This flying of flags malarkey

[Traf]

[London Wanderer]

1 hour ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

 

The cat is out of the bag now, and no one will be labelled by any remotely sensible politician as far right, nor be locked up for putting a flag up.

 

 

Who’s been locked up for putting a flag up ?

 Must have missed that story 

[bolty58]

2 hours ago, Traf said:

Good stuff C. Keep it up.

The voters of a certain age group absolutely love 'owd fat (& bald) racist' jibes. Energising.

[Duck Egg]

6 hours ago, Traf said:

I find that offensive! Only because I'm a dead ringer for the bloke in blue.  A more accurate depiction of these recent protestors would be the 4 needing dental work, wearing stone island and had painted the flag the wrong way round.

[Sweep]

7 hours ago, bolty58 said:

You climb in my estimation all the time sir. Some work required on your neatness etc. but jolly good stuff.

Did the missus not mind?

It was her that did it

[BobyBrno]

8 hours ago, bolty58 said:

Bit harsh. Seems a decent lad does Sweep.

The photo is 7 years old. It’s amusing seeing it being spread on social media by people who blame social media for spreading lies. 😊 A simple google search brings up this.

This image, shared on r/fakehistoryporn, humorously depicts a "Condemned plague house during the Black Death (Circa 1350)" by showing a door with "ENGLAND" written in a cross shape, mimicking the appearance of a quarantined house. 

[Tonge moor green jacket]

7 hours ago, London Wanderer said:

Who’s been locked up for putting a flag up ?

 Must have missed that story 

You entirely miss the point of the post, as of yet, no one has.

The post was about the the direction of travel, which is still happening.

Maybe the wording wasn't the best, so in future I'll be sure to write a couple of sentences, then a subsequent essay of qualification. 

As it happens, Police in at least one area are investigating the painting of a roundabout as criminality, and Steve Rotherham going public about flying the flag for the right reasons.

Birmingham accusing individuals of creating safety risks.

Thin end of the wedge.

Other authorities on the other hand haven't chosen to send the road sweepers out immediately, and (like Bolton) have chosen to be completely relaxed about it.

 

[DazBob]

Painting of a roundabout IS criminality.

[ZiggyStardust]

42 minutes ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

As it happens, Police in at least one area are investigating the painting of a roundabout as criminality, and Steve Rotherham going public about flying the flag for the right reasons.

 

Surely it is criminality though.

[Spider]

If it takes a painted roundabout to make you feel more patriotic, you were probably never a patriot to start with.

I feel British 100% of the time.

British flags are lovely. I swell with pride when I see them.

But it’s an individual thing. Considering the people now drawing red crosses everywhere claim to be doing it as some sort of “free speech” beacon, it strikes me that they’re missing a vital point.

if I don’t want to paint a roundabout, or find it fucking weird, then I’m free to say so.

Yet these free speech warriors then tell me I’m a traitor and I must love immigrants and rapists.

The cognitive dissonance is startling with these folk.

[Sweep]

1 hour ago, ZiggyStardust said:

Surely it is criminality though.

Bollocks. It's Patriotism, especially if the lines aren't straight. The worse it looks, the more patriotic the "artist" 

[London Wanderer]

3 hours ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

You entirely miss the point of the post, as of yet, no one has.

The post was about the the direction of travel,

 

So nobody has been arrested then 👍

I didn’t miss your point. You’re just making a huge exaggeration. Snowflake & screeching territory 😉

We’re not heading in the direction you suggest.

 You can’t just paint & raise flags where ever the hell you want. That’s basic health & safety & vandalism laws.

Has to be better organised- https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/blog/library-news/post/1652/lighting-up-the-library-for-vj-80-day

Removing them isn’t anti British either.

& yes, not every council is consistent. That applies across services 

[bolty58]

6 hours ago, Sweep said:

It was her that did it

She does the painting and you the washing and ironing?

FFS, I didn't know I was jousting with a SNAG.

[bolty58]

4 hours ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

You entirely miss the point of the post, as of yet, no one has.

The post was about the the direction of travel, which is still happening.

Maybe the wording wasn't the best, so in future I'll be sure to write a couple of sentences, then a subsequent essay of qualification. 

As it happens, Police in at least one area are investigating the painting of a roundabout as criminality, and Steve Rotherham going public about flying the flag for the right reasons.

Birmingham accusing individuals of creating safety risks.

Thin end of the wedge.

Other authorities on the other hand haven't chosen to send the road sweepers out immediately, and (like Bolton) have chosen to be completely relaxed about it.

 

It's spreading.

https://marchforaustralia.org/

[BobyBrno]

19 minutes ago, bolty58 said:

It's spreading.

https://marchforaustralia.org/

85 days till the England flag shaggers come to town.😉 (I won’t be there. Adelaide first for me)

[little whitt]

[Ani]

2 minutes ago, little whitt said:

You sure it was not you ? 

[Spider]

I just pinned an england flag to the front of a dumper truck and it crashed into a bus.

It's elf and sayftee gone mad

[Spider]

I mean

It's all about free speech innit, Reform?

