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)

Naive yes, faux naive no.

I didn’t actually say your’s was!

Just that we’ve had pages of it! They just die down & then another one pops up!

The woman's Rugby World Cup started on Friday so some of the flags will be because of the tournament. Women's rugby has grown massively in popularity.

This is very sad. It's time we reclaimed the St George's from the knuckle dragging halfwits. You don't have to "look" English or British to fly the St George's or the Union flag. The flags represent the people of England or Great Britain not just the white, indigenous population. If you want to fly the flag please do so, you have as much right to as anyonelse.

In answer to your question “is it making you uncomfortable?”, yes it is.

It’s plausibly deniable as there’s nothing racist about a flag in itself, as umpteen posters on here will have already said.

But it feels like racist intimidation and territory marking.

I've not said anti semitism doesn't exist but I don't currently think that is the main driver for the protests and use of the Palestinian flag and as I said I think Israel have acted appallingly and so have hamas. But we can't take every instance of someone protesting against the atrocious actions against innocent Palestinian people as anti semitism. I equally don't blame every Israeli or Jewish person for what the Israeli government is doing at the moment
Obviously anti semitism is disgusting and use of nazi symbols and attacks are completely unacceptable.
I do think the main intentions behind the recent push to display the st George's flag and graffiti everything is coming from people who want to make clear they don't want anyone they don't think fits their definition of English in the country and spread hate

‘Shankill ✊🏼Chic’

LOL. Am stealing this.

Tell me you don’t understand what’s going on without telling me you don’t understand what’s going on.

I don’t like it.

Yes funny that isn’t it - how people fail to see the blatant hypocrisy is beyond me. There will be a cohort on both sides using the flags as a front for their hateful views in the name of legitimate support but only the right is “bad”.

They’ve just gone up where I live all over town .. I’d like to rip them all down

You seen to have mistaken me for one of the simpletons climbing a ladder with a cable tie and a cheap flag

England HAS been allowed and I honestly have no issue with them, I think its great that people are patriotic.....HOWEVER .....this is NOT what this is and anyone claiming/believing it is are in denial. I find it quite hostile and worrying as to where it is going!

Anti semitism is still not taken seriously and rarely makes mainstream media. I saw a clip of a bus load of Jewish schoolchildren in London I think being harassed, stuff shouted. Clearly an anti semitic attack, hardly reported. Sorry was a few months ago. @TheGirlWhoWantedToBeGod I really feel for The Jewish community at the moment.

What evidence have you seen that it’s sinister?

There is lots of hearsay and people coming with outlandish accusations like ‘far right’, but as even mentioning that we’d quite like our borders back under control is deemed ‘far right’ by some, that’s not very informative.

It strikes me that we need to normalise flying our own national flag in out country - it is worrying that it makes some people feel uncomfortable. Can you imagine people from France saying they are uncomfortable flying Le Tricolore? If we don’t fly our flag, it leaves space for another flag.

This feels pretty sinister to me. Unless you think they just really love curry?

That’s a very extreme assumption.

Lots of people are putting up flags for a number of reasons, including women’s sport - they are not all ‘vile racist’.

Your use of that language is why these conversations keep coming back. As well as being delighted to support women’s rugby, I want our government to regain control of our borders, do more about the small boats/hotels situation and manage immigration more effectively. I am not a ‘vile racist’ in wanting more transparency and control.

Our local mosque has put a massive Union flag in the window themselves. Beating the racists at their own game! 😂

But that’s defacing someone’s banner. That’s not people raising flags.

I don’t think anyone denies that there have always been racists. Attempting to smear everyone who wants a conversation about immigration and wants to normalise having pride in our nation again as a racist is not going to help.

There has been a slowly growing national narrative, apparently driven by some on the left that it is shameful, racist and/or colonialist to have pride in our country and want to prioritise our values. This harms us as a country and destroys our sense of society.

According to your train of thought then the person in the mosque must be racist too.

Why? I don’t think the Union flag is racist, unless it’s being used for racist reasons.

There is nothing wrong with being proud of your country, but jingoism and nationalistic superiority is wrong. I’m proud of many aspects of my Englishness, but I don’t think we’re better than anyone else. I don’t think that foreign people are inferior or not good enough to be here, which is the message the far-right are sending out with their hijacking of our national flags to enact a hate campaign against anyone with brown skin.

Ibby (the imam of the mosque) is making the point that they are British born and bred too. It is also their flag. Something which seems to have escaped the knuckledraggers.

It was you saying “nobody is really bothered about the English flag flying” that led me in that direction….

But they're not. Nobody is bothered about an English flag flying, they're really not. People have actually got real issues to worry about.

Obviously the issue with the new fad of flag flying and roundabout painting is different because it's being done by racist simpletons egged on by racist grifters, but other than that nobody gives a fuck about the flag.

I love this!

We’ve always been allowed. Nobody of any ethnic minority has ever made me feel like I can’t fly a flag. However the fact that most flag wavers are racist knobbers that use it more to signify what they hate rather than pride in their country, means the very people that want us to fly the flag with pride are also the ones that make me a bit ashamed of it.