Flying the flag

vegansrock

I guess a typical “English” celebration would be binge drinking.

How rude.

We're not a totalitarian state yet. But don't worry about the defacing of statues - you'll get a longer sentence for that than for raping someone.

Well said Alegrias*.

Off topic a little but interesting. ..flags are flown from lampposts here in NI to denote whether the area is republican or loyalist. I think these should be banned. There is never any attempt to remove them for fear of upsetting either community.

I guess a typical “English” celebration would be binge drinking.

Looks like St Edmund's day is 20th November. That's a bit disappointing. Looks like the pub is the best option. Maybe a spot of Christmas shopping or decorating the front room.

It would be nice to have a bank holiday to celebrate England in some way. What would you do? Same as any other bank holiday. A day with the family, a day in the pub, a nice walk, visit a National trust or English heritage (morris dancing and dragon fights could be arranged). The trouble with 23 April is that it is too close to Easter and the May Day bank holidays.

St Edmund King and Martyr was at least English. Maybe we should leave St George to the Scouts movement and Make St Edmund's day England's special day.

I must admit to being conflicted on this one. I hate the flag flying trend BUT. I do think non political people should try and reclaim our flag and celebrate it to stop it being the preserve of the right wing. Ditto St George’s day. We should try to celebrate it but I’m not sure how we do that without all looking like BNP members! It’d be nice to feel proud of our country again. I guess we need to reclaim our pride in our country first and then put the flags up?? ?

The union flag means nothing to me, it represents three counties not four

That sounds like fun Grandma70 when we can get together again, Morris dancing and Dragon fighting I'm up for that. I'll start sewing bells on my trousers now

How can one “denigrate” St. George’s Day?

Polarbear2

Pantglas2

All you anti flag folks - will you celebrate or denigrate St. George’s Day?

Don’t bother with it personally. It’s meaningless to me.

I always notice StGeorge’s Day because it is also my late parents’ wedding anniversary, and Shakespeare’s birthday. I was told this all my life. I don’t celebrate it, though. What would I do? Morris dancing on the village green? Mock dragon fights?

Kim19

I have a friend who has a flagpole in his garden and he flies the national flag of the country of anyone who is a visiting guest. I find it decidedly warm, welcoming and friendly when I go there. Lovely, in fact.

Yes there’s a guy near us who does the same. We love to see it. Feels very welcoming somehow.

Pantglas2

All you anti flag folks - will you celebrate or denigrate St. George’s Day?

Don’t bother with it personally. It’s meaningless to me.

I always check the country of origin of products, flag or no flag. I also check whether they’ve bothered to show the flag correctly.
I’m trying to think of a room colour scheme where a union flag would look anything but weird. Blue walls with red and white stripes, vertical or diagonal . . . Nope!

I don’t mind flags being flown etc but I do think they look daft in somebody’s sitting room!

Also please whatever one’s politics are can we not have the horrible “if you don’t like go and live somewhere else”. Apart from the fact t that this is not always possible are we not allowed to take issue with things we don’t like whilst still liking our country ?I don’t believe any citizen of any country loves absolutely everything about it.

“I’m Backing Britain” turn the clock back 50 yrs buy British
Oh wait a minute, we don’t actually make much now!. LOL

Seriously, nothing wrong with being proud of the national flag it belongs to all of us, if you don’t accept that go and live somewhere else - if they’ll have you.

I have a friend who has a flagpole in his garden and he flies the national flag of the country of anyone who is a visiting guest. I find it decidedly warm, welcoming and friendly when I go there. Lovely, in fact.

nanna8 that’s what they want you to think - they can put a flag on a packet that’s come from Thailand but just packaged in the U.K. ( no doubt by low paid migrant workers). I think that’s akin to fraud, You should only be able to put a flag in a completely home grown product. I want to buy local which is why I don’t just pick up a packet with a flag, I would read where the product actually originates from.

If I see our flag on a product I tend to be attracted to it because it is most likely to be home grown. There should be more of it. I am also attracted to products with a British flag because I know they have certain standards and values which I support.

On a related flag waving topic - anyone noticed how packets in the supermarket have suddenly started putting a flag on everything- even when it’s something like vegetables which are grown elsewhere and just happen to be packaged in the U.K.? I like to know where stuff is grown as I don’t want to buy stuff flown in from half way around the world , so I do read the packets. I saw a flag on a bag of ice cubes - thought that was OTT.

And for a bit of balance, my DIL's Swiss mother left Switzerland and would never go back because the Swiss are too racist.

So flying the flag is not traditionally "British". Does that mean we shouldn't ever move on from the traditional stance in all areas, not just flag waving? I thought humans were supposed to progress and adapt, not stay static in the historic past. Let's reclaim the flags, Union flag and the Cross of St George from the far right. I've never heard one word of criticism about the individual flags of the other 3 nations being flown for whatever purpose. My English son, married to a Canadian, living in Canada, flies the Canadian flag on his house. Is he suddenly beyond the pale, or respecting and revering the country he lives in?

Trisha57

Can I be a tad pedantic here and mention that it is only called the Union Jack when flown on a ship? Otherwise it is called the Union Flag. Sorry, I'll go now!

Our flag is called a Union Jack after King James 1 (VI) who was the first to order a flag to honour the union of England with Scotland. James is "Jacobus" in Latin.

Jack as the name of a flag on a ship is a completely separate use of the word that has become confused with the name of our flag only in relatively recent years. Possibly because of well-meaning but mistaken pedants. .

Union Jack and Union Flag are both equally acceptable.

"Unfortunately the flag has been hijacked by the far right. It's very sad."
This comment, and others like it, appear only too often.
I'm always intrigued by the way that this seems to be generally accepted as a truism - for absolutely no better reason than the fact that we are continually being told by the Far Left that it is so. Sure the Far Right wave the flag on demonstrations - but they no more own it any more than they do the Palace of Westminster. But because we don't want to be associated with the Far Right (any more than we want to be associated with the equally extremist Loony Left), we choose to keep our heads down and not fly or otherwise display the Union flag or the English flag. It's classic brain- washing: shout loud and long enough, isolate and demonise dissenters, and people will eventually come to believe whatever untruths you are peddling. It's very sad.

We should all be proud of the Union Jack. It is our flag. If I had a big enough garden I would have a flag pole to fly one on.

Callistemon

GagaJo

I've been in Switzerland for getting on for a year and a half now. Not seen a flag anywhere, at any point.

Do they play rugby?

I think somewhere earlier GagaJo implied she didn't like football. Too Trible for her or she didn't like the shirts or something. I bet she thinks the same about rugby.

I'm not sure if they play rugby. Cricket is a good game. Not a good day for England they came second in both. Never mind it's the taking part that counts. It's playing the game that's important not the result.........This is me trying to prove just how British I am.