To ask if you agree with ‘the flag flyers’

[Gobbledygook123]

Plus if you’re also educated and at least middle income?

The only people I know personally that agree with Farage et al are from working class backgrounds and/or are generally not educated higher than GCSE level.

Granted this is quite a small snapshot but this includes friends of friends, acquaintances etc so wondering if my perception of the ‘typical Farage voter’ is correct or skewed.

Lovely post.
I can’t understand the upset at all the flag flying
I find it nice too.
United we stand.
im not a racist - some of my best friends are not of ‘white British’ descent and I work with a wide diversity of lovely, lovely people, but somehow it’s - Union Jack/George cross = racism
I don’t like idiots though , or mean , spiteful , or unkind people, but other than that black, white or Martian green.. I take people as I find them.

Everyone jumps on this and waves the racist flag, and perhaps there is a percentage of people using the situation for that. But there’s a large percentage of people who are fed up with the situation and how it affects them, their family and community, and are using it to make a point. They aren’t being heard, so this is the only way of making their point.

That’s not what I saw
Infact the reverse
the police arrested 25 people
8 protesters
17 counter protesters

THIS

Degree and professional qualification, higher earner and don’t agree with them and neither does my two GCSE owning, manual worker husband - mostly because the people who have put them up in our local towns are proud racists (and more) who post their vile opinions all over social media.

We live in a smaller village that’s thankfully been missed out.

I can’t believe that PIP case wouldn’t get through on MC or at tribunal. I mean surely he has substantial care needs and easily evidenced?! That’s awful.

Cleo65

So everyone else can wave their flags frantically in support of whatever they're passionate about....but not people who want Britain to be great again (& are 'working class & uneducated').
Odd concept...

Theres a huge difference between waving your flag at a match or using it as a political image

I’ve moved up to working class due to social mobility and I hate everything about the faee re age quoting flag toting right wing massive. Hate it with a vengeance and find it quite terrifying.

I’m working class and I think people who fly these flags and paint roundabouts are thick as shit. They don’t realise that once they have “stopped the boats” they will likely fall into the next ground of people they want to get “rid off”. What I'm baffled by is the flag shaggers have move in common with those poor people arriving on the boats than they do the temu trump wannabe and they don’t realise that.

Yes
degree educated
professional senior director level with high income

Remember Gordon Brown dismissing the concerns of a Labour voter in Rochdale in 2010? She talked to him about her worries with immigration and crime. His response was that she was, "a bigot". Now the issue has accelerated to the extent that no-one can dismiss it any more.

This thread reminds me of this - dismissing of people because of some misplaced superiority.

Degree educated professional - do not agree with the flags. The only person I know who does agree with the flags and who went on the march is not a university graduate.

I understand people's concerns about migration but there is a lot of ignorance around the issue and the protesters are targeting the wrong people. There need to be better systems for processing asylum claims.

I think most people do not know that asylum seekers are not illegal until their claims have been processed.

Op, for info, Poorly educated BIL , couple of gce:s, no formal qualifications, earns a six figure salary and in a senior position in a very large hospitality organisation, don’t be so patronising as to assume not having fancy degrees means you are automatically stupid and working class

No, I don't.

Especially as in our city, it's come to light that the person behind it who positioned it as 'civic pride in our community' is a far right supporter, and has links with Turning Point USA, who I assume bankrolled some of the initial funding.

We've seen an increase in racist graffiti and physical attacks on people who aren't white, and our local council after weeks of dithering about taking them down, are now doing so to the tune of a £250k bill to do so.

I'm all for pride in your country / neighbourhood but wish instead of hollow gestures, that the people who paid money for the flags or put them up, donated that cash to local community groups and / or volunteered their time locally to help out. Funnily enough, since the whole thing started we've seen absolutely no increase in people asking to volunteer at the two local groups I'm a part of.

I am torn by them. Half of me knows the horrific racist undertone of them, and I saw the guys putting them up on our road and they were exactly what I expected them to be - cans of lager in their hands, not a straight tooth between them, knuckle dragging idiots.

But….and this is where I struggle. We are in this country afforded the right to peaceful protest, and pinning flags up everywhere is by all accounts a peaceful protest.

So I don’t like the undertone but I do support the right to peaceful protest.

FWIW I was bought up middle class but consider myself to be very working class and educated to A level.

WC, university educated, and grew up somewhere where sectarian flag flying was rife and no I don’t agree with the flag fliers because not for one second do I think that people
have been taken over by a positive wave of patriotic fervour.

Educated to PhD level (I take it that's sufficient to be allowed an opinion?).
I think people can fly whatever flag they choose on their own property but not on public buildings, landmarks, bridges and so on.
I think it's unfair to suggest that only less educated people have questionable views, because I've also met some folk who are highly educated, in paper terms at least, but who are also quite blinkered regarding the lived experiences of others, and who've had fairly privileged lives.

There were people on the March who had come into the uk, correct papers , working here, paying taxes , from the same country as the illegal ones.

Not all working class or uneducated people agree. But those that do, appear to fit into that bracket.

The difference education level and class seems to make isn’t actually the level of education but rather that there’s less critical thinking, ability to debate and ability or want to research actual facts to further their argument.

My own family and friends are a complete mix, but the only ones citing Farage and ‘the boat people’ are those that are either working class, uneducated or both. There’s plenty that also fit into this bracket that don’t agree but I’m yet to meet a middle class, educated person who does.
I’ve already admitted this is an extremely small focus group.

I will absolutely take on board that maybe there are issues that are only really affecting this demographic but unless they learn to be able to demonstrate their point without racist, fascist behaviour with F forming every other word it’s pretty hard to take it seriously even when you’re really trying.

I think privilege is a big factor in the overall situation - privilege comes in many forms (and often isn't under our own control). I'm not sympathising with racists or homophobes or any other negative traits, simply stating that it's not really helpful to label people.

I don’t think you’ve read it properly at all? Well done to your BIL, you’ve not mentioned his political views or upbringing so maybe you’d missed the point?
Not all WC are thick. Not all MC are clever. Not all educated people are smart. Not all uneducated people are stupid. Very odd to jump to conclusions without reading the whole thread.

I also can’t help wondering whether some of the negative narrative being pushed online against flying our national flag is actually deliberate. Could it be part of a wider attempt by rogue states like Russia, to weaken our sense of national identity? If, heaven forbid, we ever found ourselves in another world war, we would be on a much weaker footing if people felt ashamed of their country. After all, if you’re made to feel ashamed of your flag and ashamed to be British, you’re far less likely to want to stand up and fight for it. I genuinely suspect there could be an element of this at play, and it worries me

Do you really think the idiots wrapping themselves in flags and chanting Ingerland would be signing up to die to protect you?

I agree with you. I think a more interesting poll would be where do you live and how affected by illegal immigration has your area been. I have a friend who lived in London moved to a Devonshire village 10 years ago who will happily comment how there are no issues with asylum seekers in hotels in her village of 100 odd people and as a result thinks anyone considering reform is racist. Ill bet half of the comments on here do not live in areas where issues are being identified by local people such as Epping thats been so heavily documented recently.

Whoops wrong post quoted..

Dh and i didn’t want ir need a degree when we were young, could have gone to uni but didn’t

i do sometimes think that had i known that a degree would make such a difference in an online poll maybe I would have gone 🤔

then i come to my senses

(i am partially joking OP 😀 but inly partially)

Surely, ex-private school are more likely to vote Tory prior to the last election? Where do the Conservatives rank in the survey?