do this?!
I don't entirely know why, but I don't like it. This is my home not a ship!

OP posts:
MistressMerryWeather · 13/07/2015 20:58

I'm in Belfast, it was the 12th yesterday.

I bloody hate all flags right now.

OP YANBU, it was an odd thing to do.

MistressMerryWeather · 13/07/2015 21:01

Oh I would love to do that right now Wideopen.

All the bunting, flags and curbs to be transformed into flowery pastel patterns overnight. :o

SenecaFalls · 13/07/2015 21:03

Or you could design your own flag.

flag-designer.appspot.com/#d=8&c1=2&c2=7&c3=0&o=5&c4=1&s=14&c5=4

Sometimesjustonesecond · 14/07/2015 10:27

So long as you are not offended by the flag itself, I wouldn't piss off the builders by complaining about it - you want them to finish the job asap and leave, not bugger off on someone else's job for 3 weeks cos you've annoyed them!

I am pissed off with the assumption that flying an English or British flag makes people ignorant oafs!

Gobbolinothewitchscat · 14/07/2015 10:35

This is hilarious

We're having a loft conversion fine and I've just nipped out to check the scaffolding

The builders were Shock Confused when I explained why Grin. According to them, this is not normal builder behaviour.

Also, for people likening it to the queen, she is: (a) head of state; and (b) has a nicely ironed Union Jack run up a flag pole. Not a tatty bri-nylon rag attached to some scaffolding (accept I'm making some assumptions here).

I'd be more worried that the neighbours thought I had delusions of grandeur and had instructed the builders to hoist it

Taytocrisps · 14/07/2015 10:40

I love the Cath Kidston suggestion Smile.

Sometimes flags are often hijacked by people with extreme views. I'm very proud of the tricolor (Irish flag) but I wouldn't hang one from my house as my neighbours might assume that I have very strong Republican views and that I support the IRA. The only time it's deemed acceptable to hang out an Irish flag is if we're playing an important international match or if we're participating in the World Cup or something.

gotthemoononastick · 14/07/2015 10:43

Perhaps it is a code to warn other hopeful workmen that they only employ British casual labour?(Bewildered emo.)

gotthemoononastick · 14/07/2015 10:46

I would think twice before getting up any workmen's noses whilst you are effectively under their control ...

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 14/07/2015 10:47

I am pissed off with the assumption that flying an English or British flag makes people ignorant oafs!

It doesn't make the ignorant oafs - it's just quite a good sign that they probably are!

JohnFarleysRuskin · 14/07/2015 10:49

Attaching a flag to someone else's home is definitely sign of an ignorant oaf.

SonceyD0g · 14/07/2015 10:50

Union flag! It's only jack when it's on a boat. Tell them they have hung it upside down see what happens! I wouldn't be that bothered but don't see why you shouldn't ask them to take it down if it bothers you.

fuckthetaps · 14/07/2015 10:53

They could be cricket fans?

RagstheInvincible · 14/07/2015 10:56

Marylou2 I totally agree with you. Some of the negative comments on this thread have been quite offensive.

Gobbolinothewitchscat · 14/07/2015 10:58

Well, according to the official royal website, it is a Union Jack link

Can someone ask the builders please Grin

Eminybob · 14/07/2015 11:01

Ugh. I think that most people who put a national flag up are making a statement of some kind. Really sadly in this country it is usually not a pleasant one.

I went to visit my dad the other week and he had England flags strung up all over the house, and his car. I asked him if it was in support of the England women's football team as it was when the World Cup was on. He said no he has them up all the time.

Disappointingly he and his wife are and have always been ukip loving racists. Despite my constantly trying to educate them. And berate them. So I know what statement they are making with the flags.

Not saying your builders are racists but hanging a flag does send a message. I wouldn't want it on my house either.

frankieboy23 · 14/07/2015 11:09

Can i ask hows it sends a message.

SoupDragon · 14/07/2015 11:14

I am pissed off with the assumption that flying an English or British flag makes people ignorant oafs!

It doesn't make the ignorant oafs - it's just quite a good sign that they probably are!

I would suggest that if someone immediately thinks that flag fliers are ignorant oafs, it is quite a good sign that they are an ignorant oaf.

Eminybob · 14/07/2015 11:17

This is just in my opinion/experience but people who fly a national flag are usually the casually racist, Britain for British people types. That's what I meant about a message.

It's really sad though. We should be able to be patriotic and show displays of pride in our nation without it meaning to the exclusion of others.

NinkyNonkers · 14/07/2015 11:26

I don't really get patriotism per se tbh, it seems a hugely dated concept now.

Sometimesjustonesecond · 14/07/2015 11:28

Well, my mil was foreign and in her country they have flags all over the place. She died recently and at the request of my children I brought home from her house a flag which I have put in the garden as decoration I like fairy lights too. Sorry. I intend to get an English flag and a Welsh one, to reflect where we all come from in our family. I don't think owning an English flag is something I should feel negatively about. I like being English and British, for that matter. I think as a nation, we have pretty good values and a flag is just a physical sign of this. It may have symbolised something different historically, but pretty much all countries have aspects of their pasts that are not nice. It's what their flag represents now that matters.

I guess what I'm saying is that a flag symbolises different things to different people at different times and I object to the assumption that I am an ignorant oaf because I happen to quite like my country's one.

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 14/07/2015 11:43

You don't have to be a nationalist or a racist - but you do have to happy to brush off the fact that other people will think you are, or that some people might find flag-flying like this actively intimidating.

Both the union flag/jack and the St George's have been used in some very unpleasant contexts by some very unpleasant people - like the swastika, they didn't start out with those connotations, but ignoring them and the way they come across suggests at worst that you still sympathise with those contexts, and at best that you are completely unaware. Most flag-flyers are somewhere in the middle I guess - insisting 'we' should be allowed our flag back and other people should get over it. Which I find ignorant and oafish.

Carrie5608 · 14/07/2015 11:48

This is the sort of thing that gives flags an association with intolerance
Protest cost

MitzyLeFrouf · 14/07/2015 11:51

I don't get the point of flag flying unless it's a sporting occasion or similar. What do people need them for, to tell the world that they're a British person living in Britain?

horseygeorgie · 14/07/2015 12:01

No, that they are a British person who is PROUD to be British! You can be proud to be British without being racist.
I wouldn't fly one personally but think if someone flies one from their house then that's their business.

Bit odd though! Love the sandcastle comment! Grin

MitzyLeFrouf · 14/07/2015 12:04

Nah, still don't get it. I understand people feeling PROUD if their team wins the World Cup or whatever but day to day I don't understand that need to tell the world you're PROUD.