AIBU to ask about this whole ‘painting flags on roundabouts’ thing?

[Ticktockk]

England flags have appeared all over my nice town, painted on to the mini roundabouts. What kind of a ‘thing’ is this? Is it a Reform thing, a football thing or a ‘proud to be English’ thing?
If it’s a reform thing, WIBU to go down and add “England welcomes you to our country” to all the red crosses?

Google NI history and the troubles. Its been territory marking for decades

It's in response to the removal of the England flag by some councils.

It's criminal damage/graffiti/art depending on your viewpoint.

Yeah. Angry racist men. Nick named gammons

You say ‘Nick name’ I say racial slur.

By narrow minded bigots.

It's not the same though is it?
The keffiyeh is worn on your own person, not painted on public highways and strung up on public property. Wearing a keffiyeh is a personal choice. If people were wearing St George's cross t.shirts, that would be similar to wearing a keffiyeh. Going round town with a bucket of paint and scrawling on roundabouts is designed to intimidate. It's like pissing all over the street, marking their territory in the most basic and thoughtless way.

I’ve reported the post so Mumsnet can decide if it’s racially pejorative or not. I fucking hate the term so personally I’m highly offended by it.

In terms of whether graffiti can be political I would say yes it can. Those behind this moment have been told their flags have to be taken down so they have daubed red paint on roundabouts instead. I see it as no different to wearing the political statement on your person except for the fact it’s more irritating to clean up - which I suspect is the point.

"The St George's flag has sometimes had a closer association with English nationalists, and the union jack has been used frequently by mainstream political parties including the Tories and Labour. Alongside these flags, you can currently see the Scottish Saltire, Welsh Dragon, and Irish tricolour on one of the busiest roads in Birmingham."

Lol, that's pretty game. Makes a change from interspersing the union jacks* with UVF flags anyway 😁

*yes, I know , I know

It just annoys me
I genuinely wish we had more pride in our flag, in the poppy
But both have been misappropriation by ignorant idiots. Sad

That quote was from rhe BBC website story

It's not patriotism, it's a shitty political statement. If it was about being patriotic, the people hanging flags would
A. Hang the union flag the right way up
B. Maintain the flags rather than leave them in awkward places to get tatty once the weather turns.

Thankfully it'll start raining more within the next few weeks, so no doubt the gammons will put their tops back on and put their flags and zip ties away.

Fair enough. I apologise if it caused you offence. Genuinely believed it a descriptive term to the type of angry national front type knobs inflicting their vile beliefs on our country

Someone in Sketty thought it was clever to paint an England flag in the middle of Swansea. Wales. You can just picture the Reform-voting braincell behind it. Not exactly the sharpest bunch, are they? 😅

I agree. The 90’s-2020’s were great. We could feel proud enough to have our flags on Emma bridgewater tea towels! Now I’m embarrassed to put it on the washing line in case someone thinks I’m one of them.

Probably couldn’t manage a dragon

I think it is a Reform thing, but I'm going to tell everyone it's for Women's Rugby just to piss them off.

Reform are currently leading the polls for voting intention in the Senedd.

Very much depends on which poll paid for by who.

🤣

The Guardian reported on the poll I'm referencing, can't imagine they'd have gone to the bother of writing about it if they felt it wasn't credible

This

What if all the ethnic minorities started putting up flags too? I believe most of them are happy to be in this country too.
That would be interesting.

Racist arse hole thing. We have the roundabouts, flags, and a particularly nasty banner, so any claims it's not racist are dead in the water.

So karen is also ok in your book?