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Nice to see all the flags celebrating the patron Saint of Palestine, St. George.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-george-447
Tj, EC predictions here for vote share/seats. Includes current predictions by seat.
*I'm looking at Westminster. But I think I've seen Scottish Elections share at 17%.
https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/area_scot.html
Fortunately right now getting no seats.
My concern is that they'll start tipping over some seats as voters start seeing them normalised as an option when nearly 1 in 5 are already heading that way. At that point I can see places like D&G, Ayr going to Reform.
Do we honestly believe that a great many of the more obvious mouthbreathers actually get off their arse and go to the polling stations?
I'm not convinced.
If you are not a far right supporter and you're concerned about their impact then it would be an extremely dangerous assumption that people of an intolerant disposition won't be voting (even if they normally don't).
Taking Brexit as a parallel. The referendum was a status quo vs. fundamental change vote. This, I think brought out people who would never bother to vote on a routine election who had strong views on the EU. I suspect there were many who wrote off that vote as a few noisy xenophobes...not quite how it ended. The referendum got a turnout around 70% a level higher than most general elections since around 2000.
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/general-election-2024-turnout/
I think both sides expected Remain to win which might suggest galvanisation of the Leave vote was probably a driver in the uptick in turnout.
When you put far right candidates in the mix trading off voter prejudices and "patriotism" or anti establishment this will galvanise those who might previously not have been bothered to vote, or at least it might for "change" a "new world".
We shouldn't forget how well Reform has done at council level. Someone turned up to vote for them there.
I think this flag thing gets insidious when not flying a flag singles outr people/houses/businesses for attack, for not being 'patriots' or whatever. You fly a flag if you want and I don't really care. But if you expect me to, or care if I don't, then that's when we're at the 1938 stage.
That's when the divisive angle of populism gets dangerous and it moves on from attacking immigrants to attacking other people around us. That's how it goes. And that's exactly what populists like Farage want to see. Right now I don't necessarily see the flag lot as racists but I do see some with that mentality as easily manipulated and where the ranks of any future SS types will come from.
Not in reply to anyone's comments above.
I note that the government will be forced into putting asylum applicants into unused military bases... and... private rentals houses if they don't win the hotel legal battles that are incoming.
So, you will see a dispersal of migrants all over the show meaning they are harder to track and more likely to end up as a flag shaggers neighbour.
Unintended consequences indeed!
Its fairly obvious that the flag-shagging Reform lot won't be happy until everyone arriving in this country is immediately deported, or the governemnt go retrospectively rounding people up, ICE style.
So anything the governemnt do that isn't actually that will just have them moaning exactly like they are now. Its the same as the Brexiteers. They won't take yes for an answer. Anything less than mass deportations just won't cut it with these idiots.
Farage knows this full well, which is why he's proposing exactly that, even though he knows its a ridiculous, totally unworkable proposal. But then when did reality ever intrude on the nationalist, neo-colonial fantasies of post-Brexit politics in this country?
Someone has posted a video from a local Reform county councillor offering flags to anyone who wants one on the village FB page.
My first thought was to report it to the mods as political posts aren't allowed, but I opted to comment and call it out as thinly veiled xenophobia. We'll see how it goes.
unused military bases.
Personally I would consider that a cruel and unusual punishment.
Not the place for families, let alone groups of unaccompanied individuals.
I visited my mum last weekend and due to a short closure of the m11 I had to drive through Epping. I know the town well, mum used to live there, so I knew i would drive past the Bell hotel. As I came into epping I saw every lamppost through the high street had union flags or st George crosses hanging from them. It felt like pure intimidation, not any kind of celebration of Britishness. I was disgusted and ashamed.
Riding around yesterday and it felt to me like the intimidation element isn't just the volume but the tatty haphazard nature of it all. Bridges, roundabout, spare bit of railing, lamppost has some piece of cheap and nasty cloth/plastic zip tied to it. We've got obscured signage and lighting locally.
Just waiting for the first shunt because some halfwit has sellotaped a large one to a railing and it gets ripped off by the wind into the carriageway.
Just waiting for the first shunt because some halfwit has sellotaped a large one to a railing and it gets ripped off by the wind into the carriageway.
Yeah I did see one which was a toss up between it got blown and caught in some bridge railings vs it was a bloody halfarsed job not fixing it properly leaving it wrapped around the top rail.
Newsthump comes closest.
As I came into epping I saw every lamppost through the high street had union flags or st George crosses hanging from them.
Shows how media pushed it is. I went to the Epping Ongar beer festival beer festival back on the 26th July when things were starting to kick off. Got a bus from Epping station but wasnt a single flag or inbred to be seen (main protests were the next day).
