House viewings - neighbour refuses to take down flag

[KayleighhMum]

Our house is up for sale and we have viewings commencing from tomorrow - 7 in total lined up over the course of the week.

Our neighbour hung a large England flag from his top window on Friday and it has remained up. DH saw him outside the front on Saturday and politely asked if he could take it down before Tuesday. He basically laughed and said if any prospective new neighbour dislikes the flag then they won’t be the sort of person he’d want living next to him. It remains up now.

I am concerned this would be off putting, but speaking to my mum earlier she thinks I am over thinking things and it wouldn’t make a difference if someone likes the house.

Do you think we should try and ask again or would you assume it shouldn’t put people off? We are semi detached so it will definitely be noticed.

No prior issues with this neighbour who has always been friendly etc.

What a load of hyberbole. Of course it's not! Many people have an England flag up, purely because they are bloody entitled to fly their OWN country's flag all the time if they want (AS EVERY OTHER COUNTRY DOES!) Also people are entitled to fly it/put one up, if England are currently playing in/doing well in some sport or other. (Any many do! They are not all bloody racist bigots!)

Stop spouting this nonsense that anyone who flies the England flag is a racist! I find it quite hilarious that all the left-wing champagne socialists assume everyone who supports/flies the England flag is white! How narrow minded and ludicrous!

And to say anyone who flies the England flag is 'scum' is just absolutely vile. Many ex-military who fought in wars fly an England flag. These haters should be utterly ashamed of themselves.

Also, as a pp said, not all REFORM voters are thick racist bigots as the champagne socialists on here like to say. Yes, some are working class people (so what?!) But many are middle class professionals, who are fucked off with the main parties, doing NOTHING that they promise, and screwing us all over. (I voted LibDems by the way, and they are in power in my county. Yet some people fly England flags here. I know, WEIRD right!) 😱

It currently has connotations as its being pushed by Reform who are far right.
We have always had a few England and union flags flying it's a very multicultural area, and no one has ever mentioned it int he 20 years ive lived herw. however, if they put them up this week they are doing it to make a point, and that point isn't inclusive. And it isn't about patronism it's about nationalism.

Have you read any of this thread?

This has been explained over and over again. You can fly whatever flag you like some people have always flown one. Fine. It is the current Raise the Flags Campaign by English Nationalist and right wing groups that is the problem.

Yep.

It's all blatant oikophobia. They despise the working class getting uppity.

Well, you clearly lack comprehension skills if you still don't know why some people object.

Clearly.

Well as someone who is working class and not a flag shagger, it's more that people hate racists being racists whilst pretending they love our country.

Flag shagger 😂

Well, I suppose it's a way for him to control who moves next door to him.

Honestly if you ask him again he may will plaster the whole house in flags to spite you. I’m no flag waver (don’t mind them, but it’s just not me) and if someone told me multiple times what to do with my own property I would get petty about it.

It's our national flag! Not just some little issue. Maybe you could see all this currently happening as a positive thing - reclaiming it back. It's a type of control that some people are using the fact that it's been hijacked by a minority to dictate and control what the rest of us do.

Nobody is trying to control what you do. Hang all the flags you like but if you're choosing this week to "reclaim" the flag you know exactly what message you are sending and I will assume it's on purpose.

Give over. That's history. Lots of countries did lots of bad things in centuries gone by. This generation isn't responsible for things done by our ancestors.

But we are responsible if we don’t challenge racism towards the generations of people born to the people who were colonised or enslaved.

Did your neighbour tell you to take a hike, OP? Hope so.

Racism is challenged. There are multiple laws in place to protect people from racism. There's so much education out there now. But you will always have people who are racist. It will never be fully eradicated. And that, you can't go anything about apart from hold them accountable if breaking the law. The slave trade was not carried out in my name so I refuse to be blamed for it.

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

you can't go anything about apart from hold them accountable if breaking the law

Of course you can. Instead of wringing your hands about it, you can choose to be actively anti-racist and notice what’s happening around us, including the fact that the majority of the new flags going up now are at the instigation of those seeking seeking to cause division and hatred.

It doesn’t mean you need to be a vigilante and remove flags or never have a flag, but it does mean considering whether participating in this sudden movement at this time bolsters people like Tommy Robinson.

I wouldn't buy the house as I'd be worried about how to share a living space with someone who would not want me to be there.

But I don't think you can or should do anything - it's actually much better that you get the right people to buy your house to avoid creating an unpleasant situation (I know that you won't actually get impacted by anything that happens, but always nice to know you didn't do anything to create an issue)

When you say "for Britain" you surely mean the small number of industrialists who became wealthy off the back of it because ordinary Britons who worked in the factories, as labourers on the land or as small trades people certainly didn't.

Where do you think the cotton for the cotton mills come from? It wasn't the factory worker's fault but they benefited from it

Who's participating in it? I don't have a flag up, nor do I want to put a flag up. But I agree with people's right to put one up if.they wish. What would you suggest with the flying of our flag? That we make it illegal? We seem to have a bunch of people who want to control the narrative here, ie you're assuming that everyone who loves the British flag is racist. You may think that. I dont. So I won't be campaigning to ban people from flying it, as much as you'd like me to. Just because a minority might fly it with racist intensions, that doesn't mean we all do. Stop generalising.

If you read my post again, I did suggest what I would do, and it does not involve making the flag illegal or banning it.