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cger45p0lv0o

[Traf]

1 hour ago, little whitt said:

Even the French & Italians are it too...

[London Wanderer]

5 hours ago, Spider said:

If it takes a painted roundabout to make you feel more patriotic, you were probably never a patriot to start with.

I feel British 100% of the time.

British flags are lovely. I swell with pride when I see them.

But it’s an individual thing. Considering the people now drawing red crosses everywhere claim to be doing it as some sort of “free speech” beacon, it strikes me that they’re missing a vital point.

if I don’t want to paint a roundabout, or find it fucking weird, then I’m free to say so.

Yet these free speech warriors then tell me I’m a traitor and I must love immigrants and rapists.

The cognitive dissonance is startling with these folk.

Spot On

👌

[wanderer1984]

6 hours ago, Spider said:

Yet these free speech warriors then tell me I’m a traitor and I must love immigrants and rapists.

Where do you meet these "worriors" that tell you this?

[royal white]

The councils could get themselves onside with this. Lots of good quality flags, properly erected around villages, towns and cities would look a lot better than the Temu ones we are seeing. 

[paulhanley]

Words from Paul Embery - a man of the left, Labour member and former senior union official. Lets see who is the first to respond with a "sneering contemptuous caricature of working class people" 

 

At the weekend, I drove along the A12 through Essex – a route I know well. In the hour or so that I was on the road, I spotted several St George flags hanging from overbridges. I’d never previously witnessed such a spectacle.

And then, driving through a village near my home a couple of nights ago, I saw a flag affixed to a post outside the church. It wasn’t there last week.

Something seems to be happening out there. The ‘Raise the Colours’ campaign has plainly caught the wind.

I don’t think any of us knows for sure where it’s heading, but it doesn’t take an expert to understand where it came from.

Ordinary Britons know that our immigration and asylum system is utterly broken and are exasperated at the failure of successive governments to fix it.

They see that globalisation and open borders have forced rapid – perhaps irreversible – transformation on their communities, and it makes them uneasy.

But it isn’t only that. They have also had enough of ‘asymmetric multiculturalism’ - the unofficial doctrine of the liberal-progressive elite, which decrees that minority nationalities and cultures must always be enthusiastically celebrated while the majority nationality and culture must be downplayed.

This is never said openly, of course. But public policy over recent decades has ensured that this has been the effect

Throw in nearly 20 years of economic stagnation, falling living standards, diminishing job security, a chronic housing shortage and failing public services, and you have the perfect storm.

Sooner or later, those who felt they had lost most from these seismic economic and cultural shifts were going to react. The flag crusade is just a part of that reaction.

We also witnessed the blowback via the ballot box with the Brexit vote, and then on the streets after the Southport massacre.

And we see it, too, in the major political realignment that is taking place, with Reform UK’s surge in the opinion polls and its hoovering up of support from significant chunks of the working classes, including voters in traditional Labour strongholds.

The elite class and its outriders among the commentariat hold their heads in their hands, believing that this all heralds a return to the dark days of the 1930s, when fascism was knocking at the door and racial supremacists were on the march.

Their catastrophising has reached hysterical proportions and is quite often laced with invective towards the working class itself.

Witness, for example, a post on ‘X’ which, at the time of writing, has attracted almost a million views and nearly 10,000 likes, reads: ‘The English working class has been so brainwashed by the right-wing media for more than four decades that it completely lacks the critical skills to identify propaganda and imagine a better future.'

What a sneering, contemptuous caricature of working-class people from the commentator (who naturally displays the EU flag in his ‘bio’).

One that paints them as low-IQ dupes with no agency and no ability to form their own opinions on the basis of their personal experiences and powers of reason.

I do wonder how many of those who level such attacks on working-class voters have spent any length of time engaging with them or attempting to understand their lives.

If they did, they would find that these voters are often far more intelligent and nuanced in their opinions than they are given credit for.

I recently had a few tradesmen – a couple of painters and decorators and a carpet fitter – working in my home.

At various points, I fell into talking with each of them about politics. We didn’t agree on everything, but their opinions were plainly thoughtful and considered.

On issues such as Ukraine, immigration and free speech, their arguments challenged establishment orthodoxy – but in a way that was well-informed and subtle rather than obnoxious or crankish.

What came through is that these guys, all of whom had working-class roots, were decent, productive members of society who felt that the political establishment didn’t really care about them or their opinions.

All were tempted by the message of Reform UK. None had a good word to say about Labour. As a person rooted in the labour movement, that saddened me immensely.

It is the alienation felt by people like this that has driven the ‘Raise the Colours’ campaign. The proliferation of flags across the country represents a cry from the forgotten millions. They are saying, ‘Hey, what about us?’

Sure, the far-right will leap on the campaign and perhaps even try to hijack it for its own ends. But it would be a gross error to conclude – as many on the left have already done – that anyone supportive of the initiative must be imbued with extremist politics.

‘Raise the Colours’ does not signify the advance of fascism. Instead, the hoisting of every national flag by an ordinary citizen represents a small act of resistance. And that in itself tells us an awful lot about where we are as a country.

 

[Tonge moor green jacket]

A good piece.