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. 🇬🇷🇮🇪🇮🇳🇦🇫🇧🇸🇵🇰🇪🇸🇸🇩🇿🇦🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I went out to remove flags near me, but some one had beaten me to it. Flags last less than 24 hours near me and I think the person putting them up has now given up.

Sure, as long as you don't mind not being allowed to listen to music, wear jeans, ride a bicycle, get an education or choose who you partner with. I mean, that's the worst case scenario, but when 25% of British muslims say they want sharia law in this country, we shouldn't be too complacent.

Call me patronising if you like. Sadly, it is a fact that not everyone has the capacity to fully understand the implications of their vote, and those individuals are much more vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation. That is not just a glib comment or a criticism of the individuals concerned, it is an honest observation based on many years of working with people in deprived communities.

Saying it might not be very palatable but it is true. And of course, the statement doesn't apply to everyone in deprived communities at all, there are plenty who understand exactly what they're voting for. But there is a sizeable minority who do not.

I'm not writing anyone off. I am simply stating what I have seen. If you don't recognise what I'm talking about, then perhaps you haven't spent the amount of time in those communities that I have.

Reform and the far right have no solutions for these communities. They will not fix anything, they will only make things worse. Much worse. They are merely exploiting the anger and the injustice experienced by these people, who have been neglected by successive governments of all parties, for their own gain. And the tragedy is that the people in those communities who desperately need someone to be on their side will not realise that they are making things much worse for themselves until it's too late.

I don’t know how everyone spells, obviously. But the anecdotal evidence that I HAVE seen from people in support of the flags speaks for itself.

Have you got an answer yet as to how the 0.2% of the population who went on the march constitutes “most of the country”?

Most of the Country refers to those on the march AND the obvious support from people who couldn't attend. Look on ANY social media platform and see all the comments in favour of the march,

Well, that's your choice. I haven't taken any flags down either. So what?

The fact remains that people have as much right to take flags down in public places as they do to put them up.

Echo chambers.

Your social media feeds will typically reflect the views of people like you. Mine are full of people who are appalled at the rise of the far right.

You can't take what you see on social media as being representative of the country as a whole.

You should be ashamed to be British if you're ashamed of your flag.

This is heavily influenced by your algorithm. My own feed shows nothing but the opposite. Because that’s where I’d place myself with regards to politics and it obviously shows what I have or haven’t interacted with

And all under a Tory government. Funny that they waited for a Labour government to start protesting?

You do realise social media is generally an echo chamber don't you? The more you engage with certain content the more of it you will get served, so of course you'll believe that everyone agrees with you. If I look on ANY social media platform, I will see the complete opposite - that everyone is against the march.

I can also see that in my town most of the flags have disappeared and not been replaced - because in reality they didn't have much support - it was a very small minority putting them up.

You know that what you see on social media is skewed to reflect your own views, don’t you? It’s the algorithm. So of course you’ll have seen support for the march. There was also plenty of condemnation for the march on social media but you probably didn’t see as much of that. You really can’t extrapolate to “most of the country” based on your personal social media feed.

Did you even read that post? You seem to have failed to understand any of it...

Go onto Kier Starmer's public sites for a start, he's being bombarded with people against him and his Government.

This

'We have people in the village who are migrants… why should they have to look at that.'

Well...they live here now. Even if you are 100% pro migration, surely that doesn't mean shielding the migrants from anything that is actually culturally British/English? They live in the country, not just on the land.

I understood it thank you.

Sure. But I presume you wouldn't expect to get as much attention from random people on the Internet as the Prime Minister?

It's obvious that people with different viewpoints will target public figures, but you can hardly expect the same pattern to be reflected in your own social media feeds? Unless you have a rather over-developed sense of your own importance.

exactly. I am ashamed of how the flag has been weaponised into littering and vandalism of my community. I think it’s actually abuse of our flag and it’s certainly abuse of the local community spaces to vandalise them in this way

For the wide eyed "what's wrong with flying an English flag in England, it's just patriotism" crowd. Yeah, this guy seems like a proud patriot and definitely not a racist or trying to be intimidating isn't he?

www.facebook.com/share/v/14J1uaGvfEk/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Funny that, because I don't engage with any content on social media, and I don't pos5 my views. But you can guarantee that any nearly all of the comments I see on an6 platform are in support of the march.

That's not an algorithm either.

They aren't even trying to hide it, yet get haughty and deny it when confronted with their own words.