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?

How is flying England’s national flag a hate crime or incitement?

Who shall we prosecute first? King Charles has one at Windsor, let’s start with him shall we.

Don't be so ridiculously disingenuous!

People have had their entire lives to fly flags, why do they only want to do it now that it's associated with racism and hate.

We're not all a stupid as the brainless flag flyers!

It’s utterly bizarre that some posters seem to think there’s a right to hang flags from lampposts.

Of course there isn’t.

I fully understand why councils don’t take them down, but let’s not pretend you have a legal right to hang flags wherever you like. This is not the same as the flag being banned - you’re perfectly within your rights to display it from your own property.

Also, let’s get rid of the idea that flags are hung anywhere and everywhere in other countries. I’ve never seen flags from every lamppost anywhere before outside a particular event and in the US there are very specific rules around handling the flag respectfully.

TWAW was a war cry for such a long time, and yet the brave women cried out that it was only women who could be women.

To bemoan the flag of your nation being flown makes you as much of an idiot as those who believe men and magically turn into women.

We're not all a stupid as the brainless flag flyers!

Complaining that flying a flag is promoting hate.... whilst promoting hate against the flag flyers....

Flags are hung all over the place in other countries. Go to any of the Scandinavian countries, they’re everywhere.

And - they also have the ‘issue’ of the far right liking to fly their flag… but it doesn’t mean other people won’t fly it, as it’s their countries flag.

IMO this all comes from a sort of post-empire self-flagellation the English are expected to participate in - we cannot possibly seek to be patriotic, and if we are there’s something a bit suspicious about it.

I think ‘reclaiming the flag’ is a great idea.

Surely it also depends on the political majority of the council. A Reform led, majority council would be supporting the flying of the English flag and Union Flag under their ‘celebrating national identity’ commitment.

They will however remove Pride flags and this supporting other countries. They do have money and resources to do this, despite making a claim to save the council ‘billions’.😂 ( Durham Council Leader)

Most of us don't actually have any objection to the flag being flown.

What we do very strongly object to is the way in which our national flag has been appropriated by racists intent on using it as a vehicle for the expression of their hate.

If only councils would operate even handed! I'm not particularly in favour for the current flag flying - although will definitely have one out tomorrow for the Red Roses. What annoys me intensely is councils taking down Union flags and St George's Cross whilst leaving Palestinian flags flying (for fear of upsetting those who put them up).That is simply unacceptable.

Oh here we go.....

There is loads by me, not just on lampposts but on peoples homes too, the old lady next door who’s memory isn’t the best thinks it’s the jubilee again, she loves it.

If I hung a flag on my property and you happened to live next door to me are you really saying you 'would remove' it?
That would be silly and an extremely good way to start a fight with your neighbours!

I’m not seeing the link between these two things.

Funnily enough, my town has had Union flags flown from proper brackets on its high street for years - never heard anyone bemoaning them. Sadly, I noticed the other day that half the shops with flags outside them had removed them. Similarly, my company has dropped an image of the flag from some promotional material recently as it is considered problematic at present.

Using the flag as the ladder and cable tie crew are doing is absolutely not uniting people, I’m afraid. It making the symbol more fraught with negative connotations, not less, and no amount of disingenuous wondering why people have a problem with their own flag will alter that.

Yes, I find it depressing and slightly intimidating/scary and I am white. Obviously flying a flag in an appropriate context is fine, but putting them up on lampposts seems designed to send a message - a stamp of ownership on a neighbourhood telling some people that they do not belong.

Re flags on people's houses - I always find this quite funny, like they think they have colonised some virgin territory in the suburbs of Nottingham, or perhaps that their house is located on Antarctica or the moon.

I agree with this. The reaction is what some of the people who put them up are looking for.

It might be better to treat the flags like a teenager trying to shock you - I.e ‘that’s nice dear’ and then changing the subject. Without the reaction those putting them up who don’t have good intentions may well get bored and move on. But the quickest way to galvanise them is to keep taking them down. They’ll know the council doesn’t have the money to keep doing that so they’ll put them back up.

You drove through. So not your village, town.

I wouldn't be telling other people how to live.

Why do you feel unwelcome? We are allowed to have pride in our country and display our national flags.

I can't tell whether you are joking or not.

So perhaps stop assuming that every flag has been put up by a racist?

Why do you feel uncomfortable by a flag ?

Cheap nylon flags attached to lampposts with cable ties are an accident waiting to happen, imo - high winds + torn nylon + fabric wrapping itself around motorcyclists’ visors and car windscreens. I wonder who would be liable if the council had ignored the flags?

Probably not.

A loose carrier bag hit my windscreen while I was driving.

Is the council liable for that too?

So much faux or real naïveté about why there has been a movement to put these up. There honestly can’t be a single person in the country who truly believes this is not a “protest” move.
BUT, as protests go, I just feel it could be so much more overtly aggressive.
If they are just left there, the sting gets taken out of the tail.
They are after all “just” flags.