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?

Surprise, surprise op has disappeared.

Shall we just call it a day folks. She is obviously just stirring up trouble.

Many of us have put up with unwarranted self loathing and Britain bashing for years now, that maybe you can put up with some flags for a few weeks?

How so?

I read the thread title and thought flag shaggers.

Yes, it happened in the school.

All the kids wearing flags were sent home.

One snowflake parent took exception to this and took it to the press, selectively presenting the story to make it look like the Union flag was singled out.

It wasn't.

That incident didn't trigger this wave of flag shagging though, and if it had - well people really are very easily led and unable to get past their biases to understand context.

Slowly, for the hard of thinking: ALL flags were sent home in a multi-cultural school well aware of the kind of populist nationalism that can sit behind flags. It wasn't an attack on English culture, instructions were given ahead of the event.

But if you're looking to be outraged, I suppose details like the truth don't matter.

I'm more annoyed that the flag has been commandeered as a symbol of racism when it wasn't really the property of any political movement to "own" it like that.

I don't hate the flag itself! I find the motivations behind the current spray-painted and displayed flags deeply distressing, as per the question in the thread.

<snort>

Yep this is correct! So many people on this thread are acting like this young girl was singled out but they have not actually bothered to look into what happened beyond the Daily Mail headlines.

What are you talking about?

Are you aware that people have jobs/responsibilities/lives outside of Mumsnet and don't sit on their phone furiously refreshing threads??

English flag (red on white background in landscape mode) which was turned 90 degrees (like portrait mode).

But you must see that this is not mere patriotism? If it was we would always have been festooned with flags .
The flags are a specific response/ statement to the immigration situation which understandably makes many uncomfortable.

I might stick up my national flag then too. And DPs - another nationality again. Perhaps we all should. Since we’re all so proud of our nationality. I’ll prob leave the roundabouts alone though.

A boy I know has just received his first ever bout of racist abuse at his school at age 13. A lot of people I know are a lot more scared than they’ve ever been. It’s fucking depressing and nothing has ever made me less proud to be English.

Trouble is that the Saltire, which has always been flown in Scotland, is now being adopted by those protesting about immigration. If I was non-white I think I would feel intimidated by streets suddenly displaying even more 'patriotism' than during the independence referendum.

No one is bashing Britain harder than the right wing press and the likes of Farage right now. He's gone over to America to talk us down and ask Trump to issue sanctions against us.

If you're angrier about stuff like the National Trust giving entirely accurate historical context to objects in their collection than you are about an elected MP conspiring against the government he is part of and the King he swore an oath to - you're really not a patriot.

I agree OP. Same with the poppy. Love both of them but not when misappropriated
And the pathetic use of phrases like pearl clutching....

Fear?

Exactly. It’s crazy people don’t see the message of flags being put up now.
If everyone is just simply patriotic, why has the flag flying only just begun?

There was a whole thread on this manufactured story at the time. Dad is a far right wannabe.