The council should be taking down England flags in public places?

[fourfoxsakes]

I have driven through a couple of areas in the last few days where England flags are being displayed on public lamp posts, it makes me feel very uncomfortable and unwelcome in the area and I think gosh I’m glad I don’t live here, but why are the council not taking them down?

To somewhere that would make you feel more comfortable. It's rude to tell people they shouldn't fly their own flag. Would you fo that anywhere else in the world? No you wouldn't. Imagine going to America, Egypt, Canada eyc and telling them they shouldn't fly their flag. Get over it. It's their flag and that's that.

It's not slanderous to ask someone to consider their position.

It's perfectly reasonable to ask someone who believes they are acting in good faith what other implications might be taken from their actions and if those implications are justified.

There are a number of people on this thread who have made blanket statements such as "flying the flag is not intimidating." And yet, some people find it intimidating.

In such circumstances, I believe it's worth exploring why people might be feeling that way and to consider if you might want to stop an action that is perceived to be intimidating. I wonder why anyone would have a problem with that.

It doesn't matter if they find it intimidating because there's nothing that can be done about it. If you are in England, expect to see an English flag. Life is tough and there are things that just are the way they are. Get over it and move on.

The point is, it's not very normal for the English to fly their flag in the ways that many people have this summer. (It has become normal during major sporting events, but not for events like the Women's Rugby World Cup).

It is actually normal for the English to display a kind of understated nationalism that is more about manners and customs than flags and anthems . We are not like the US where they play the national anthem before sports games or like France, where the Tricolour flies from every municipal building.

This summer's flag-waving has its origins in an intensely political, right wing campaign led by racist street thug Tommy Robinson and co-opted by the racist Reform Party. That's why it is intimidating. It's not just putting some Union Jack bunting round the Bake-Off tent. It's raising a contentious symbol that has often been co-opted by the far right and using it as a mark of territory at a time when migration is a hot political topic. It's incendiary and dangerous.

You’ve obviously been nowhere near Birmingham - whole areas have Palestinian flags flying from every lamppost & they’ve been flying since the horrendous Hamas attacks in Israel in October 2023. Council have left them flying.

Something can be done about it.

People whose intention is not to be intimidating can not do it.

Our road got the Union Jack treatment. Only one remains, and I doubt will be replaced. It isn't about being proud of the flag and flying it regularly.

Or flying it when there was a special event, sporting or e.g. a jubilee.

It was about promoting a false narrative of 'being British' that was meant to exclude and be racist.

Were they cable-tied to lampposts or other council property without permission? I only saw Ukrainian flags flown from existing flag poles.

Not seen a single Hamas flag (example attached for those who do not know what one looks like). But then that's a proscribed organisation so anyone caught putting one up risks arrest.

Nor for that matter have I seen any Palestinian flags.

Yes, in the 6 years we have lived here only Union Jacks cable tied to lampposts a few weeks ago. The mosque across the road has flags across the gates that represent all the countries recognised by the UN.

After the Russian invasion there were a lot of Ukraine flags in windows.

I haven't seen any Palestinian flags.

We are in suburban London. You know, the city where Trump says we are in danger of having Sharia law imposed...

I've been 30 countries. It is not normal in other countries for a bunch of cheap polyester flags to be cable-tied halfway up a bunch of lampposts. You might see a few proper flagpoles outside or on the roof of public buildings, plus in city centres you might see some diagonal poles sticking out of commercial buildings. The US has a strange obsession with flags and seems to have one in every classroom but you still won't see one cable-tied to a lamppost.

I expect to see English flags flown with dignity. On church towers, outside town halls, and maybe a number on diagonal poles in the high street.

Not drooping halfway down lampposts in the middle of a random dual carriageway.

For years the English have been told to feel ashamed of their flag but they have rightly decided to fly it with pride. Also, tommy robinson has many friends of all races and it far from a racist. His march also had many people of colour taking part. He tried to raise awareness of the rape gangs 20 years ago, was branded a racist and silenced. He has been treated horrifically for saying the very things that are now discussed in parliment. Are you going to call them racist too?

I used to think the same way you do until I actually watched the documentaries where police officers, social services and people who were actually involved in the cover up tell their story.

So OP takes offense with the English flag, somehow it is racist??? Yet chooses to live in England?!

We are a country, we have an identity and we have a flag. Get over yourself.

Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (who dubbed himself "Tommy Robinson" after a Luton Town football hooligan, he's also used a number of other pseudonyms) is very much a racist. He used to belong to the BNP. He founded the EDL. He has been to prison five times for various crimes (starting with assaulting an off-duty police officer in a drunken brawl in 2003).

He tried to raise awareness of the rape gangs 20 years ago, was branded a racist and silenced.
Citation needed.

Go look into it. Look at the reasons he was put in prison, watch the documentaries and then come back.

He was convicted of being in contempt of court in 2017. That's not 20 years ago. That's not even 10 years ago. He certainly wasn't 'raising awareness' of anything, the scandal was right out in the open by then. He jeapardised a trial, he could have been responsible for the offenders getting away with their crimes.

I assume this is a reply to my bafflingly deleted post, in which I asked where people who dislike half-cocked flag displays should piss off to if they don't like them. Apologies if not, but I believe my point still stands. So where do you think would be more comfortable? For me, more comfortable would be a couple of months back, before all this 'patriotic' fervour mysteriously took hold and had people of questionable artistic skills out on the streets with paintbrushes and cable ties.
I'm only entitled to live in this country. So where should those of us who prefer our national flags to be flown without dubious context meant to go?

Tommy Robinson is a drug addled immigrant and proven, big old racist.

How come you're in denial about that @Greenmouldycheese? Why do you believe and repeat the lie that he isnt?

Because I've bothered to actually watch the interviews and the documentaries. Calling people racist and far right when they are not is very dangerous. Look what happened to Charlie Kirk recently. A radicalized far left man shot him dead on stage. Shouting racist etc and name calling spreads and causes harm.

Shocking that you are repeating lies, really.

Tommy Robinson is racist.

Racism causes harm.

Tommy, takes cocaine, lives in Spain, Robinson is a racist, violent drain on the UK tax payer. And a total hypocrite to boot.

Our council have said it will cost them £250k to remove the flags.

Focus on potholes AGAIN?? Not sure when they ever focused on them in the first place tbh