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.

No it isn’t obvious. Correlation isn’t causation! Just because we live in a time of economic uncertainty doesn’t mean that immigration has CAUSED it.

Facts;

The UK economy has faced many recent challenges eg austerity, Brexit, COVID-19, inflation, government underfunding and energy price shocks—but immigration is not the cause of these problems.

Many studies, including from the Office for Budget Responsibility and the Bank of England actually show that immigration has a positive or neutral effect on economic growth.

Immigrants often fill key labour shortages, especially in sectors like healthcare, transport, hospitality, and agriculture!

Think about why you have fallen for this myth that immigration = poverty…

• Media narratives often focus on immigration as a “problem” or threat.
• Politicians use immigration as a distraction from economic mismanagement.
• People experience real problems (e.g., housing shortages, NHS strain), and look for simple explanations—immigration becomes an easy target.

The perfect scapegoat

OP, follow these instructions very carefully: you need a black cat suit, black gloves, black trainers and a black balaclava. Also some paints in various colours, sneak out in the dead of night and paint large, gaudy flowers over the flag, and if you can manage a dove, too.

And your response to my orginal question made no sense to me. Saying 'quota' didnt explain anything.

I don't know that, you are siding with Reform and the flag shaggers who are known abusers and rapists many of them.

So you say that you know the figures and now admit that we do not know the true picture. The government records almost all of the ethnicities and that information is readily available to the public. I have the 2017 data right in front of me. It says the majority of ethnicities and some unknown. Which will always be the case.

Yes the problem is men. Men of all ethnicities raping and abusing because of their misogyny. The problem is misogyny.

Well when you exclude the cover ups on white rapists then one wonders why?
Why did you do that? What was the aim?

Why did you say 'sure'?

It was a comment, single comment that implied you didn;t believe me. If you wanted more of an explanation why not say - please can you explain.

How would 'sure' get me to explain?

😂😂 oh sweetheart, if you knew me you’d understand how absurd an idea that is. As you don’t, I can only say that you’re proving all of my concerns to be based in sad reality.

I'm gobsmacked by all the people on here who think it's just fine to demonstrate your xenophobia by flying these flags or painting them on everything. Let's face it, anyone who has convinced themselves that this is 'pretty flags and bunting to make the place look nice for visitors' is either lying to themselves or living in Cloud Cuckoo Land. What it's actually saying is 'foreigners go home' but in less polite terms. England in particular has taken leave of its senses, encouraged by a totally obsessed media. There are pockets of this madness in Scotland, but at least Perth Council just issued a fine, decent refutation. I wish people would wake up to the slow creep of fascism before it's too late.

I don’t disagree that many people (including myself) are disenfranchised. Politics is a sham. Politicians of all colours are awful.

Doesn’t mean immigration is causing all your troubles. See my post above for what is really causing all the problems in the UK.

Oh imagine living in those times! How awful it must've been.

^This 💯, sadly.

Woah. That's out of order. And misogynistic to boot.

Flags in Spain are not used by the Far Right to intimidate asylum seekers. Thugs and chavs don't stand outside asylum seeker accommodation in Spain literally with the Spanish flag wrapped around their bare shoulders trying to burn down hostels with asylum seekers alive inside.
That's what happened last summer.

Errrm because… context. Flag on public building, fine and nice. Flag on your house, not my cup of tea but whatevs. Flag draped around your shoulders at an anti migrant protest - probably quite aggressive. They’re not all the same thing and we’re not all stupid enough to think they are.

The express purpose here is to sow division. That’s it.

We've been here before. People's memories are short.

Unfortunately until Reform get some MPs and demonstrate how they cannot stop immigration and "small boats", let alone have any idea how to run the everyday backroom stuff in government, these voices won't shut up.

No problem, autocorrect is a real trouble maker!

Are you usually this accepting of racism?

Or she fell in love, learnt about the religion and made her own choice. Freedom to choose or do you not support that idea? I find it terrifying that you do not support women's right to choose her own religion.

Not all men are like yours.

There's flags everywhere in Scandinavia and Germany. It's really pretty normal and your reaction is just weird.

Oh I am sure it is, I was on about living in those times being awful.

I’m so sorry you’re facing this. Part of me wants to fight the fascism by wearing a bright pink burka but the sensible part of me says think of the kids..and that part then says by bowing down, what am I teaching them? Can I ask where you live? Is it something you feel everywhere or?

Well said. Big difference.

I have come to my opinion after taking in sources and official statistics over the course of the past few years, as well as the evidence to my own eyes and your AI query to prove me otherwise doesn’t wash.

It’s only in the past few months we have even been able to have an open discussion about the effects of migration, media narratives constantly take the pro immigration stance so for you to think you can say I have swallowed media manipulation and you haven’t, is a pot kettle situation.

I am not a right wing nut. I have had quite the journey coming from being a socially liberal, help people who need it type of person to how I feel about immigration currently. The flag stuff is a culmination of people like me who have been historically tolerant and embracing realising that we’ve been taken the piss out of. I actually would prefer you to be right and we don’t have anything to worry about and it’s right wing hyperbole. But when my bills go up every month, it’s revealed we’re on the brink of economic collapse and spending a billion £ a month on foreign welfare coupled with the fact there’s strange men walking around my town with hoods up and coverings pulled up to their eyes in 25 degree weather, and my child’s school is fenced off and practicing lockdown procedures, it’s hard not to notice our way of life is being eroded before our eyes.