The only flag I've been shocked to see was red hand of Ulster ones on lampposts adorned all along a road in Glasgow. I'm not even 100% sure why it bothered me so much.
I like a bit of national pride so an England flag being flown in England is good thing in my opinion, I see plenty of Saltires in Scotland which doesn't seem to attract any negative responses.
More national pride for you to rejoice in
https://yorkmix.com/this-is-heartbreaking-racist-graffiti-scrawled-on-york-takeaway/
The only flag I've been shocked to see was red hand of Ulster ones on lampposts adorned all along a road in Glasgow. I'm not even 100% sure why it bothered me so much.
I like a bit of national pride so an England flag being flown in England is good thing in my opinion, I see plenty of Saltires in Scotland which doesn't seem to attract any negative responses.
Red hand of Ulster is all about sectarianism. Very unpleasant for of bigotry
The saltire has not become a symbol of racism unlike the St Georges Cross. How England reclaims it from the racists I do not know but unfortunately thats how its seen and used right now
They're just 'proud patriots', remember.
Like the Epping rioters were just 'concerned parents'.
Utter bollocks, of course. They're useless racist shitbags.
Utter bollocks, of course. They're useless racist shitbags.
I was thinking I'd love to knock their ****ing teeth out but from what ive seen of those involved that wouldn't take too long
Manchester Mill is really good on this, and the man behind a lot of flags in Salford sounds like a true pillar of the community. Quote of the article from a Labour councillor:
“There’s one that’s gone up on a street in Moston which just so happens to be opposite the only West African family on the street,” he says. “I’m sure that’s entirely a coincidence”
I joined an old school facebook group a few years back. I've just had a look through some of the profiles and I'm happy to say that despite being a south Brum secondary mod' there is no sign of this in any of the profiles except one - which is also full of macho nonsense, misogynistic shit, thoroughly nasty petitions to sign, racism, right wing bollocks, beer swilling, swaggering in Malaga, penis extension automobiles. More disappointing is a guy I was mates with in the sixth who was himself a migrant worker in the USA for many years and is now Brexity anti-immigrant.
I’ve just taken one down. Young lady came out and asked if I was going round taking loads down (there’s only the one in the vicinity actually ) and she offered support and was hoping to Instagram it all I think! 😂
In the Norfolk countryside at the weekend I spotted, in someone's garden, a red flag with a dragon on it, like the Welsh dragon but white. Thought "That looks like an interesting flag, wonder what it's for", when I Googled it later, it suggests it's for people who don't find the George Cross to be fascistic enough... Ho hum...
If it had been a yellow dragon, without hind legs and the tail looped around, actually a Wyvern, that would have been the flag of Wessex, the first unified Kingdom in England, after King Alfred beat the Vikings at Eddington.
My dad was in the TA, and had Wessex flags on the shoulders of his uniform.
Back on the main subject, when I was picked up to go to the pub on Friday night, there was an enterprising couple of blokes with a long ladder, busy putting Union flags halfway up every other lamppost along Hungerdown Lane, formerly the A350, which joins the A4 Bath Road and the A420 Bristol Road. I have to say that they did make a very neat job of it!
Personally, I’m putting my own spin on it and thinking it’s all being done to support the Red Roses Women’s England Rugby team - stops me getting angry about it.
Just read the Wiki article linked above - that’s a pretty flimsy interpretation, considering it’s a small paragraph at the bottom about someone that barely anyone else has ever heard of, nothing else there is in any way indicating links to the Far-Right or fascism, it’s all about our Anglo-Saxon ancestry, and they originated in what is now part of Germany, just another group of invaders who settled here after the Romans left.
Personally, I’m putting my own spin on it and thinking it’s all being done to support the Red Roses Women’s England Rugby team - stops me getting angry about it.
I know that's tongue in cheek, sort of, and that we shouldn't get cross about things we can't control, etc. But this isn't something to ignore. We SHOULD be absolutely raging over it. Because if the bigots aren't challenged, next it'll be women, lgbtq+, etc. History has warned us, are we listening?
The clever position we have been put in is how to challenge the bigots without feeding their narrative
The most ardent anti-immigrant Brexiteer I knew was not only an immigrant, but had been given asylum. That's why we aren't friends anymore.
