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.

What do you mean when you say that immigration has a positive or neutral effect on economic growth? We know more people means a higher GDP but in the UK it means a lower GDP per capita which means a lower standard of living. There are also distributional effects which means that whilst some people economically benefit from immigration other people suffer, usually those who were less well off to begin with.

British trained doctors and nurses are finding it difficult to get jobs upon graduation because we continue to import doctors and nurses from other countries leaving our own graduates with thousands of pounds of debt and no income. There were two threads about this within the last couple of months.

You are treating people as if they are too stupid to understand their own experiences and are easily manipulated. If you are competing for scarce resources it's logical to want to reduce the competition. Our population has increased by over 10 million people since the year 2000, with a 3 million increase since 2020; how do we provide adequate infrastructure for 4 - 5 Birmingham's in 5 years?

Maybe you should step away from GB News, the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, the Sun, the Telegraph and the Times and start engaging with critical thinking. You are deluded if you think that the MSM supports immigration.

But presumably she has chosen to live here and fully integrated into English life. so the English flag is her flag now. So why is she intimidated by a drawing of her flag?

Oh, for goodness sake. Read the thread. Or are you another one who "doesn't care" even if it's pointed out to you?

I'm white British and male, born to white British parents in the UK, and I find the flags scawled all over the place intimidating.
For reasons I've explained in many posts.....but in one brief sentence, because the St.George's Cross has been hi-jacked by the far right and is used in many situations as a symbol of hatred.

It's just being obtuse at this point.
It's not possible that people still don't get it.
Nobody's that thick, surely.

Then fight back overwhelm them. Stop letting minorities dictate your life

People around here are supporting the "reclaim the flag" thing. When some local villages wanted to fly the Union Jack on VE Day, a few people very much in the minority stated that it was racist and shouldn't be flown. Thankfully, most people had common sense and stated that it wasn't and we should be proud to fly the flag of our country. The wars were fought so that we retained our independence.

If everyone flies the England flag, or the Union Jack then it takes it away from those who want to abuse it and claim it for bad purposes.

One point though, if they want to repaint all the roundabouts asap, people are suggesting that we paint the England flag on the potholes so that they fill them quicker

I think now you are misunderstanding my post.

I dont care about the flags. I understand people's frustrations with our country at the moment.

We are a very small island slowly sinking under the weight of people (not literally - in case you misunderstand).

But then I'm not a very nice person. I would happily close all borders unless we needed certain professions. I would put a cap on how many children people could have too.

Luckily I'm not clever enough to be in power, eh

Do you think racists actually stop to ask people who aren't white if they're here illegally?!
What would they be basing those thoughts on? It's not hard. Skin colour. It's obvious why they'd feel intimidated. At least you'd think so.

Luckily I'm not clever enough to be in power, eh

You said it
That capping of how many kids you can have worked out so well for China, didn't it.
(sarcasm, by the way)

No, she's been here over 30 years and works in a highly specialised NHS clinical and managerial job.
But still finds racism intimidating.
You've let the DM and Farage feed your misinformation- sharing an overcrowded hostel room with a bunch of strangers with protesters outside calling for you to be burned alive isn't 'cushy.'
How many asylum seekers or people who've crossed the Channel in a dinghy have you spoken to? I have spoken to many-incliuding a victim of political torture- 'cushy' it certainly ain't!

BECAUSE racists act first and ask questions later AND hate people who don’t appear white and British. It’s ridiculous to suggest that, in a racist environment, there will be careful differentiation between the legally settled or people born here and these hordes of “illegal migrants” everyone is talking into being.

racists hate people because of their skin colour. That’s it. Doesn’t matter if you’re assimilated, born here, been here for decades.

if you can’t grasp that simple fact, maybe get a broader group of friends and acquaintances who are prepared to have an honest conversation with you

Do you really think it’s Drs, Lawyers even right wing politicians going out in the middle of the night doing this vandalism. Oh no the people promoting this from the top are sitting watching all the chavs who have nothing to loose doing it. While they sit getting these idiots to look where the real blame lies for this country’s problems, I can assure you it’s not the others it them making millions and laughing at the stupidity of the knuckle dragging idiots.

BECAUSE racists act first and ask questions later AND hate people who don’t appear white and British. It’s ridiculous to suggest that, in a racist environment, there will be careful differentiation between the legally settled or people born here and these hordes of “illegal migrants

Exactly!

I don’t view or read any of those. I do, However have first hand experience of living in an area with high immigration. I can look to similar events and draw conclusions? I can look to the things necessary for effective societies in short o can research and apply critical thinking.

You may wish to go back and read the rest of it

Yes, it’s covert vile racism and takes us back to darker times.

Many of those disagreeing are most likely reform voters who believe the nonsense that immigration is root cause of everything, when in reality it’s politicians from right wing parties who cut vital services and are lining their own pockets and the pockets of their pals and then hiding in plain sight whilst laughing at the gullible public.

That’s the real problem in Britain!

The only difference that needs to be drawn are those who understand and adhere to British culture and local culture and act in accordance with its norms and values. Ie fully integrate and those who insist that they should be able to import foreign ways of life.

I think the problem that us anti racsists have is- like the Brexit campaign- it's hard to explain the benefits of multiculturalism and migration in simple words and phrases. The (far)right is good at this eg Stop the Boats/ Protect our Girls/Deport Deport Deport etc. Unintelligent people can latch on to these short phrases made up of short words.
Also the 'men of fighting age' trope. When you're already scared of black people and foreigners, I can see how stupid people might believe this, especially as it is one that the DM keeps plugging away at. I've tried to explain that as there are no legal routes into the UK to claim asylum men often travel first and re-unite their families after, but thick people/racist people can't or won't understand that. It's very depressing.
However, I think that this orgy of racism that the country seems to be going through will end, and at the next election the youth vote and anti Reform vote will come through. It might be a mish mash of a coalition, but I can't see Reform forming the next government. It may divide the Conservatives, with moderates going one way and those on the right going to Reform. Let's see.
Or if Reform do win, at least when they fuck things up, eg by privatising the NHS, they will be a one term goverment.

Is it??? Maybe your are looking at the this from the wrong angle? Surely the intent behind the actions will inform us better on that? I watched a programme yesterday with this black teacher in the Orkneys talking about racism. He asked if the pupils considered themselves racist, non racist or anti racist - the overwhelming majority swiftly said non racist. Wrrrrrrong.... he said the answer should be anti-racist, because if you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem. I thought that was a really effective point.

The St George Flag is the representative symbol of England and it has been hijacked. That doesn't make the flag inherently racist because racists have hijacked it, it just means that the anti-racists need to (and hopefully have) reclaim it, to be representative of our multicultural society and the more anti-racists that do this, the less point there will be in the racists using it.

So if I raise the St Georges Flag, its in the stance of being patriotic and embracing my multicultural society - so don't make assumptions! My understanding is that this is the sentiment now rising in your area! If that is the case its anti-racism and not racism.

That’s because there are no benefits to multiculturalism. Having a single culture makes for a better society with shared norms, values and customs.