I took down some flags and DH wasn’t happy

[LittleChopper]

On my commute today, I noticed someone had hung three large St George flags on a bridge coming out of our village. They have been popping up everywhere but this particular instance I thought “I’m not having that”. On the way home I pulled over and took them down.

when I got home and DH asked why I was binning three large flags I told him and he.. had some interesting opinions. He told me I shouldn’t be pissing off people in the village, that they have every right to hang an England flag in England, and that I’m being too political.

For a start, I would argue that I’ve always been quite strongly opinionated so he shouldn’t be surprised I did it.

Just as others have the right to their opinion I have mine. We have people in the village who are migrants… why should they have to look at that. It’s clear why they were hanging there given what’s going on at the moment and I’ve never see a flag hanging in the village in the decade we’ve been here so why else would they be there now.

I’m just so disappointed with it all. With the UK, with DH.

Next time maybe I’ll add to the collection instead. 🇬🇷🇮🇪🇮🇳🇦🇫🇧🇸🇵🇰🇪🇸🇸🇩🇿🇦🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

They have very long arms ... 😉

It is a stretch when those flags are being deliberately deployed as a symbol of hate and division.

Nobody objects to the flag when it is used normally. That is the point that people seem determined to ignore.

We only have a problem with it now because the sudden proliferation of England flags everywhere is the direct response to a racist campaign.

With the odd Danish/Georgian flag thrown in for those who are too stupid to know the difference.

I'm sorry. You should be allowed to fly it freely.

Exactly. I once had a man without a GCSE to his name go on about how there were too many “foreign” doctors in this country. Maybe if he had applied himself and actually made an effort with his life he could have become a doctor, thus the NHS would have needed one fewer “foreign” doctor?

The vast majority of those engaging in this disgusting, racist rhetoric are white men born in England. Literally one of the most privileged set of people in the world. If a white man born in England has not been able to make a decent go of his life then he has nobody to blame but himself I’m afraid. They have every means of support available to them and have still failed and are looking for someone else to blame.

Meanwhile there are people studying in war zones, women risking being shot just to get an education, women in this country having risked death, prison and persecution just for wanting the vote and so on and so on. And yet the white men are the angriest? Give me a break. They are just coming to terms with the fact that the easy ride is over, and they have to join the struggle just like the rest of us.

The official estimates are the right ones. Obviously. Twitter guesses dont count.

That's awful.

There's nothing wrong with the English flag or the Union Jack but in recent times they have been appropriated by extremists and no longer have the same meaning as before.

I don't see much of that where I live, thankfully; I'm a Londoner, live in the suburbs and we've always been cosmopolitan. However I have seen a lot in the media and it reminds me of old newsreel about Nazi German pre-WW2, where swastikas hung everywhere. Swastikas were not even national flags but they took over. We don't want that sort of thing here, it's frightening.

I can't say I would have gone as far as the op and taken them down but I applaud the sentiment.

We know who we are, we can take it for granted, don't need to advertise it.

In better times our flags commemorated events such as royal weddings, jubilees, coronation, funeral, international sport, last night of the proms. That was great, let's get back to that.

We had flags out locally for VE day and that was commemorative, there were no fascist overtones.

My Union Jack M&S carrier bags have been put to the back of the pile for the time being and I am far from ashamed of being British English, I am glad and grateful that I don't live in Syria, Afghanistan, even Ukraine and many other countries. We are fortunate people.

We need an immigration thread bingo card. ‘Critical thinking skills’ and ‘St George wasn’t English’ would definitely be on there.

Bloody well done you! Your DH not be happy but I think you're fab. Wish more people were like you. XX

The person who put up the flags in this street is doing it for racist reasons. She has been very vocal about it. So this comment is about people from other countries who are being made to feel awkward and uncomfortable living here. A lot of the flags being put up across the UK are for that reason sadly.

Exactly this!

Taking down an English flag that someone else has put up isn’t really expressing your opinion. it’s interfering with their expression.

Removing someone else’s opinion, which can be seen as disrespectful.

This whole flag-shagging nonsense is getting out of hand. There's nothing wrong with being proud of your country, but this isn't that.
We all know, deep down that, no matter how much people deny it and argue about it, the recent appearance of the majority of these flags, and the clowns painting roundabouts, and also daubing a red cross on the front sign of a hotel hosting refugees, that this is really all about making refugees and other non-white people feel unwelcome and uncomfortable.

Well done OP. I am thinking of doing that too.

Flags appeared over a weekend close to my street and were put up in the middle of the night by people I suspect do not even live in our small seaside town.

As we have a fair amount of wind being by the sea and as a result the flags are sliding down and making their way towards the pavement. It all looks grubby and silly so I was thinking that a pair of Scissors might come handy the next time I go for a walk...

Most of realise that the recent flag shagging obsession has nothing to do with being genuinely patriotic and all to do with racism & xenophobia.

It’s not the flag itself, it’s what it’s been co-opted to represent by the roundabout painters and their ilk. THAT is embarrassing.

That's very true, so why mess with them? I wouldn't for the sake of a couple of flags!

If people are only able to articulate their opinions by flying flags, then the best way of us expressing our disagreement is by taking them down.

There is nothing to prevent people from articulating their opinions in other ways. Unless, of course, they are seeking to express opinions that they cannot legally voice.

For the UMPTEENTH time, we are not offended by our national flag! We are offended by the people who have misappropriated it to send a message of intimidation and racism to immigrants, when we want to see it as a representation of a UK that is tolerant and welcoming and to be able to fly it with pride (but thugs like Tommy Ten Names and his ilk have deprived us of that pleasure).
Let me know if you need me to repeat that for you so it sticks. 🙄

I'd advise your partner to leave you.

OP good for you. I wish I were brave enough to do something about the one on the lamppost near my house. It's looking awfully ratty already. You'd think people who loved the flag so much would stump up for one that could withstand weathering better...

This is what I said to my 11 yo when he asked me.

Nothing at all wrong with the flag itself, a lot wrong with putting them up in order to make people feel unwelcome.

It’s a shame the George cross is synonymous with the BNP and football hooliganism. It’s become a symbol like the confederate flag.

PS there aren’t any near us - our road has two Palestinian flags as it happens, but no one has put up a UK or England flag. I don’t think anyone would round here.

We’ve seen them going round the motorway and once in a nearby area from the bus.

Some of the flags have been put up by racists, others by people simply concerned about immigration and making a visible protest, and yet others by people swept up in a fashionable wave of patriotism. Unfortunately, there's no way of telling which are which.

I applaud your 'spunk' in taking them down, but you're not necessarily doing the right thing.

There were some put up recently near us, sadly in a Reform area. I wouldn’t have taken them down, but I would have put up other flags if I’d had some. However they were technically on private land and the property owner took them down.

I remember back jn 1996 there was a push to repopularise the St George flag as something for England fans/ English people to wave that didn’t have those far right connotations.

Now look 😢