The most ardent anti-immigrant Brexiteer I knew was not only an immigrant, but had been given asylum
There’s an awful lot of that type of thing around. Just look at the faces of the most virulent anti-immigration mob in the Tory party, behind such joys as the Rwanda scheme … Rishi Sunak, Priti Patel, Suella Braverman and Kemi Badanoch…. all of them the children of immigrants. As are we all at some point, but they’re first generation!
Kemi’s mum flew to the UK specifically to give birth to her, thus bagging her British Citizenship (as per the rules at the time), then flew back home again. She’s the dictionary definition of an economic migrant and the very thing she now rails against
Pull that ladder up behind yourself! The hypocrisy is off the chart!
Anyway, nothing to see here, just some proud patriots celebrating our shared British values of diversity and inclusion…
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/aug/30/five-arrested-after-masked-men-try-to-enter-west-london-asylum-hotel?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Playing Uncle Tom is hardly a new thing. The book was published in 1852.
Indeed. Nice cushions Zia…
Zia Yusuf: Reform’s deportation plans will be like Trump 2.0
I'd like to see Zia Yusuf turn up at an Epping/Southport/Nuneaton/Sunderland style riot in trackies and a hoodie with no minders and not allowed to say who he is. See how the ****er gets on with the kind of racist, thuggish mob he incites.
Yeah, if the mob gets its way with the people arriving in boats, I’m sure they’ll be entirely happy with that and won’t immediately target the next group they deem to be insufficiently patriotic or Engerlish, or whatever
I see the racist dickheads are at it in Australia as well, it’s almost like a coordinated effort
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czjmre371l1o
BBC article about the history of the flag of St George, which indicates its a much more recent phenomenon than I’d realised…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c754gqwrwylo?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=user/BBCNews
I see the racist dickheads are at it in Australia as well, it’s almost like a coordinated effort
It probably is, they aren't known for being great at doing their own research
I see the racist dickheads are at it in Australia as well, it’s almost like a coordinated effort
Nothing new there, it doesn’t take a coördinated effort for them to kick off!
Like the Americans, they don’t really do irony when it comes to who constitutes ‘immigrants’, do they?
Australia actually had a whites only immigration policy for a long time. There is a really nasty racist undertone right through Australian society. In the past few decades they have had a lot of non white immigration and that has of course changed the nature of a lot of the cities. They are at least 20 years behind Europe in social attitudes. I went to a very interesting exhibition on the roots of modern Australia
The most ardent anti-immigrant Brexiteer I knew was not only an immigrant, but had been given asylum. That's why we aren't friends anymore.
There’s an awful lot of that type of thing around. Just look at the faces of the most virulent anti-immigration mob in the Tory party, behind such joys as the Rwanda scheme …
Yup - I mentioned this on another thread. A lot of it is deflection and pack mentality.
But here's the thing - that lot will stand on their soap boxes and shout from the roof tops. They will share all sorts of putrid crap on social media, as well as misleading nonsense to promote their twisted ideology... and they won't stop.
...meanwhile, anyone happy with the status quo will quietly (and politely) get on with things.
Come election time, Reform will win because those who want change will vote in their droves... and those who aren't motivated to change anything may, or may not vote.
The same bloody thing happened with the Brexit vote. Unless lefties and/or moderates start to make some real noise, the loud minority will win.
Plus, it doesn't help that the current government is starting to make right wing noises in fear of losing to Reform - so that makes the anti-immigration sentiment more acceptable.
The rise of DJT, NF, the Right-Wing... and VP taking a slice of Ukraine. It's all related. This has happened before, but we haven't learned anything.
The world is at a tipping point. A very precious resource is becoming quite scarce - young and fit workers. We can't produce enough of them in the UK and Europe.
Isn't it rather convenient? Countries with worrylingly upside-down age distributions, being influenced to reject immigration? Who is pulling those strings?
Australians not far behind white South Africans in terms of blatant racism IME.
Australia actually had a whites only immigration policy for a long time. There is a really nasty racist undertone right through Australian society.
My brother mentioned this as he and his gf spent a year out there in 2012ish, he said they had quite a few barneys with folk regarding their outright racism and blatant homophobia, by and large the majority of folk were fine but the attitudes of folk outwith the cities are quite duelling banjo
The same bloody thing happened with the Brexit vote. Unless lefties and/or moderates start to make some real noise, the loud minority will win.
