Would you fly a flag for your country?

Primrose53

Maremia

Sadly, for the folk living nearby, where those latest flags go up, the house prices go down. Estate agents claim that prospective buyers do not wish to live in areas with 'obvious anti-social behaviour'.

Ha ha, just the opposite here! We are fortunate to live in a sought after area with a lot of retired, very high ranking military personnel. For decades they have flown British and English flags outside their homes just like the Royals and I expect will continue to do so.

You wouldn’t buy one of their houses for less than a million. Some are up in the much higher millions. No decline in house prices here.

Forces personnel are generally permitted to display flags outside their quarters, provided the display adheres to relevant regulations and guidelines. So presumably the flags you are seeing are treated respectfully, as the symbol of the whole country's identity, sovereignty, and unity.

This would make a change as we so often see them being treated like do much "merch" to support some disgusting far-right trope.

“The solution does not lie in whipping up general racial hatred and reinforcing stereotypes.”

People have eyes. They have ears. They can see and observe for themselves. They don’t need to be ‘whipped’ into anything. Do you consider that people might view the evidence in front of them and come to their own conclusions?

People have an absolute right to dislike behaviour which is both illegal and immoral. That’s not ‘general racial hatred’.

Casdon

Oreo

All of the behaviours that MadameFeuveral has described wouldn’t be there if disused military camps had been used as accommodation rather than hotels.But… if granted asylum then it would still perhaps be there but happen later on.The government needs to be very very careful about who it allows to stay here.

That is the plan, and is already happening Oreo. Many of the camps have been disused for decades though, and there are infrastructure issues, so it will take time.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jul/30/number-asylum-seekers-housed-former-raf-base-wethersfield-essex-rise

People talk about military camps as if they are rotten old Nissan huts falling to pieces.

The disused military camp here was used for refugees; rather nice houses recently vacated by military families and barracks which had housed single personnel.

I've lived in quarters and there was absolutely nothing wrong with them.

@Lucky

“It is precisely because there are complexities and subtleties in the situation that no-one has come up with a solution yet. There is no simple solution”

The problems are complex but the solutions are not. We’ve unfortunately tied our hands with so much legislation that politicians now hide behind it and claim the problems are insoluble or will take years to implement. It doesn’t help that the elite political class are entirely out of touch with reality and don’t want to implement what the majority of the public now want, which is a drastic reduction in immigration.

People have lost patience with the excuses and lack of action. We’re heading for turbulent times - look at the marches and protests - this is going to get rapidly worse unless politicians actually start listening to the public they are paid to represent and advocate for.

Primrose53

Maremia

Sadly, for the folk living nearby, where those latest flags go up, the house prices go down. Estate agents claim that prospective buyers do not wish to live in areas with 'obvious anti-social behaviour'.

Ha ha, just the opposite here! We are fortunate to live in a sought after area with a lot of retired, very high ranking military personnel. For decades they have flown British and English flags outside their homes just like the Royals and I expect will continue to do so.

You wouldn’t buy one of their houses for less than a million. Some are up in the much higher millions. No decline in house prices here.

I only know one person with a flagpole in the garden near here, flying the Union flag and the Naval Ensign and yes, he was a high ranking Naval officer 😁

Another neighbour did fly the Union flag, another the Cornish flag but they moved.

No-one is saying that is no problem.

But equally no-one has a solution - and this applies to all countries who are facing this challenge.

The solution does not lie in whipping up general racial hatred and reinforcing stereotypes.

MadameFeuveral

“To be honest, when I see baying mobs outside asylum seekers hotels and read the nonsense about ‘losing our culture’ which people spout I don’t feel any pride in tie country of my birth at all. I feel shame. “Oh brave new world that hath such (awful) people in it” indeed”

Such luxury beliefs. To be so unaffected by the day-to-day impact of illegal immigration yet describe the people expressing their discontent as ‘baying mobs’

I presume you haven’t seen the thousands upon thousands of instagram reels showing illegal immigrants hanging out in children’s playgrounds, taking photographs of young girls playing, harassing and abusing young girls when they won’t give them a phone number? The videos of them fishing with nets in ponds and rivers? The videos of them dragging live swans and ducks into their accommodation? The photos of them throwing litter to the breeze, or the videos of them building fires in the street and barbecuing? I’d describe the predatory men in these videos as ‘awful people’ - that’s who you’re defending. Is this behaviour you approve of?

You shame people who have to live with this - who are sick to the back teeth of this behaviour and have no wish to tolerate it or live alongside it. The people who enter illegally in the first place and then go on to behave in ways we find illegal and morally abhorrent - you reserve your sympathy for them.

The public have voted consistently over the last twenty years for parties that promised to lower immigration. No one listened. They were instead told to put up, shut up and stop being racist. When they feel driven to extremes and become the ‘baying mob’ in an effort to finally be heard and their concerns taken seriously - you still won’t listen, still won’t take their concerns seriously, still won’t accept that the multicultural experiment has failed. David Cameron said this years ago. Why can’t you recognise that people are unhappy, and don’t want to tolerate these behaviours?

