Rip the flags down! A call for action!

[Ilovemychocolate]

The sudden appearance of the English flag hung on lamp posts, railings etc has absolutely sickened me, and my dd.
I am proud to be British, but the misappropriation of the flag by thugs, intending to intimidate, is absolutely not acceptable in a diverse society.
So tonight myself and my adult dd ripped them down in our area, and tomorrow we will be going on a flag hunt, to rip down any more we find.
I would strongly urge those of you that feel the same way, to also remove them, as long as you feel safe and comfortable to do it.
Posting in AIBU for traffic.

Seen some on motorways but I live in Wales. None seen here but if there were any the Welsh will go mental

Yes, I think all this with flags is nuts. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Your call to action was a huge success!

Are you pro pulling down the Palestine Anna Pakistan ones too, or just the flag of the country we’re in?

Oh, shut up OP. When our girls and women are safe from undocumented men, I'll come on a flag hunt with you.

When I see the flag of St George flown on April 23 from our parish church and others I think ‘lovely’ and get a little patriotic tingle. When I see it hung at seeming half mast off random lamp posts and bridges I think ‘how grim’ and that it’s a sad looking sight.

True they might not be safe from those men. But do you remember the Southport riots and how a large percentage of those flag cloaked English knights had prior for domestic abuse or assault?
we are equally at risk from any section of the male population. Let’s not take our eye off that ball.

Yes I think in the U.S. it’s still illegal to burn/deface their flag - could be wrong

What do you mean of both sides?

And you epitomise what’s gone wrong with this country. You must be so proud of yourself. Well done 👍

Well one one of these "thugs" sees you do it I suppose you too will accept the consequences of your actions.

How many did you take down and bin OP? I have 5 spare.I shall errect them in your honour this morning after church. We racist gammons over 50 love a little sport you know between our knitting, our church services and our love for celebrating our patriotism. The WI are unstoppable in the country right now, didn;t you know ?
You and your daughter "the feminist" sound so much fun...Our sewing circle will be thinking of you this afternoon when we are sat around sewing on swashtikas for the lads...
For the record this is the most stupid post I have commented on for a while and deserves the sarcasm aimed at it..
Remove at will mumsnet its fine by me!

It would be interesting to know if any of the people on Antifa counter protests have any convictions? Anti Israel marches?

I don't like the reason why they have all started appearing but I think most of those doing it will get bored with it soon and get back to their other hobbies.

Scared of reform ? Ha ha. Omg. Such delusion, she should be more scared about Islamist’s and the far left!

there is nothing racist at all about not wanting hundreds of thousands of illegal
immigrants entering, crime rates soaring, costs to tax payer soaring and from
countries and cultures that treat women like shit! It’s common sense to stop this.

the govts first job is to protect its borders… and successive ones have failed spectacularly in that.

managed and controlled legal immigration, by people who value our culture way of life and want to integrate isn’t the issue ( although that’s also way too high now)

And how is festooning lampposts with tacky flags going to make women and girls any safer?

@Valeriekati have no idea but I suspect any cohort of men will have similar proportions of offending and well adjusted lawful behavior. It’s being a man not the colour of skin or political affiliation which is the crucial marker. I wish people could understand that

So it's not the fault of the thugs if she's beaten up? If that was said in a domestic violence setting it would be classed as victim blaming - and you're not the first person on the thread who's done it.

Op thinks she's batman

You'd have fun in my area. As well as the flags on lamp posts, people are spray painting roundabouts, the white strips on zebra crossings and even some of the little white blocks on give way lines. People are even joking that they should spray paint the St George's flag in pot holes, to force the council to do something about them.

Why though? My question was because I don't really understand - I'm Scottish. I live in Scotland. All a flag really signifies is the country you're in so I find it difficult to understand how it portrays racism/threats. I am trying to better understand this.

How did your flag hunt go, op? Did you catch more than one this time?

Meanwhile in another act of derring do OP has made two cups of tea out of one tea bag and is sat wondering if she would shave her legs in a radical move against all her principles if ever there was a chance of bedding Corbyn.

@Dontletthebedbugsbite2 It has always been the case that the England and Union flags, when flown in unofficial settings (so not on public buildings) by English people, are strongly associated with far right, racist, anti immigration politics. This is well known.

There has been some attempts to 'reclaim the flag', especially during major sporting events, but that is more about little flags on cars, not hanging them in gardens or on lamp posts.

My neighbour has a flag, and I suspect it is her, in collusion with the local window cleaner, who are responsible for the flags on our street. She has a very loud voice and talks constantly with no filter so I know exactly how she thinks.

Over the weekend we've had to endure her opinions to all and sundry about how 'they're all here for the benefits, put up in 4 star hotels with 4 poster beds with all their food provided and they're still stealing from Greggs' and the like and how she saw it on GB News so it must be true.

Also that all the high streets are dying and have been taken over by 'their' shops, in the same breath as how she got her flag from Amazon.

The above conversation was had with another neighbour, who is Polish, but he's OK now because he's white and speaks fluent English and he's also racist. Despite her expressing the same sentiments previously about Eastern Europeans 'coming over here and taking all the jobs and getting all the benefits'.

This is the same woman who has also previously proclaimed that she would 'never work full time because she gets the same money as she would working PT and topped up by benefits', which didn't work out so well for her when her DC became adults.

There's probably a venn diagram out there that shows almost complete overlap between people who have put a flag up in the last few weeks and people who voted Reform in the last election.

Much like small children, the racists hoisting these flags (yes, I know others are trying to ‘reclaim’ it) are just looking for attention. Pulling them down only plays into their hands, feeding their narrative of “double standards” and the idea that they’re not “allowed” to be patriotic. Ignore the performance and it will lose steam, most will get bored soon enough.
The flag-waving is a convenient distraction, giving them an easy way to shout about imagined grievances without addressing the real issues. Farage and others rely on these shallow tactics precisely because they can’t deal with proper debate so a better tactic is take on the real issues directly not get drawn into the fluff and theatre of flags.

I would be really interested as to what kind of areas these are being put up in- we live in a fairly deprived area and by some posters' estimations on here (on another thread as well) there is an intimation that it is lower class/uneducated people doing this-I am not sure that is true-it certainly isn't here.