Assumes that anti-immigration policies have only minority support. All across Europe, that's not the case
There is a really nasty racist undertone right through Australian society.
An MTB club member from way back was a 1st gen Aussie of German migrant parents, he was known as "Nazi Mike" in the club for his views on Aboriginal Australians and immigrants, despite being, y'know; the child of immigrants and an immigrant to the UK working within the NHS...
Was talking to an Aussie builder yesterday on his hols. Reckons the old/young city/town divide when it comes to levels of racism follows the same pattern as here… with his older relatives becoming hardened in recent years… plenty of family rows about it.
There's a chap near us who likes to decorate his front garden, lights at christmas, spooky halloween and this summer it was union flags. With the rise in flag shaggers, he's now taken them down so as not to be associated with them.
I use the fixmystreet website to report any I see as flyposting, pointing out that they're a distraction to drivers and part of a campaign orchestrated by far righ te extremists (with a link to hopenothate). Waiting to see if the council/highways take any down.
Someone returning from NI pointed out worries about the flags in their part of town on the local FB group and the usual suspects told them to get back on the ferry and leave if they didn't like it, therefore validating the original posters comments about what a group taking over public spaces with flags means.
Someone then tried to explain to the flag shaggers that people from NI are British and got abuse for that.
The only thing about this that cheered me up was at the weekend I had to do a couple of trips and once past the affected local area I didn't see a single lamppost flag or painted roundabout, I recon it'll not be long until they become associated with signifying rough areas.
I recon it'll not be long until they become associated with signifying rough areas.
Another step towards a nation irretrievably divided. God, Farrage must be laughing his head off at us all.
I am taking a pair of cable cutters out with me and removing any offending flags I come across, which I don't have to climb to.reach.
The will be excellent for cleaning my bike and cleaning up the tortoises poo paintings.
The only thing about this that cheered me up was at the weekend I had to do a couple of trips and once past the affected local area I didn't see a single lamppost flag or painted roundabout, I recon it'll not be long until they become associated with signifying rough areas.
Selected "rough" areas though.
I drove through North Kirklees (Batley, Shaw Cross) on Friday and was disheartened by the sheer number of flags. One neatly cable tied to every single lamppost, looked absolutely coordinated, almost professional.
Yesterday I drove through Hull, past Bransholme to Sutton. There wasn't a single flag to be seen. We talked abut it as a family, and concluded that although Hull has a bit of a reputation, and a reform Mayor, what it doesn't have is a large ****stani/Indian population like Kirklees does.
I'll take some convincing that it wasn't only being done in Kirklees to intimidate and provoke.
Down in Rye last weekend, and saw plenty - also in Bracknell on the way home.
Disappointing to see, tbh...
I recon it'll not be long until they become associated with signifying rough areas
Err...
That's been the case for about 20 years.
🤔
The will be excellent for cleaning my bike and cleaning up the tortoises poo paintings.
Disrespect doesn't call for further disrespect.
Disrespect doesn't call for further disrespect.
I’d normally agree with you, but a glut of cheaply made flags will need to be made use of somehow. Cleaning cloths is better than binning them all.
I came back last Friday from a week out of the country. I'd seen a bit about this flag stuff online, but tried to avoid the news as much as possible to be honest as it's generally depressing & I don't find it helps my mood.
Got back around tea time, so nipped out for fish & chips*.
The first mini-roundabout I got to had been painted with a red cross 😡
I live on the Cambs/Lincs border which is very brexity but I honestly didn't expect it. Was pretty gutted, truth be told. I grew up in one of the most multi-cultural parts of W London so this kind of moronic behaviour just makes absolutely no sense to me.
Dreading catching-up with the in-laws as they'll be all over this sort of shit, like a rash.
*almost £24 for 2 regular cod, 1 large chips and large mushy peas. Unbeliveable.
Ironically, it would have been cheaper to have supported my local Indian/Chinese restaurant or the Turkish Grill around the corner.
I recon it'll not be long until they become associated with signifying rough areas.
The Manchester Evening News had a report last week about one main road that had flags on every lamppost down its entire length.
It was just round the corner from where they filmed Shameless
