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?

Certain pubs, public and private buildings often put up flags for celebratory/commemoration events. Sometimes bunting across high streets etc . Some buildings (again public and private) have them as a permanent fixture. Flag poles with actually full mast flags at Buckingham Palace etc

Literally can not understand why people steadfastly refuse to see the difference in that (are we mind readers etc) and the influx of hastily erected flags on lampposts etc in the past few weeks. It's pretty clear they are not for the rugby world cup (why in the history of all the sports tournaments would they only just thought of flags on lampposts until now?)

Are people really actually unable to see the correlation between far right - sorry patriotic - marches and campaigns, protests about migrants and the enormous rise of flags on lamp posts and bridges where there have never been flags for any reason before , fine if they want to pretend its not happening for a specific reason, but why expect everyone else, to ignore something so blatant?

Leaving stuff hanging from public street furniture like lampposts and bridges is littering or fly-tipping/fly-posting. Illegal.

I think it's fine. It's nice to show a bit of patriotism in these febrile times. Just relax. Someone suggested litter picking to show you love your country upthread so you could do that when the flags eventually fall down?

Yes they do. And we all know it. People like to pretend that they think it's something else, so that they can defend it. But we all know exactly what it means.

The problem is now, if people did actually start putting swastikas up, no one would be able to make that much of a fuss as they have already been crying wolf about the national flag of our own country being flown in our own country.

You thinking it’s fine doesn’t really affect whether or not it’s illegal…

"We"?

It's not illegal to fly the flag of this country. Yet....give Sir Keir time....

That’s the problem, is it..?

What a fucking stupid thing to say.

Well the huge overreaction to it isn't helping anyone is it? It's just winding everyone up. I haven't flown a flag. The censorious and judgemental attitudes displayed on this thread are inspiring me to fly one. Half way up the BT pole on my OWN PROPERTY, mind.

Yes. The same way everyone knew what fascism meant in the 1930s. That it was anti semitic. If you asked them, they'd say, of no, it's just lovely happy patriotism. But they knew what it meant.

Who is "them"? Are you talking about the Germans?

Better things to be doing with my council tax OP. Leave them up, they’re colourful and fun. Mostly middle class lefties who are wanting to rip them down.

If you use the word "f**king" in a sentence it can safely be ignored.

They are breaking the law. Quite apart from the ones who pulled the ladder out from underneath a council worker, flyposting is an offence.

I never said anything about being Irish, someone else was. I live in Wales. Before all this there were a handful of properties (council, commercial and residential) with flagpoles with red dragons, some Union Flags, the odd Owain Glyndŵr standard, occasional St David's Crosses, and a multinational display (England/Scotland/Wales/NI and assorted other countries and territories) along the prom. Oh, and one walled town has a load of random flags that I can't work out what they are, but they do brighten the place up (photo attached)

All very nice and colourful. But recently a load of red dragons have been cable-tied near the bottom of some lampposts on a dual carriageway. It looks scruffy. On top of which, some halfwits have painted a St George’s Cross onto a mini roundabout. Yes, in Wales. The county council have announced that they will be removing them. For what it's worth, I've never seen Palestinian or Pride flags cable-tied to lampposts here.

So, I'm all in favour of public buildings flying the Union Flag, the national (E/S/W/NI) flag, and a county or city flag. Private houses and commerical properties are welcome to erect poles too. High streets would be nice and cheery too if some diagonal poles were erected just above head height. Seeing The Mall in London bedecked with Union Flags does make me swell with patriotic pride.

A bunch of yobs who saw a Britain First post in August and started clambering halfway up lampposts? Nah, that's not the same at all.

Yes Germans then, and now, the British, the Irish, the Americans. And more.

I get it if your objection is that they are scruffy. I think thats a reasonable objection although one I dont agree with. I don't think they should be taken down.

It's those menacing people who put everyone into one box and accuse people that they don't know of racisim that I find most worrying for the future of this country. It's an insidious divisiveness. Very unBritish actually, I'm surprised to find myself typing.

Ah right. The Germans didn't recognise the swastika for what it meant. But the English did recognise it and sent a huge amount of soldiers to die (a vast number from the northern working class..the sort that have stuck a lot of flags up in a scruffy way) to defend against facisim.

Are you saying that the English now cannot distinguish between the meaning behind the flag of St George and a swastika? If so, why do you think this change has happened? Has the make up of the population changed that much?

It's illegal to affix things to property you don't own, unless you have permission from the property owner. No one is stopping anyone from erecting a flagpole of up to 15ft upon their own property and flying any national flag from it so long as it is properly maintained. You don't even need planning permission outside of a conservation area.

A handy guide to the rules here, rules which this lot are plainly not complying with:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/flying-flags-a-plain-english-guide/flying-flags-a-plain-english-guide

You could perhaps ring the police and report all the infringements. Show them the rules too. And if they ignore you then at least you've done what you can.

I'm ex-forces. I'm very much in favour of flying the flag proudly. Flying it sloppily is disrespectful.

And yes, the motives of those involved in the current campaign are suspect. To the extent that people who have been flying the national flag for years are now leaving their flagpoles bare because they don't want to risk association with the knuckleheads. I'm going to assume that anyone using a cable tie on a lamppost got the idea from Britain First. I don't assume the same of people with proper poles.

Council matter, not police. Highways department or planning department.

Go for it

As I said. A divisive approach which I don't like at all. We will have to agree to disagree and leave it there.