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. 🇬🇷🇮🇪🇮🇳🇦🇫🇧🇸🇵🇰🇪🇸🇸🇩🇿🇦🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

What's "weird" about it? Some pps agree with OP, some don't. That's no different to any other thread on MN.

The people responsible for far right hatred are the far right.

If lamp posts are a free for all, they should be just that, including those removing flags.

Except that's just nonsense. The far right themselves are stoking the divisions and they're using the flag in order to do so.

You know that this is true. You're not fooling anyone.

Good for you OP. Well done for what you did and thank you.

I’m sorry you’re married to someone who thinks it’s more important for people to be able to fly flags than it is for people to feel safe.

You leftists never learn.

You think if you just keep endlessly calling people racist and bigoted, they’ll listen to what you have to say, or that you’ll somehow wound them. They won’t listen, and you’re not hurting their feelings. Those words have been thrown about so much they’ve lost all meaning now. People just don’t care anymore. It’s meaningless noise. They just tune you out and carry on.

💯 this! 👏👏

Can’t stoke division by flying a flag. It’s the left’s response that’s madness.

No, we don’t like a flag that has been used to as a symbol of hatred, abuse and racism towards foreigners for decades by groups like the EDL. I also don’t like the KKK uniform or the Nazi logo. I’d avoid entering a pub bearing an England flag, in the same way I would cross the street from someone wearing a KKK costume. it’s basic self preservation.

The Welsh flag, Scottish, NI flag- lovely flags that are used to show pride in their country and culture, rather than hatred of other races and cultures. The British flag is also pretty neutral, though if the xénophobes get their way it might go down the same path as the English one.

And by the way, next time you may as well just say “if you don’t like it, leave”. Us brown people and immigrants are used to that from the likes of you. Because immigrants are not entitled to opinions on issues directly affecting them 🙄

I'm centrist.
You think if you just keep endlessly calling people "leftists", they’ll listen to what you have to say, or that you’ll somehow wound them? They won’t listen, and you’re not hurting their feelings. That word has been thrown about so much it's lost all meaning now. People just don’t care anymore. It’s meaningless noise. They just tune you out and carry on.
See how this works? Hypocrite. 🙄

I don't like that the flag is being used by Bad Actors as a symbol of territory, but if you take it down you are just adding to the conflict.

I am having this conflict over the Rainbow flag, as I now see it as a symbol that the person displaying it cars mens rights over womens rights, when it doesn't mean that all.

I am not sure how to go forward with it all.

I Iive in Cornwall and removed 6 flags the other night on a dog walk. They sprung up the same time as the marches. I perceived them as right wing racist. They are not patriotism.

What a bizarre analogy. If a child puts up it's middle figure, that's universally accepted as swearing. The index finger would be 'just my finger'.

The England flag is universally accepted as just that... our national flag. Unless it has racist graffiti daubed on it, then it IS just a flag.

The fact you and others have taken it to mean something else, is a you problem.

Why is it that people feel the need to mark their territory- what are they being told, and what are they seeing with their own eyes?

Who are they listening too and why do they discount the information from the other side?

My guess is a mixture of the torrent of "male, pale and stale" in the media that has been popping up, the import of the US race culture, and refugees being constantly put in societies where other people are struggling?

It isn't that we don't learn.

We know you don't care if we call you racist or bigoted. We know you won't listen. We know you're not interested in facts or rational argument. We know you don't care about right or wrong. We know that some of you are proud of your racism and bigotry. We know that you're beyond redemption.

We are not arguing with you because we think we can change your minds. We are not arguing with you to try to hurt your feelings. We are arguing with you because we think there is a moral imperative for decent people to speak out against your hate-filled rhetoric. A failure to do so would make us complicit.

It doesn't matter if you tune us out. We will continue to say what needs to be said.

The faux naivety is just annoying. Nobody buys it.

You rightos are stoking so much hatred that an Asian woman was raped 2 weeks ago in Birmingham by two white men who hurled racist abuse at her.

A white teen bully forced a black boy to kiss his shoe and then punched him repeatedly.

White men tried to burn down a hotel of asylum seekers by adding planks of wood to a large burning wheelie-bin that was pushed up against the hotel and by building barricades that were then set on fire.

People who don’t speak up against the stoking of hatred and say not in my name are complicit.

Oh but you can, as Tommy Robinson has managed to demonstrate.

Well said.

Well said.

It’s our problem that outside of sporting events, the England flag has mainly been used by far right nationalist and Neo-Nazi groups in England?

And the fact that black people in America take the confederate flag to mean something else other than Southern pride and unity is a them problem…right?

Not sure how you’ve concluded that the universally accepted meaning of the England flag, given that on this thread it’s not even majority accepted to mean just that. Perhaps someone should tell Tommy Robinson about this universally accepted meaning - he seems to see it as a symbol of revolution against immigration and asylum…

💯💯💯👏👏👏
Couldn't agree more. These reactions are stoking the division.
Some people in this country are getting VERY angry and are starting to feel they have nothing to lose. I really wouldn't want to push them too much...

This is the centre of London - one of the most iconic images of Great Britain 🇬🇧

Is that a threat? What else is going to happen to non-whites following the already heinous rape and murder attempts?

Good on you. Around my way groups have sprung up to take them down.

The group my way putting up flags also "protest" a hotel housing migrants. It's not really protesting, hanging around the hotel regularly, shining lights into windows and other activities. This is effectively people's homes! I don't have anything against flags on their own, but all of this together is too much.

Obviously, not every single person who likes flags flying is far right, but It's far too convenient this flag movement sprung up at this time. If you lie down with dogs you get up with fleas, so why risk it?

So everyone who works in the NHS is a do gooder…..be sure to tell them that the next time you are in A&E. Most of us who work clinically whatever ethnicity are our patients advocate, we get offended on a daily basis. That’s our job to advocate for our patients.