Flags..

[Elephant9]

Just a chat to understand what’s going on with the influx of England and UJ flags all over the streets?

thoughts?
where did it stem from?
is it making you uncomfortable? (It is, me, but not entirely sure why)

He’s backtracked on his ideas about sending people to Eritrea and Afghanistan…..

The whole movement is connected to immigration not patriotism.

There are very real issues and concerns about the scale of illegal immigration to the UK. At the extreme end of this debate, you find vile racists. These are the people putting the flags up.

And on sending women and children back.

I feel very uncomfortable , it's the right wing rhetoric that goes with it. Apart from being a bit crass noone is telling anyone they can't fly a flag but this has been taken over as a fascist statement.

The painting of roundabout etc is pure vandalism nothing less designed to make immigrants feel unwanted.

Loads in the Welsh press about them appearing is wales too the irony !

In fairness painting a red dragon on a roundabout in 3 minutes, at 2am whilst wearing a balaclava is a big ask!

Like dead children do you? Huge fan of starvation?

Not supporting the murder of Palestinian children does not make you a Hamas supporter. Or an idiot. It makes you someone with a conscience.

I think that’s the answer, make the flag more difficult 😂

Round our way some found the St George’s Flag a bit tricky too-and we are now apparently Danish. Unless they are sites for the first aid tent come the glorious revolution…..

Don’t believe what exactly?

That you “must have missed the whole saga”.

I don’t doubt some of the people displaying the St George’s flag are doing it for negative rather than positive reasons, and yes some of them will be racists.

However… as a British Jew, with ties to Israel, people - generally left wing ones - have been very keen to tell me over the past two years that their displaying of the Palestinian flag is simply to show support for the Palestinian people. And that there simply cannot be anything negative about it, it is not anti-Israel or anti-Jews, and isn’t being used to intimidate people in any way. Basically, I shouldn’t feel uneasy about it, and I’m probably being a bit paranoid.

It’s therefore a bit rich that the same people are now very concerned about the St George’s being displayed, and are worried about how this makes some groups or communities in the UK feel.

Did you miss all the other threads

Why is that so hard to believe? We all have to learn about current affairs at some point and I guess today is my time.

Banksy manages to do some clever shit pretty quickly.

This is hysterical.

I agree. I'm worried that it's too late to have the discussion about sustainable levels of immigration and that by the time the next election comes Reform will be the least of our worries. I think there is potential for a far more worrying political force to emerge. Shouting people down hasn't worked and won't work.

There will be some people who are only using the Palestinian flag to show their anti Semitism, but I think in this country I have rarely if ever heard someone spouting horrible views towards Jewish people. Not saying it doesn't exist but I think the support for Palestine at the moment is linked far more to the fact people are seeing innocent people starving to death and being bombed, I think people are fairly legitimately outraged at Israel's actions against Palestine, they're not all terrorists and yes the terrorist actions of hamas are also disgusting and they should be punished. I don't think people's intentions in most cases are to make Jewish people feel uncomfortable and I think intentions are important
The sudden patriotism for the English flag isn't currently because people are feeling more national pride, it's a flag that has been overtaken by the far right to promote their racist views about what a 'true English person' is, I don't mind the flag being used when there are national holidays/events or on council buildings etc but this latest influx of 'pride' is just mildly veiled racism. I say this as a white English person, who isn't their target, but i don't like being lumped in with the knuckle dragging morons who seem to forget that they have been treated by immigrants when in hospital, their parents are being cared for in care homes by immigrants, their local Indian restaurant where they get their favourite curry is run by an immigrant. The country would be incredibly boring without the mix of cultures and people

👆👆👆

Agreed,it's been done to death and unless the op has been living under a rock I'm sure they know what it is about and all the connotations that surround it.

I quite like the flags. Not so keen on the badly painted roundabouts.

I think we should take back our flag from willy waving racists the more flags there are the less of a "shock" factor it has the more normalised it is

Maybe mumsnet doesn't spend a lot of time with the 70/80/90 age bracket but I have and lately they are full of memories from when they were children and there were flags out it was normal behaviour nothing racist or threatening about it just a lot of fun memories

We’ve had nearly a week of this! Faux-naïve posts, all ‘oh look at the pretty flags’which stirs up pages & pages of disinformation & hate speech!

Hence the reaction to the original post!

😂😂

There are weekly reports of antisemitism in this country, including a teenage boy being shot with an air rifle and swastikas being drawn on Jewish houses, both within the last week. As with most hate, those who aren’t the target rarely acknowledge how bad it is because they don’t experience it and are not part of the affected community. However, the high levels of antisemitism in the UK has been widely reported.

Intentions are important, but so are consequences. You can argue against the Israeli government’s actions without allying yourself with people who attack Jews but far too few people have condemned the antisemitism that has occurred within pro-Palestinian groups, emboldening the perpetrators and giving the impression (rightly or wrongly) that you endorse their behaviour.

Whatever your views about flags (love, hate, don't care), I think you should be willing to recongise the extreme views in the debate and push back on these, on both sides.

I don't think anybody is worried about how the flags make any communities feel, mainly because nobody is really bothered about the English flag flying. It's a flag. Despite what some grifters would like you to think nobody in reality is offended by a flag.