Middle class people and Labour/Lib Dem voters are particularly disapproving of flag flyers

[EddyF]

Do you agree with this?

Class is a key distinction, with middle class people (those in the ABC1 social category) being more likely to disapprove of someone flying a flag than working class people (those in the C2DE category).

One third of middle class people (37%) disapprove of at least one of the flags listed being flown, compared to 23% of working class people.
The biggest difference comes over the English flag, which 30% of middle class people would judge someone negatively for flying compared to 16% of working class people.

Labour and Lib Dem voters are also much more likely to hold unfavourable views of those flying of England and UK flags than their Conservative counterparts.

Three in ten Labour voters (31%) and four in ten Lib Dem voters (42%) have an unfavourable view of someone flying the England flag. Among Conservative voters this figure is only 16%.
Likewise, 26% of Labour voters and 30% of Lib Dem voters have an unfavourable view of someone flying the Union Jack, compared to just 12% of Conservative voters.

Source?

Well there's nothing surprising there, surely? Conservatism goes along with both standard patriotism and the attitudes to asylum seekers etc that prompted the recent flag flying.

I'm not sure why you find the statistics worthy of mention.

... And it's unsurprising that the middle classes are less likely to jump on bandwagons led by the likes of Tommy Robinson. In general, they're likely to be more educated and not see things in the same simplistic way.

What's your AIBU?

It's clear from where the flags are geographically. You don't see any in leafy MC suburbs

Well if they’re the stats then they’re the stats. I don’t personally know anyone who agrees with the flags and I’m very tolerant and open minded of different political viewpoints, so people don’t usually mind being open with me about what they think.

I’ve seen at least a couple in many leafy MC suburbs. I drive a lot for work and pass through many every week.

Another thread trying to promote the tories. And reform.
We see you.

We live in a very middle class area and I am a left liberal voter who has to drive past some recently erected flags, I despise them and know many feel the same.

Wow 😮

I'm shocked those numbers are so low.

Where are you getting your figures?

They sound plausible. Middle class people on average are better educated and hardcore patriotism of the sort which shades into xenophobia and obsession with immigration being the source of all problems correlates positively with poor levels of education.

So this is not surprising.

Yes I agree. And I'm proud of it.

Well I suppose I'm middle class and I certainly disapprove of the current craze for cable tying tat to lampposts, spray painting roundabouts and generally making the place look scruffy. I think anybody who goes in for that sort of thing is a fool. If the middle class generally think the same then good for the middle class.

It's the lefty middle class types who keep this rumbling on though. If they/we didn't keep overreacting to the sight of coloured cloth, the flag installers would have been bored of it by now.

It wasn’t the lefty middle class types who within hours of the Huntingdon incident becoming public were speculating that it must have been done by a Muslim/an asylum seeker.

Concern about jingoistic patriotism hasn’t appeared out of the blue.

I am not someone who believes a St George’s flag is racist. But can you not see why some people want to take thw temperature down a few notches and encourage social cohesion as opposed to constantly drawing lines between different people?

But can you not see why some people want to take thw temperature down a few notches and encourage social cohesion as opposed to constantly drawing lines between different people?

I agree 100%. My feeling on how to achieve this is to not over react to flags, not call whole swathes of people racist, as these things just fuel the fire.

It is my understanding that the social categories which the OP has listed are defined primarily by education and occupation. As education levels typically have a negative correlation with the level of individual prejudice, the stats aren't particularly surprising. But of course, there are plenty of middle class racists and plenty of working class people who absolutely abhor racism, and that's why it's usually best not to generalise.

Flag shaggers are the worst of every town though. They delineate the rough areas with flags and wonder why their house prices stagnate. They literally roam the streets with flag capes shouting abuse at anyone they take a dislike to for whatever reason, protest outside children's centres and think they are representing the UK. It's not hard to see why EVERYONE hates them.

I think a lot of us would rather be displaying an EU flag. I knew it would all go wrong, I didn’t realise it would be to this extent.

Or more likely to benefit from cheap immigrant labour, rather than being in competition with it?

It’s hardly earth-shaking news that university educated middle class people tend to be more socially liberal than other groups. This has been the case since at least the 1970s. In some respects this is because they are exposed to broader perspectives on the world, and in others it’s because the areas in which they live are more insulated from the negative effects of 25 years of uncontrolled mass immigration

And?

This.

I think that is a relevant point too.
We also don't see our neighbourhoods changing rapidly
And are more cushioned from the "cost of living crisis"

I do think we need to be careful not to make the same mistakes as we did in the build up to Brexit and assume that everyone experiences the world the same way we do in our middle class bubble.

Otherwise we aren't really using our education well at all.

I deliberately made it clear that it's a generalisation. They're are also plenty of people who don't fit that generalisation.

And as a pp has pointed out, the classifications in the stats in the OP are based on education and occupation, so on themselves indicating a greater level of education.