Fucking flags

[xmaspud3]

I know this has probably been done to death on here and there will be lots of threads about it already but I cant be bothered to trawl through the site for them so here I am.

I’m so irritated by the England flags popping up everywhere. There has been an influx put up in my area over the last week, it seems to be increasing by the day. I don’t hate the flag, but I hate the fact it is being used to send a clear message by racists. People aren’t doing it to be patriotic they are doing it to be hateful towards those that they don’t feel ‘belong’ in their country.

I don’t want to see all of these flags in my area. If people are entitled to put them up then why am I not entitled to go and cut the fuckers down? And don’t get me started on the spray painting of public roundabouts and road signage by people who allegedly love their country so much that they are vandalising it at the expense of public money.

If I see one more person give a ‘big well done to whoever has erected the flags on xyz street’ on Facebook I will explode. Does anyone else feel ragey over it?

How do you know people aren't doing it to be patriotic? How do you know they are all racists with racist intent? How do you know that ordinary decent people who are tired of not being allowed to voice certain concerns without being called racist or fascist aren't just sending a message that they've had enough of being ignored, patronised and sneered at?

How do you know that there isn't a clear determination to reclaim the England flag from racist organisations and to allow British people of English descent to feel pride in their flag and to fly it without fear of people like you looking down their noses at them and making ridiculous assumptions? English people have just as much right to feel proud of being English as the Welsh do to be Welsh and the Scots do to be Scots. Would you go to Scotland and Wales and tell them they must be racist to display their own national flag? Or France? Because good luck with that.

It's attitudes like yours that are causing this and yet you just can't see it. This is how Brexit happened and took you all by surprise.

There’s nothing wrong with not wanting hotels to be used for asylum seekers, but if a person feels strongly about that they should be protesting to the council NOT standing outside hotels hurling threatening abuse at a marginalised, vulnerable group and accusing them of all being sex offenders.

That is racist bullying, so when they are seen to be doing that people will assume that they are racist bullies.

Operation Raising the Colours was instigated by Andrew Currien, also known as Andy Saxon, an ex member of the English Defence League and bodyguard for their senior leadership team. He now runs security for the far-right party Britain First. He served time in 2019 for playing a part in a racist attack that led to the death of the victim. And now he's got a GoFundMe to pay for batches of 1,000 flags to put up in towns across the country.

Other far right groups and ex-EDL members have joined in. Britain First's leader, Paul Golding, is one - see below.

Educate YOURSELF. No one is screeching racist. The movement IS fucking racist.

@AlertLimeZebra whatever you think of it at least whoever painted it knows what a straight line is

The number one job aspiration of British children is currently “influencer”. Do you really think they’ll be lining up to do unskilled manual labour? No.

And it’s not about “low skilled” workers. 27% of the NHS are immigrants, for example - do you really think we’d do better with 27% fewer doctors? We do not have enough British people with the skills to fill the gap - we simply don’t.

Agree. I'm so West Midlands (got back to 1406 on one line, several hundred years on many others) that having a gt gt grandfather from Yorkshire was a big exotic discovery.

People abusing our flags to promote hate and division are not doing it in the name of many, many English people of all backgrounds, including me. The things that make me "proud" to be English/British include tolerance and a willingness to stand up against tyranny, not the self interested rants of Stephen Yaxley Lennon and his crew.

I’ve only seen one around here. Not actually a flag, but a daubing of the flag (wrong way round) outside one local shop. A shop run by immigrants. It has been very quickly painted over.

I'm not sure patriotism is a right

Here are a couple more to add to your flag collection.

"Fucking flags"

What a delightful way to start a considered and respectful discussion!

She could dress as a seagull for all I bloody care, but the rules clearly said “no flags”.

At least these lines are nice and straight. If the current noisy cohort want decorated zebra crossings, they should engage with their councils to do it properly. Because as things stand, none of them seem to have access to a ruler and it looks like total shit - which isn't very patriotic.

Do you know what is meant by ethnic Russian? Maybe it’s my translation. It’s people who love Russia so much that they insist in living in countries like Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine and many other countries that were occupied but yet don’t seem to want to go back to Mother Russia. This was done deliberately by the Soviet Union - they were sent in to Russify the nations they occupied Their families insist on speaking Russian, they will not learn the language of the country they live in. They were up in arms when Latvian government stopped printing legislation in Russian alongside Latvian.
They send their children to Russian schools so that they do not assimilate properly into society.

They were sent to these countries as occupiers and rapists after the war. Raped women who had their children, abused their own children and raped them - this is what was meant by diluting. Raping women so that they bore Russian children. They never left. Have you not wondered why if Russia is so wonderful they don’t go back? You have no idea about the history of these countries and what living relatives today have been through. Educate yourself, you clearly have no idea.

I'm mixed-race and the flags don't elicit anything in me except a weary eye-roll.

In a way I'm happy about them because I prefer my racists where I can see them. Thanks for the advance warning so I can avoid you!

And unlike a lot of white people who got used to a liberal bubble for a couple of decades (bless you, some of my best friends are like you) I was never under the illusion that this level and scale of racism ever went away. It just wasn't socially acceptable to display it, and now it is.

What I have no interest in is changing racists' minds or persuading angry gammons that they're wrong about immigrants. Don't care. My energy on this matter is entirely directed at whatever it takes to keep immigrants and people of colour safe.

Yawn

YANBU OP. They've not been placed up to "celebrate" England / UK, but to intimidate and as part of a campaign to mark territory / make some people feel unwelcome. Awful and sad.

‘It's attitudes like yours that are causing this and yet you just can't see it. This is how Brexit happened and took you all by surprise.’

it didn’t take me by surprise, Could see that the half witted, I-want-my-cuntry-back idiots were going to drag the UK backwards. How did that work out for you all? Enjoying Brexit and all the benefits it’s brought you?

“Daddy, can I have my sword back?”
“No son, I’ve got roundabouts to paint”

In Canada we have flags at our government offices, businesses, people’s homes, on cars, on our clothing, in windows of homes, etc. Most cottages (summer vacation homes on lakes) hang flags as well. Sometimes cottages even fly flags from their home countries along side the Canada flag.
Can someone explain to me how flying your nations flag is racist? I’m not trying to be combative, it just must be a cultural thing because in Canada a Canadian flag just simply represents the country that you are living in and the pride you have for that country.

Its also dangerous to drive on as the paints are not up to code.
And bad for some people with sight impairments, guide dogs struggle with them, as do police horses.
And it will be interesting to see what insurance companies will make of them if accidents happen on them.
but hey, at least the lines are straight.