To be devasted the roundabout in my town has a crappy 'flag' painted on?

[Liesmorelies]

I nearly threw up when I saw it this morning - what a horrible shock.

It's a very small town in the Midlands near a city. Yes it's ex-mining but does reasonable ok now, not deprived eg no contextual offers for my dc for uni, but not massively desirable or trendy. Has a Labour MP now but hasn't always in recent years. Voted for Brexit but only just. In 2019 more people voted against Tories AND Brexit than for them - split the vote so we still got a Tory, but still.

In other words, I did not expect this. It's horrible - looks ugly and badly done even before you get started on the thinking behind it. AIBU to ring the council on Tuesday and ask when they are going to deal with this vandalism?

I did a four hour round-trip on the motorway today too and the amount of flags on bridges was shocking - just make it stop.

Still not showing any proof of this incorrect England flag you saw?

Yeah I thought you wouldn't somehow. As you were. 😎

No, but you showing yourself up by missing the point so spectacularly is making me feel a bit queasy - perhaps it's secondhand embarrassment.

It's threads like this that make me wish MN had not removed the laughing emoji.
Equally, I should be glad they have, as I'd probably get banned for spamming the thread with it 😂

Devastated? Get a grip. How dramatic.

Don’t visit the Sistine chapel op.

Yeah I know. It was pretty obvious from the off that you're not English OP.

There's a lot of slag the English off threads atm. It's getting tiresum.

Nearly threw up? Can your husband tuck you up in bed with some smelling salts? How about a nice spa weekend to recover from the shock?

I would imagine as a flag has caused you so much emotional distress you would be better of presenting at your nearest A&E for a phyc assessment rather than posting the Internet.
Please dont ever go to a country like Spain or France or America where most houses fly a flag and the towns and cities fly them everywhere you will have a full on breakdown!

You are taking this all far too seriously.

St George - the Roman soldier living in Greece who died because he wouldn't refute his Christianity. But those people who are commonly banging on about "are flag, are country" are doing and saying nothing in any way Christian, nor are they acting in a way that is patriotic.

Whilst there may be a few instances of well-intent, unfortunately most of them are not, just racism.

So much middle class sneering and hatred of the working class. Yet, if there was a war tomorrow, the middle classes would be expecting all of these nasty working class louts to be the first on the front line, risking their lives to defend them.

The problem here is that your hyperbole is undermining your point.
The issues with xenophobia and violent nationalism are potentially a real threat but the dramatics you’ve dragged into the discussion are not helping you win people over.

No no no, can people not just accept how right think and sanctimonious op is? Rejoice in her virtue signalling and how she is considerably better than yeww....

A town I visit sometimes has painted Pride rainbows on some of the streets.

I don't really like it as my gay relatives aren't keen on flamboyant Pride displays, it gets slippery when it rains and it's now getting worn and scruffy. But I guess some people like it and a bit of paint - or a flag - doesn't hurt me provided I walk carefully so ... shrug.

If someone in isolation decided to paint a roundabout with a flag I’d probably think it was quite nice. The reason why it’s so unpleasant at the moment is that someone has clearly seen the anti-migrant news and heard anti-migrant people talking about using the flag to promote their views, and decided to paint it at this particular moment in time with this particular political backdrop. It’s a very different thing to just having a union flag up in other circumstances.
I would love to reclaim our flag back from the nasty racists and would happily paint my whole bloody house those colours to celebrate the good things about England but I’m not touching it with a barge pole right now when there’s a chance people might think I’m part of that racist crowd.
Interestingly, there are zero flags where I live - maybe because we have lots of migrants / decedents of migrants and we all get on really well with each other.

I'm as WC as they come. These racist thugs don't represent me. So I'd appreciate it if you didn't tar us all with the same paint brush.

I’m pretty left wing and I know it’s popular to be embarrassed about being English but I’m just not - there’s a lot to like about England as imperfect as it is. I think people have become jaded by the constant jibes on social media about “ colonizer” etc and it’s driving regular people further and further right. My town has spouted a series of flags that have been attached to lamp posts on the way into our town. I haven’t seen any painted roundabouts. I don’t feel the need to fly it but also don’t have a problem with it flying. It needs to be flown by normal “ middle of the road” people to take away the association with the far right. Every time a person makes a jibe about people being thick or stupid because they have a sense of pride in their country it pushes those people further away from where I personally think we should be. I’d like to get to the position where we can display a flag and it be as unremarkable as any of the places abroad I’ve visited. Forget the flag fliers there are posters here who make me embarrassed to be left leaning.

Yeah just like in Covid
all the middle class worked from home - hiding
where the working class still had to go to work to ensure the middle class got there boxes of wine delivered 😂

I’m brown
working class ( but reasonably wealthy 😂)

and I’m gonna put a flag up on my house tomorrow

no one in my street would care less and I live in a very mixed area

Wow. So many people missing the entire point of the recent display of flags. No one is offended by the image of the flag or event the general display of flags.

It’s not the flags per se. It’s the INTENT behind them. It’s the fact that this has all come about because right wing groups called for it!! It’s a calculated, coordinated effort to suddenly display thousands of flags. It’s not just a casual single flag on the Eiffel Tower or on a town hall FFS.

It makes people ‘feel sick’ because of the message it sends. Get it?!

I don’t think you understand. Many many many ordinary people AGREE WITH THEM. They’re not prepared to go out on the streets over it as they are relying on working class people to do that but you are burying your head in the sand if you honestly think the majority of people aren’t nodding along with a lot of it.

I see your point and I honestly think we were moving towards this point in the 90s and into the 2000s, - before Brexit basically. However, it is not where we are now and this movement is not about decent people trying to reclaim the flag, which, in principle, I agree is a reasonable thing to wish to do.

Absolutely mate. I worked throughout the pandemic for Royal Mail and still do albeit part-time as I have a full-time job now.

Posters cowered in their homes but ordered all manner of goods. Examples included the 'Complete works of Jane Austen' and language courses. Posters screaming because the delivery guy from Waitrose did not stand 2m back when they opened the door! One cunt told me that my walk to Royal Mail and back should count as my daily exercise. Off you fuck. I went out and about as I wished.

So many tacky people in this thread. The OP has it bang on, spray painting a shitty drawing on public infrastructure is a rubbish way to celebrate your country and is only done by racists and bigots. Stop hiding behind "national pride" as an excuse to commit criminal acts and intimidate others.

They are not just proud of their country,they are proud of being white. There's the problem.

Buying flags tomorrow!