There’s none so blind as those who will not see.

Brilliant!!!! So very well said
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Were - not we're - blooming spellcheck ......

Their - not there.

Oreo

Sadly Luckygirl3 the populus doesn’t need its fears fostering from extreme right wing groups, it already has them.The people have finally had enough, not just here in the UK either.
We don’t need to keep everyone out, we have always needed some immigration here but we can and should be very choosy about the country and culture that we accept in legal immigration and stop all illegal migrants coming here in boats and backs of lorries.

I can only ask how?
How do you make these decisions? Who makes them? How much money should we allocate to the process? How can we ban someone from a culture of which we disapprove when that person is trying to get away from it? How can we keep our decisions within international laws? How do we stop valid concerns about illegal immigration spilling over into blind racism and persecution?
It is precisely because there are complexities and subtleties in the situation that no-one has come up with a solution yet. There is no simple solution . . saying that people want their voices heard gets us nowhere. I have no doubt whatsoever that the government know this ... they know exactly what the problem is, but they also know there is no easy solution.
The previous government tried to pretend there was and so poured £240million of public money into his Rwanda deportation scheme with the result that precisely 4 individuals were voluntarily deported.
At least this government is working on an honest attempt to target the gangs who profit from the trafficking rather than pandering to those whipping up hatred of immigrants with window dressing schemes like Sunak's.
No-one is telling the public that the solution will not happen overnight and that the government needs time to get to grips with it .... they have lawyers to consult and systems to put in place. It will all take time, and does not have the flag-waving appeal of mass deportation.
Farage and his crew are just jumping on a bandwagon to boost there popularity with no real idea of what they might actually do about the situation, we're the responsibility theirs.

Maremia

Sadly, for the folk living nearby, where those latest flags go up, the house prices go down. Estate agents claim that prospective buyers do not wish to live in areas with 'obvious anti-social behaviour'.

Ha ha, just the opposite here! We are fortunate to live in a sought after area with a lot of retired, very high ranking military personnel. For decades they have flown British and English flags outside their homes just like the Royals and I expect will continue to do so.

You wouldn’t buy one of their houses for less than a million. Some are up in the much higher millions. No decline in house prices here.

Oreo

All of the behaviours that MadameFeuveral has described wouldn’t be there if disused military camps had been used as accommodation rather than hotels.But… if granted asylum then it would still perhaps be there but happen later on.The government needs to be very very careful about who it allows to stay here.

That is the plan, and is already happening Oreo. Many of the camps have been disused for decades though, and there are infrastructure issues, so it will take time.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jul/30/number-asylum-seekers-housed-former-raf-base-wethersfield-essex-rise

All of the behaviours that MadameFeuveral has described wouldn’t be there if disused military camps had been used as accommodation rather than hotels.But… if granted asylum then it would still perhaps be there but happen later on.The government needs to be very very careful about who it allows to stay here.

That’s just pedantry from you growstuff
Not everyone feels confident enough to protest publicly or wants to but most of the public want a stop to the boat problem and more careful legal immigration.It’s in the interest of the whole of the UK.

MadameFeuveral Same comment to you. There is no such group as "the public" which has all voted for the same thing.

Oreo

Sadly Luckygirl3 the populus doesn’t need its fears fostering from extreme right wing groups, it already has them.The people have finally had enough, not just here in the UK either.
We don’t need to keep everyone out, we have always needed some immigration here but we can and should be very choosy about the country and culture that we accept in legal immigration and stop all illegal migrants coming here in boats and backs of lorries.

Who are these "the people"? There is no such homogenous group.

“To be honest, when I see baying mobs outside asylum seekers hotels and read the nonsense about ‘losing our culture’ which people spout I don’t feel any pride in tie country of my birth at all. I feel shame. “Oh brave new world that hath such (awful) people in it” indeed”

Such luxury beliefs. To be so unaffected by the day-to-day impact of illegal immigration yet describe the people expressing their discontent as ‘baying mobs’

I presume you haven’t seen the thousands upon thousands of instagram reels showing illegal immigrants hanging out in children’s playgrounds, taking photographs of young girls playing, harassing and abusing young girls when they won’t give them a phone number? The videos of them fishing with nets in ponds and rivers? The videos of them dragging live swans and ducks into their accommodation? The photos of them throwing litter to the breeze, or the videos of them building fires in the street and barbecuing? I’d describe the predatory men in these videos as ‘awful people’ - that’s who you’re defending. Is this behaviour you approve of?

You shame people who have to live with this - who are sick to the back teeth of this behaviour and have no wish to tolerate it or live alongside it. The people who enter illegally in the first place and then go on to behave in ways we find illegal and morally abhorrent - you reserve your sympathy for them.

The public have voted consistently over the last twenty years for parties that promised to lower immigration. No one listened. They were instead told to put up, shut up and stop being racist. When they feel driven to extremes and become the ‘baying mob’ in an effort to finally be heard and their concerns taken seriously - you still won’t listen, still won’t take their concerns seriously, still won’t accept that the multicultural experiment has failed. David Cameron said this years ago. Why can’t you recognise that people are unhappy, and don’t want to tolerate these behaviours?

