Would you fly a flag for your country?

Do you honestly think that within the utter chaos of that country that people fall into need little piles?

The good guys get on a plane and come here with their families and the baddies are in boats?

I would suggest, infact I know, life if way more complicated than that.

Farage makes me heave. Ripping up the Human Rights Act.

What on earth has this country become? Fly a flag, I don't think so.

MollyNew

I've just caught up with this thread and I've only read the first two pages and the last one so I might be repeating something that's already been said.

We've started with a thread about the George Cross flag and ended up with Reform UK and immigration. I remember many years ago the George Cross flag being appropriated by skinheads and the National Front who caused a lot of division in the community. It now seems to me that the rise of far right thinking has brought this symbol back due in part to nasty keyboard warriors who can now marshall the old racists and recruit a new generation. The odious Farage has of course tapped into this and can sow the seeds of what he referred to yesterday as social unrest in order to further his own ambitions. It's not just flags on flagpoles, it's George crosses being painted on zebra crossings and islands in the road.

History tells us that in order to thrive, the far right needs someone to blame and we can now see this happening again. Farage has no other policies other than immigration and whilst he talks about illegal immigration, his rhetoric is now leading people to racism becoming mainstream and directed at people whose parents and grandparents were legal immigrants.

Some of the comments on the Daily Mail regarding the Notting Hill Carnival were horrific but those who wrote them forget that the Windrush generation were invited here by our government to rebuild Britain. In effect they're saying "your grandparents came here legally but they've all retired so you can all clear off back to where they came from".

In Wolverhampton this week 2 elderly Sikh taxi drivers were seriously assaulted by youths at the railway station and these types of situations are increasing.

Scary times.

Far -right rowdies and Farage have spread their venom all over those brave flags that once signalled happy holidays and innocent patriotism.

Both the ARAP and ACRS schemes were closed with a few hours notice. 34,000 Afghans had been resettled but there were still 22,000 outstanding applications waiting for a decision. They were left with no legal route to use so it is clear that many will be using routes that are not legal. There is no data with regard to those arriving by small boat and given asylum who would have been eligible for settlement under either ARAP or ACRS but it is fairly safe to assume that there are Afghans arriving in this way.

foxie the ARAP closed to new principal applications at 3pm 1st July 2025.

Family member applications can still be accepted under certain conditions.

The U.K. completed its with from Afghanistan in August 2021.

Afghanis have had four years to apply.

grrr! autocorrect gremlins with should read withdrawal

Many Afghans fled the country without their papers and why were there still 22K awaiting a decision? The decision to close the schemes was political not humanitarian, if people were eligible in 2021, they were still eligible in 2025.

foxie48

Many Afghans fled the country without their papers and why were there still 22K awaiting a decision? The decision to close the schemes was political not humanitarian, if people were eligible in 2021, they were still eligible in 2025.

You will have to ask Sir Starmer why he closed the scheme.

UK stopped its combat operations in 2014, after that time we were only there to train Afghani’s, in a non combatant capacity.

Afghanistan was always going to be difficult to sort out, and like I posted up thread some Afghani’s worked for both sides,.

The security of U.K. citizens is or should be always paramount for any government.

Germany has had enough and 15,000 afghans are listed for deportation. Some have already left and were paid €850 to leave.

There are flights booked to loads of other countries too.

We had this conversation at the time when Afghanistan was in the headline news..

The correct term for a person from Afghanistan is Afghan. Afghani is the name of the country's currency and using it to refer to people is considered incorrect and sometimes offensive.

shunculture.com/article/what-do-you-call-a-person-from-afghanistan

MaizieD yes you are correct, and I apologise.

My excuse is that I am surrounded by builders, have a splitting headache and using GN as distraction therapy until I go out to a petting zoo with DD and GC.

StripeyGran

Do you honestly think that within the utter chaos of that country that people fall into need little piles?

The good guys get on a plane and come here with their families and the baddies are in boats?

I would suggest, infact I know, life if way more complicated than that.

Farage makes me heave. Ripping up the Human Rights Act.

What on earth has this country become? Fly a flag, I don't think so.

What on earth has this country become? Fly a flag, I don't think so.

Would you think of emigrating to somewhere you would feel more at ease?
A genuine question, we are a family of emigrants and immigrants.

It’s a complete mess between my house and my sons with red crosses being painted all over the place. How shabby and messy it looks.

I’ve just returned from Llandudno and lamp posts and bedroom windows are bedecked with🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 - I wonder if that’s a reaction to the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 that appeared on the roundabout earlier this week?

GG13 I don't think either of the two parties in government since August 2021 have covered themselves in glory dealing with this issue and I have not attempted to apportion blame. I stand by what I actually posted, ie it has been handled shamefully.

Pantglas2

I’ve just returned from Llandudno and lamp posts and bedroom windows are bedecked with🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 - I wonder if that’s a reaction to the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 that appeared on the roundabout earlier this week?

But… Welsh flag flying is considered just fine by some on here it’s only the English flag they object to.🤷🏼‍♀️

It didn’t used to be Oreo! I remember the sixties when flying the Draig Goch labelled you a Welsh Nationalist/Plaid Cymru supporter.

We rescued our flag in Wales by everyone flying it…

The Welsh flag has always been flown a lot in South Wales though Pantglas, Plaid never really took a hold here until much more recently, but rugby is so strong that there’s a flag epidemic on match days - we’ve still got an ancient flag, which hung outside the house on match days when my husband was a boy in the fifties, it’s the type where it was all sewn on pieces rather than printed like they are now.

Pantglas2

It didn’t used to be Oreo! I remember the sixties when flying the Draig Goch labelled you a Welsh Nationalist/Plaid Cymru supporter.

We rescued our flag in Wales by everyone flying it…

That more or less sums it all up, Pantglas!!

I took the Welsh Flag to Cardiff Arms Park in the 50’s and placed it in window and garden for the investiture of the Prince of Wales . I was living in South Wales

Allira

Pantglas2

It didn’t used to be Oreo! I remember the sixties when flying the Draig Goch labelled you a Welsh Nationalist/Plaid Cymru supporter.

We rescued our flag in Wales by everyone flying it…

That more or less sums it all up, Pantglas!!

It 'would' have summed it up if Casdon's post hadn't contradicted it.

I’m sure Pantglas was correct from her experience, Wales is like England in that respect MaizieD, the north and south have different sub cultures, the Gogs and the Taffs - although all Welsh people are proud of being Welsh.

I do remember the extreme Welsh Nationalists, Meibion Glyndŵr, Pantglas.
I saw it from both sides - friends from London bought a derelict cottage which no-one wanted in the middle of a forest and were worried it would be fire bombed. It was fine.
A very distant family member was a Welsh Nationalist - more mouth than action!

I'm trying to work out whether the Scots and Welsh nationalist movements are/were in any way similar to what is happening now in England. I see them as being fundamentally a desire for national self rule. I can't square that with the England flag rash because England has had self rule for hundreds of years.

But would anyone else see other similarities?

I’d say you’re right in your assessment MaizieD. Although I can’t speak for Scotland, I think fundamentally Welsh Nationalists perceive England as an oppressor - even almost 500 years after the formal takeover. It just shows I think that wars do not result in acceptance by countries that are annexed by others, old wounds never die in the collective memory of a people.

I think we are in very dangerous territory talking about Afghanis as if they were one homogenous mass.

Thanks to Farage and his ilk, this race is the latest to be on the receiving end.

Funny how we don't talk about the Ukrainians or the HK Chinese in quite the same way. I suppose there are no criminals or scroungers amongst them maybe.