, even though he knows its a ridiculous, totally unworkable proposal.
When he does come up against problems and blockages, it's then someone else's fault, EU bureaucrats or whoever. He can literally say and promise whatever he wants knowing that he never has to actually succeed with anything, coz he can just rile people up with "it's all their fault." The bloke is on a no lose gravy train.
Your average Paintspray Patriot is a bit shit at geometry it seems.
From the beeb.lol
Your average Paintspray Patriot is a bit shit at geometry it seems.
Typical comment from one of the metropolitan elite.
As any patriot knows with the constant risk of drone strikes you need to be ready to spray a roundabout in a matter of seconds before ducking back into cover.
On many bridges up the M1 and A1 from Sheffield to Northumberland
There’s a Roundabout and Zebra crossings done near me (part of town that’s often on fire or shown on Road Wars). Thing is the paint didn’t dry before people drove over them, so it looks extra silly.
I was under the impression it’s poor form to allow the national flag to lie on the floor. Daubing a poor representation on the road, to be smeared by traffic seems even worse.
Some people just need an excuse to indulge in bad behaviour.
It used to be football matches now it’s any immigration excuse.
Maybe that's what the Palestine protestors were trying to achieve, patriotic planes ?
@dissonance mum now lives in Ongar so when I got to Hastingswood to find the m11 closed southbound from there I drove on to Loughton via epping. M11 was open before I got there 😆
There were quite a few protestors outside the hotel on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Peaceful at that time thankfully.
On many bridges up the M1 and A1 from Sheffield to Northumberland
I've just driven Leicester to Leeds and only saw 2 or 3 bridges with any on. Maybe a few have been removed.
I haven't seen a single st George flag I can recall from the last few days
I have seen some Palestine ones and also Jamaican ones because it's a carnival down in chapel town Leeds tonight.
Makes me realise how much I enjoy living in a diverse city that isn't full of white trash ****s
Saw a couple on bridges coming up the M1 from Rugby to Derby, there's a couple of mini roundabouts been done in Ilkeston apparently.
Ms. RM has been rinsing me today. I decided to pull out an old gorilla box and sort through it as I was looking for some old maps to get framed. I found loads of old velcro ID patches which have the Union Flag on. She said I should stick them on an old shirt and 'go hang out with your flag-mates'. 😂
Good job I like her.
Interesting posts on the local FB group about people getting ready for a civil war. The standard will be raised in Ilkeston!
Interesting posts on the local FB group about people getting ready for a civil war. The standard will be raised in Ilkeston!
I absolutely love the civil war chat from civvies, it properly tickles me. Same people who cry when the cops get a bit handsy, they're going to get very upset when they face coordinated and controlled uber-violence.
Also, war requires weapons, we have a sanitised firearm landscape, are they raiding B&Q to arm themselves? They'd give themselves away with pineapple vape clouds and the wheezing from walking too far.
I absolutely love the civil war chat
The very definition of impotent rage.
Can we do this again? This is what " civil war" would look like probably
https://imgur.com/gallery/brick-vs-racist-GCYGS4b#PJ509yg
I absolutely love the civil war chat from civvies, it properly tickles me
Whilst in some ways it is amusing as in how gravy team 6 deployed during the pandemic to combat - sorry whilst I check notes - how unfair it is not to get a haircut it is a problematic trend.
Even if you have experience of combat (which I am happy to say I dont) I dont think it really carries across to a civil war where, if we look at England with the last proper fight with the war of the three kingdoms (the dutch invasion being a surrender), families end up fighting each other with brother against brother, father against son. Sure there are some dysfunctional families which will go "and?" but for everyone else?
There does seem to be a deliberate attempt by some to try and stoke up disorder and as a fan of history it is always a tad concerning when that happens. There are countless times when it quietens down by itself but then again there are plenty where you go "HOW DIDN'T YOU SEE THIS YOU MUPPETS" with the benefit of hindsight.
There is a distinct group who talk loudly about patriotism whilst, in my opinion, doing all they can do undermine the social contract and cause conflict between different groups. A cursory look at the daily mail and its mix of "lefties hate the UK" and "lawless UK" are as about as confused as their "people perving" and their sidebar of shame.
Unfortunately you dont actually need to break out the weapons to cause massive disruption and in a JIT economy that isnt a good thing. If you are willing to sacrifice a few mouthbreathers by suggesting they walk into some local substations holding a carbon fishing pole then you could cause real damage very quickly.
There was a Private Eye section about how there are a bunch of people hyping the doom cycle whilst displaying their deep patriotism by living overseas.