There’s none so blind as those who will not see.

Sadly Luckygirl3 the populus doesn’t need its fears fostering from extreme right wing groups, it already has them.The people have finally had enough, not just here in the UK either.
We don’t need to keep everyone out, we have always needed some immigration here but we can and should be very choosy about the country and culture that we accept in legal immigration and stop all illegal migrants coming here in boats and backs of lorries.

And I will add the practice of honour killings, another cultural thing we don’t want here, and from various African countries forms of voodoo and spell casting.Yes, it exists here in the UK .

There is an immigration problem - unquestionably. Every country has the right to decide who becomes citizens and creates a system for this.

The problem is the process by which this is decided. Because of the vast influx of refugees by illegal means, the system is overwhelmed.

I hear the claims of illegal behaviour by immigrant people and this cannot be ignored, but crime has always been present, long before this sudden influx. It is inevitable that some of these immigrants will feature in the crime statistics.

I also recognise the challenge of welcoming new people into our country whilst also trying to maintain a bottom line as to what we see as acceptable civilised values in the presence of those from countries with different values. How might we deal with that? - by keeping everyone out? - by refusing all asylum claims from those countries whose values do not tally with ours? - we know that many who try to escape do so to get away from those values and how these impinge on their lives.

I am saddened that this has become a political football - that those with frankly racist aims and views are not prepared to cooperate with those seeking a rational solution to this undoubted problem whilst staying within international law. Farage and his cronies can criticise and whip up division, but the government in power has laws that it has to follow and has to foster reasoned debate and research into how best to solve the problem. Meanwhile the right-wingers are pouncing on and fostering the fears of the populus to create exactly the sort of unstable society that they claim the immigrants will cause.

I abhor the epidemic of flags - they are not an expression of pride in our country but a tool for division. I particularly detest the "British" flag of St George which arose from the crusaders - who were basically terrorists.

MadameFeuveral

“We are quietly confident that we have a pretty fair system (at least as fair as many places) and that we believe in trying to include and value all people”

The issue we face is that many of those arriving in the country don’t share your values, your culture and want no part of it. They have nothing for distain for it, in fact.

The modern world is such that no one has to take part in wider UK society if they don’t wish to. They can live in ethnic enclaves, speaking their own language, shop for their preferred foods in their own shops, watch tv and moves in their own language. It’s perfectly possible to live entirely in one’s own culture, never engaging with that of the host nation.

Added to which, I’ll be frank: how is it possible to value and include practices that we in the UK find morally and legally wrong? Do you wish to tolerate and value those who practice FGM? Or child marriage? Sexual contact with minors? Those who believe in apostasy?

These are very real problems we now have to face as a result of naive, sentimental politics which believes that all people are fundamentally the same, hold the same values and will rub along perfectly all right if everyone is just tolerant enough. It’s fantasy, it doesn’t work, and we are now looking at the results in front of us.

Spot on 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Caleo

nanafunny

I do not like the SNP flag my neighbour flies from huge flagpole in front garden.

If he flew a lion rampart or union jack I would be happy.

we all have our preferences.

Me too. Huge flagpoles are phallic.

Steady on girl!😂

sundowngirl

MaizieD

Primrose53

Sarnia

PoliticsNerd

Sarnia

Yes I would and I have on occasions. I would have the National Anthem sung in every school in the country every morning too.

Good Lord! Do you want to turn this country into America?

The Americans fly their flags and sing their National Anthem. It is their country and they are proud of it.
Here we are far too concerned with upsetting other cultures with words like Christmas and flying our flags. We almost apologise for our culture and beliefs.
I don't like all American trends but being patriotic is one I would happily follow.

Well said Sarnia 👏👏👏

We have long been told what we can and can’t do in our kids schools regarding religious celebrations like Nativity plays, Christmas, Easter and so on. Americans wouldn’t put up with that!

Oh dear. More old chestnuts being trotted out.

Why are you being so nasty?? Don’t you take any pride in your country? It’s not a good look keep putting people down like you do

To be honest, when I see baying mobs outside asylum seekers hotels and read the nonsense about ‘losing our culture’ which people spout I don’t feel any pride in tie country of my birth at all. I feel shame. “Oh brave new world that hath such (awful) people in it” indeed.

This certainly isn’t the country I thought we’d turned into over my life time. But no, from ‘rivers of blood’ to ‘strangers in our land’ we’ve gone full circle. It’s horrible.

Sadly, for the folk living nearby, where those latest flags go up, the house prices go down. Estate agents claim that prospective buyers do not wish to live in areas with 'obvious anti-social behaviour'.

“So when I see the flag waving protesters I just feel sad for them as they clearly haven't benefitted as I have from being British and for me that's the real problem that needs addressing. How we make a more equitable society for everyone so no one gets left behind.”
What an excellent summing up of such a complicated and emotive subject…