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?

Educationally, it's recommended that children are able continue to speak in their mother tongue at home. It has no disadvantages in learning English - think of bilingual Welsh children who know which language to speak to which person. I know Polish children who speak Polish but also perfect English with no trace of a Polish accent

My parents live in Spain and they've learnt Spanish.

As they should to make their lives easier, but do they speak with you in Spanish if you visit or ring them ? Probably not ? @Petitchat

Why do 'they' need to educate here? What if they don't want to be teachers?

The sentiment of flag flying not defacing the streets.

Hysterical thread - so much hyperbole. I would be embarrassed for anyone to read it overseas tbh. They would be laughing over their morning coffee and papers.

Before Reform took hold to this level people were voting for the other parties, maybe Labour would love them back.

And she's probably making that child feel afraid by talking to them in a different language to her peers, friends, etc.

Can you quote anyone who has said they are terrified of a flag.

Rubbish.

Your parents speak to each other in Spanish? I don’t believe you.

Also. Why do they hate their country so much? Could they not have just gone to France - it is closer? What if the Spanish don’t want them going over there?

Can you read the thread? Plenty of examples over 38 pages.

In your opinion, who can fly the flag without being labelled racist? How do we know Fred across the road is flying the flag because he’s ‘racist’ or flying the flag because he's celebrating VE Day? So in essence, it doesn’t matter why someone flies the flag, because everyone will assume they’re racist anyway….

Christ. Are the flag shaggers against anyone learning other languages now? How do you think kids become bilingual or trilingual? Parents speak their native language at home, English mum french dad for example then go to English speaking school = bilingual child.

Thats one of the silliest posts on this threads…and there has been a lot of competition

That is really despicable victim blaming. Ugh.

It’s not VE Day.

If Fred is celebrating VE Day, he’s 4 months late.

Some of the flag shagging posters on here can barely manage English … perhaps it’s not surprising they’re suspicious of multilingual kids.

So you should show your child how to bow to the intimidation of others based on racist beliefs about immigrants? Seriously? That's the solution you're going to go with?

Normal people don't have issues with people speaking other languages. Some of my friends speak Afrikaans, German, Czech, French, Maori, Mandarin and Portuguese to their kids. Anyone seeking to intimidate them into speaking English in public can take a running jump as far as I'm concerned..

I despair at the fragile Englishness being displayed right now. We used to be a robust, confident nation with a strong identity. Now we're spraying paint on mosques like dogs pissing up lampposts, because someone having a different faith threatens ours. Writing racist insults on a Chinese takeaway because someone having a different race threatens ours.

White supremacy isn't a good look.

If you're so scared that English culture is being eroded, do something positive to promote it. Go and play cricket. Attend an air show and share the images on social media. Support local farmers and eat British produce. Start going to church on Sunday. Organise a coffee morning for people on your street. Make jam and sell it for veterans. Do something POSITIVE to promote your culture, rather than bitch and whinge that your culture is under threat and wave a flag at shit you don't like.

I’m a native English speaker, I’m not English and I speak 2 other languages. Does anyone think my kids are ‘afraid’ because they’re also learning 2 languages as well as speaking English???

Yeah and my parents live in France, have done for 20 years, speak fluent French and guess what?

They speak English to their family. To us. To all their British friends who live alongside them. It is their mother tongue. They speak it to each other. Doesn't minimise the love for where they now live. Doesn't stop them from speaking French in the bar, supermarket, restaurant, to their French (or Dutch) mates.

My dad has French citizenship because Brexit made him realise he really loved living in France and wanted to stay there for the rest of his life. And for any doubters, yes a working class man and his wife were able to retire to France and live their European dream. I wish that was easily possible for me. Fucking xenophobes have made that much more difficult now.

I met a woman at a night market in the nearest French village who voted for Brexit because "of all the immigrants in the UK" and was very defensive when I pointed out she was herself an immigrant to France. She was adamant that it was different, she was an expat, she spent money in France etc. Deluded exceptionalism.

Nobody is terrified of a flag. If anyone is terrified it's of the horrible lurch to the right and the influence Yaxley-Lennon and Co. with his Raise the Flags campaign. Nobody is scared of a fucking flag.

@Petitchat my best friend lives in Germany with her British husband. They speak English at home with their children. Their children were born there, go to school there and are bilingual. My friends are fluent in German as they live there and work there but I think it would be weird if she spoke German at home or to her parents etc. @Walkintheforest sorry you felt you had to justify yourself there. For me, you are very welcome here and sorry you are uncomfortable right now. I hate all the flags on lampposts etc. I think they should be on private property or official buildings not lampposts etc

Never has the world ‘supremacy’ been so misused. Painting roundabouts, yelling at hotels, sticking shitty little flags on lampposts - upside down, half mast … or how about the roundabout where the flagshaggers painted the Danish flag by mistake ( doubt they even know where Denmark is)…