Nah, I don't sweat it. A great many people in modern society are too coddled, comfortable and inherently selfish to organise themselves into a coherent problem.
Much like the actual military to organise any sort of resistance requires self-discipline and selflessness. The minute shit gets tough most people start infighting and the 'revolution' falls apart.
Civil unrest is not civil war.
I grabbed this pic from the TV during ITV's news highlights a few minutes ago. It's from a video hence 
a bit of blur.
Anyway...
What the video and pic show is a single pro immigration protestor calmly holding a sign saying, "all humanity is one" whilst being jeered by a surrounding pack of anti immigration protesters.
It's obviously in Wales but that's irrelevant. I found it quite chilling to watch but also humbling, that's true bravely on show right there.
(Not entirely sure why the protest was in an Iceland carpark but probably best not to attribute too much logic to things like this.)
Interesting posts on the local FB group about people getting ready for a civil war. The standard will be raised in Ilkeston!
Normally I’d say bring it on, I’ll knock their ****ing teeth out but from what I’ve seen of the racist dickheads I doubt they’ve got much of their own teeth between them all,
Civil unrest is not civil war.
I agree, and the idea of any standard being raised in Ilkeston is counterintuitive.
But I can see any unrest potentially being quite widespread, and quite disruptive and divisive.
There’s a pretty familiar divide over this.
I still have a real cross-section of people I went to school with on Friendface. This flag-shagging nonsense is just like a Brexit re-run.
The ones posting all the St George’s crosses and ‘save are kids’ stuff we’re never exactly the sharpest tools in the box and haven’t led the most productive of lives.
I do love it when you see these people interviewed on the news. Channel 4 did a piece from Sunderland last week. The irony of the toothless, neck-tattooed, tracksuited ‘Patriots’ sat outside their house, can of Stella in hand, midweek, mid-afternoon, moaning about how much immigrants iare costing ‘us’.
None of them really looked like they had been net contributors to the exchequer over their lifetimes
Somewhat predictably, the violence and death/rape threats have started from the ‘Patriots’ towards those they deem not to be patriotic enough…
But I can see any unrest potentially being quite widespread, and quite disruptive and divisive.
Nah, summer's nearly over and they're not too keen on rioting in the rain.
it starts with flags on lamp-posts (demarcating 'territory') and this is how it escalates, daubing homes with 'symbols'...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn43rxk0gdlo
First they came for….
Speak out now, wherever you encounter it.
Given the unrest and criminal damage, wonder when raise the colours will be proscribed a terrorist organisation.
Are getting something like this every summer now?
Are getting something like this every summer now?
Probably, summer holidays are long so people need to find something to keep them entertained.
Once it gets cold, wet and dark it's time to find something else to get angry about that doesn't involve being outside.
First they came for….
Speak out now, wherever you encounter it.
Absolutely this. The steady drip drip will embolden the indoctrinated and normalise it for the apathetic.
Somewhat predictably, the violence and death/rape threats have started from the ‘Patriots’ towards those they deem not to be patriotic enough…
In keeping with lots of other fine British people over the years...
Not like the white British population is exactly free of serial rapists, murderers, child abusers, terrorist organisations...
None of them really looked like they had been net contributors to the exchequer over their lifetimes
No, but the prospects are pretty poor for a lot of people in the UK. Is that their fault? We're all responsible for ourselves but we're not all in control of our lives either. There's a lot of reasons why people are angry at the system. That's what Farage and Jenrick etc prey on. They won't do anything to help Mr mid-day Stella though and the sooner he realises it the better. The problem is the current govt, the last govt, none of them did much for him either.
When businesses are run partly to provide a living for a wider section of society rather than mainly for the greed of a few and when the wealthiest (people and companies) pay a fair share of tax we might get somewhere. I think where the responsibility to fix all this lies is the same place as where the wealth and power is generated.
No, but the prospects are pretty poor for a lot of people in the UK. Is that their fault? We're all responsible for ourselves but we're not all in control of our lives either. There's a lot of reasons why people are angry at the system. That's what Farage and Jenrick etc prey on. They won't do anything to help Mr mid-day Stella though and the sooner he realises it the better. The problem is the current govt, the last govt, none of them did much for him either.
Agreed, I may disagree with all the easily led flagshaggers, but some of them are there through desperation as much as racism.
but some of them are there through desperation as much as racism.
Agreed but sadly they can't see that Reform are a bunch of charlatans who will do nothing to help them.
Oh and incidentally flag report... Out on the bike today only one flag on a street where I expected a bigger turnout and otherwise nothing. Well apart from my nice next door neighbour who is ex military and always has a discreet union flag on his gazebo in the back garden.