Neighbour has put up huge Unite the Kingdom flag

[UrticaDioca]

I am gutted. I haven't seen a single flag in my town, and suddenly this union jack goes up two doors over with the words 'Unite the Kingdom' printed on it in capital letters. The flag is huge and flying from a pole on top of their shed, but it's in their own garden so nothing can be done.

I am the daughter of an immigrant mother and therefore mixed race. Now I have to see this fucking flag waving at me every time I look out of my kitchen or living room windows.

That good old bastion of anti racism.

No, she just hates the racist fuckwits who are ruining the country she lives in.

I hate those flags and I'm of British heritage

This country is ruined by politicians you chose

All of it. Have a look around. Reparations for slavery, white fragility, only white people are racist, no-one else ever is, everything produced by European society is suspect. And you can add a layer of trans ideology on top, as misogynistic and homophobic icing (should go well with supporting Hamas, who agree with both ideas).

Except you haven't bothered to "find out" and it's clear from your response you think this violent thug (who's served FIVE prison terms) is an OK bloke. 🙄
And saying that people who say things you disagree with "seem to be the same people" who say other things you don't agree with is moronic. No-one believes that people who are concerned about uncontrolled immigration (as am I) are all ignorant, racist bigots - only the ones who go on a march with Tommy Ten Names when they have the choice not to.

Critical race theory being taught in schools, which seems to involve separating by ethnicity to make its points (I can't think of anything more racist). Australian schools teaching the history of Australia as entirely exploitation - some was, some wasn't, balance here is good. Elevation of traditional 'ways of seeing' over empirical scientific method which is seen as disempowering for those who are not ethnically European (unless Irish?) and an imposition on other cultures' own ideas (albeit quite a lot of the scientific method comes from e.g. what is now India). The replacement on English literature courses of books by dead white males (e.g. Steinbeck - I don't like Steinbeck but I don't want his work unstudied), or problematical books removed such as To Kill a Mockingbird (racist terms and 'white saviour' narrative - poor Atticus!). I think we should study wider ranges of literature but we should be adding to the cannon, not chucking out the bits that do not agree with the current mindset.
Moral anachronism, which means applying current morality to past societies esp. European ones - this is bad history, people's actions can only be judged in terms of their own times, e.g. I can think badly of Edmund Tudor having sex with his 12 year old wife because people at the time were shocked and thought it was something he should not have done.

It's not the people coming to our country and bringing welcome diversity. It is academia, TV programmes on history or art, which tend to lean into the idea that white and European is tainted e.g. with slavery (as if slavery did not exist anywhere but in Europe the US) and also with a sense of superiority (I will accept this one, in fact, but it has little place in art criticism). Subtle ideas that everything you see is the product of sugar plantations in the West Indies (when it wasn't and there was from the 1760s a huge anti-slavery campaign in the UK), that European societies have been uniquely exploitative with no excursions into other colonial systems e.g. the systematic destruction of local cultures by Arab invaders in the North Coast of Africa and southern Europe by Arabs spreading Islam (word and sword) from the 8th century onwards. No mention of the oppression of the Ottoman or Chinese empires but a catalogue of opprobrium of Orientalism (think Ingres' Odalisque etc) without a thought of the slaving from Europe by Arabs, where blonde, blue-eyed women fetched a premium in slave markets as concubines and prostitutes. Nor that e.g. Benin bronzes are the products of profit from slavery (Benin is part of what was Dahomey or the Slave Coast and the King of Dahomey went to war with the UK in the early 1800s over the prevention of the slave trade from his realm) but that whole swathes of European art are. A bit one-sided in other words.

We are all descendants of economic migrants, it's just a matter of how far back you want to go. Populism comes and goes, was very popular in Germany in the 30's, Italy in the 40's, Spain in the 60s, Argentina in the 80s. This time it seems to be everywhere. Let your neighbour fly his flag, eventually when the civil war comes, he'll be first to be identified.

Normal citizens have claimed it to bring British people and families together, at a very worrying time.

Sadly, some shameful people are trying to trash it with far right and racist allegations.

And trying to trash the successful rally with allegations of 150,000 decent people being racists.
But people know the truth, especially the ones who were there.

It's easy to vilify and try to cause division from behind a keyboard, Instead of being loud and proud of the marchers.

Talk TV this morning, Mike Graham and Rafe Hayden-Mankoo were saying that in their opinion the marchers and flag flyers are the backbone of Britain and are decent British folk who are tired of what they have to endure.

I fully agree.

Spot on.

Talk TV this morning, Mike Graham and Rafe Hayden-Mankoo were saying that in their opinion the marchers and flag flyers are the backbone of Britain and are decent British folk who are tired of what they have to endure

Oh, well that must make it true then!

Other peoples opinions do matter, you know.

I really don’t see this happening. What I see is a welcome change from the “Our Island Story” type of history which was prevalent in my childhood, and a deeper understanding and analysis of our heritage. Do you really think, for example, that it’s a good idea NOT to look at where Thomas Bertrand in Mansfield Park got his money? Or to consider the impact of Colonialism on India and Pakistan? Or for white Australians not to acknowledge their role in the virtual extinction of the indigenous people?

So patronising

The grooming gangs were first exposed by Ann Cryer MP in 2002.

Members the BNP were recorded discussing it, briefly, by Panorama in 2004. It was not exposed nor was it "investigated" by TR.

Following The Times actually exposing the scandal everyone took notice.

Around 2013 Tommy Robinson started using the cases for Internet content thereby jeopardising trials.

He didnt expose the grooming gangs. The victims and the supportive people around them exposed the grooming gangs. TR disrespects them by taking credit for their hard, painful work. But then he doesn't give a shit about them, he's shown that already. Its all about creating Content for his Internet fans.

The poster's point is that at the time the BBC documentary was made, in 2004, the claims the BNP made about the grooming gangs were seen as evidence of their racism.
Presumably also by all the people who ignored the evidence that the claims were true, due to their 'anti-racism'.

Tommy Robinson is a racist.
Transwomen are men.

https://www.cleveland.pcc.police.uk/news/redcar-family-suffers-racist-abuse/

Where did @UrticaDioca say that?

It's interesting. I have spent a lot of time in different countries, and one of the things that has consistently made me proud of being British has been our willingness as a nation to face up to some of the darker aspects of our history and to acknowledge the negative impact that Britain has had on many parts of the world - from what I have observed, not all countries are willing to confront the past with this kind of openness and honesty, and I see their reluctance to do so as a weakness. Of course, it doesn't mean that we can't celebrate the positive aspects of our heritage as well, or all of the good things that our ancestors achieved.

It's fascinating to me that some people perceive these things so differently. I see it as a sign of a confidence in Britain that we can own our history with all its warts, and that we don't feel the need to gloss over the shameful bits. Others seem to feel that we should just gloss over the bad stuff because that's somehow more patriotic or something. But what's the point of patriotism if it is based on ignorance?

I can’t imagine anyone less capable of uniting people than that lot.

Indeed, but I think we all know that it wasn't really their intention to unite people in any case.

Don't worry about your neighbours flag, OP.

Why not just put up your own? Even if they do happen to be racists, they don't own the flag.

This! I find this rhetoric utterly bizarre. To those who don't like our national flag, I'd definitely say that's a you problem.

Yes, it's a bit interesting.

My Island Story is actually fairly straightforward where people are doing things like going around conquering people, and the ones being conquered are always unhappy about it. Till the next chapter when some time has passed and they are all one people.

It's meant for children obviously but you'd have be rather slow not to see what is going on in terms of successive power struggles.