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.

Yup I'm amazed they're still at it thought with the bank holiday there'd be plenty of footie or bbq beers to distract these knuckledraggers

The Daily Mail etc have kept the immigration hate simmering for years/decades even. And now that the British public had the temerity to vote in a (nominally) left wing government for the first time in 14 years, they’ve decided to crank up the xenophobia to max.

The American flag has long been displayed by all manner of people. The Portuguese flag - who knows. Almost certainly a patriotic thing.

The St George's flag and to a lesser extent the Union Jack have been hijacked by the far right. They've taken them, pissed on them and made them their own. If some people can't see that then they really are part of the problem.

Oh, that I agree. But as a ways of means of showcasing a feeling of discourse (I’m looking at the riots), I think flags are the least abrasive. Certainly not one to make someone ‘feel sick’, I was merely pointing out the dramatisation we seem to have adopted since Covid.

Outside of some very specific circumstances, no reasonable person, foreign or domestic, has ever been offended by the sight of a George Cross or a Union Jack in this country.

What's irking people currently is that the drive to put them up/paint them everywhere - Operation Raise the Colours - is being represented as an organic grass roots movement by everyday people showing pride in their country, when it was actually started, organized and funded by racist shithouses including Tiny Tommy Robinson/Stephen Lennon and his marginally taller pal Andrew Currien.

The people they've 'inspired' weren't previously flying flags or painting roundabouts...they're doing it now because they think it's upsetting 'illegals'.

Obviously well meaning people are getting swept up in the trend and sticking their own flags up...which is exactly what the people behind this wanted. Now they can frame any criticism of what they're doing as an attack on the flag itself, or being proud of one's country.

@LizzieSiddal I dont feel that the english flag is being used to imtimidate people who aren't white. colour does not come into it.

Yeah bizarre you get told not to
offend everyone by having a flag out

"Raise the Colours"?😂😂😂 Game of Thrones has a lot to answer for. Tossers.

I eyeroll at flag waving generally - all flags - but I also eye roll at people who have fifteen different Fashionable Cause / Made Up Sexual Identity Of The Week / Country Their Granny Came From flags in their social media bios but think anyone with a Union Jack is a 'flag shagger'. Basically some White Brits have - totally unsurprisingly- decided that identity politics is a game they can play too. Maybe the solution would be to have a bit less identity politics generally?

Why? So when England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 play in the rugby World Cup are we being tacky and racist? The other countries in the United Kingdom display their flags proudly, but the moment an England flag comes out people like you lose your mind. Get over yourself

The flag shouldn’t be a contentious issue. It is the English flag.

The fact that it has become such issue, demonstrates how serious the issue is, and how repressed the British people are, if we can’t be proud of our flag and country.

as someone who’s not white I don’t feel intimated. It’s the uk, fly your country flag.

how about being a Jew and seeing the Palestine flags…

I actually agree with you about the flag @Liesmorelies. Rightly or wrongly, in my mind I associate it with jingoism, hooliganism and far-right views; racism and xenophobia; waved by people who ‘other’ people of different nationalities and heritages.

The problem is that by you saying, “English people have a tendency to victimhood” you are also making a sweeping generalisation about millions of people (I guess) who identify as “English”; thus, getting closer to the thing which you are finding nauseating, making sweeping generalisations about huge numbers of people based on a shared characteristic. Also by doing this, the risk is that you push people away and get them on the defensive which will make it harder for them to hear your very reasonable argument.

Why the heck should I be ashamed of being English or British and be scared or ashamed of flying the flag of my own country? If we all flew them regularly then the extremists would have to find some other way of indicating their views rather than hijacking loved and respected symbols of our tolerant way of life.

My God are you unaware of this????

Anyone been out and painted the magic roundabout yet?

Exactly
Im a brown person born in England
immigrant parents
I have 0 issues with the flags being displayed
in fact I might put one up on my house 😂

off all the things someone is going to throw up over a flag on a roundabout is defiantly a weird one

Ukraine is close to Europe that it’s a threat. People flew the flag as a way to show alliance

The thing is that flag waving isn’t a British thing. We do it for 90 minutes at the odd football match, and do it in a kind of funny/ironic way at the Royals or for Last Day of the Proms etc. But most English in particular are way too self-conscious and against pomposity and blowing their own trumpet to make flags a part of daily life/the daily scenery.

Agree the rise of nationalism is sickening ..the things we face like climate change won’t observe borders we will need to cooperate with other countries..the thuggish days out, a thin veil over unleashed racism, disgust me too

No you muppet, it’s based on past history / events where the English flag was used to incite racial hatred and bigotry

@allthemiddlechildrenoftheworld Free speech doesn't mean vandalising the area in the colour of your views. And racism/xenophobia is beyond, or far beneath, what free speech entitles people to express. Surely you know that?

This totally nails it.

Don’t go to Switzerland - their towns are absolutely festooned with Swiss flags.