Would you fly a flag for your country?

Still waiting 🤔

Perhaps you might consider asking for your post to be removed as it is untrue, LizzieDrip.

Apologies for the ‘delay’ in responding - busy with family meal.

My mistake - the comments I referred to aren’t on this thread; they’re on the one about the Epping hotel judgement. Getting my threads mixed up🙈

If you like I can go through that thread and reference them but won’t be this evening - enjoying time with family.

I've saved you the trouble.
Nothing I posted on that thread warrants what you said in your post.
Perhaps you'd like to retract your statement.

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'.

Oh I don’t about that. Some rather large houses near me, have in their own grounds, flag poles. Put up when the Ukraine war started, now flying union Jacks.

I drove home on the M1,M6 and M5 yesterday there were a few flags on bridges already looking rather tired and tatty. If this is how people show pride in being English could they please secure them properly in a few days time I can see them coming loose and ending up on car or lorry window screens causing accidents..

Looking at the riots in Epping with some arrested, I am certainly not proud of the flags they are brandishing.

LizzieDrip

Apologies for the ‘delay’ in responding - busy with family meal.

My mistake - the comments I referred to aren’t on this thread; they’re on the one about the Epping hotel judgement. Getting my threads mixed up🙈

If you like I can go through that thread and reference them but won’t be this evening - enjoying time with family.

Not much of an apology is it?

Allira

I've saved you the trouble.
Nothing I posted on that thread warrants what you said in your post.
Perhaps you'd like to retract your statement.

Allira has been misunderstood on this thread, and so now posters are throwing accusations at her. It happens on GN, and then cleverly crops up across threads.

Allira has not written anything, on any thread, at any time, to the effect that she is against asylum seekers themselves.

LizzieDrip you’re getting more than your threads mixed up.
It’s very unfair to fling accusations at a poster then claim it must be for what they posted on a different thread when you’re pulled up on it.

Teazel2

Allira

So immigrants are fine unless they carry the flag on Remembrance Day as that is not proper pride , waving flags is an act of defiance and always was according to Caleo!

Have I got that right?

I need to get real apparently.
I don't think it's me that has got it wrong, somehow.

Caleo is very, very wrong. Its such a rude comment as well!

I used to go to the Classical Spectacular at the Royal Albert Hall every year and was so proud to wave the Union Jack alongside everyone else in the audience. How dare Caleo state its an act of defiance, what absolute rubbish.

Waving Union Jacks at the Last Night of the Proms is light -hearted irony.

You can only wave flags if we approve of the thoughts in your head.

The audience sometimes also waved the EU flag as well as the Union flag, was that light hearted irony too?

Galaxy

You can only wave flags if we approve of the thoughts in your head.

Shades of 1984

I think we have to accept that the far-right will often kidnap flags and any show of patriotism, and that others will follow, often destroying the dignity usually accorded to the union flag and other national emblems.

But those doing this should accept how they are then seen. You really can't have it both ways.

PoliticsNerd

I think we have to accept that the far-right will often kidnap flags and any show of patriotism, and that others will follow, often destroying the dignity usually accorded to the union flag and other national emblems.

But those doing this should accept how they are then seen. You really can't have it both ways.

I agree.
Flying the Union Jack or England flag during sporting events or from Buckingham Palace or at the Proms is one thing but putting up a flag now could be construed as political, chiming with far right groups and the likes of Yaxley Lennon.
Our city in Essex has flags tied to lamp posts all the way along the main route into the city and in many streets including ours, these are not showing national pride, far from it, they symbolise something many British people are far from proud of.
Sadly separating out those who are simply showing national pride from this far right movement is now virtually impossible.

Oreo

The audience sometimes also waved the EU flag as well as the Union flag, was that light hearted irony too?

Good question. That, I did not know of. In view of Oreos's information I will have to tone down my opinion which is based on the general peacefulness and good humour of the people there singing Land of Hope and Glory and Rule Britannia.

In view of the above from Oreo, it would be fair to ask the flag wavers among Grans what they think of the lyrics of Land of Hope and Glory, and Rule Britannia

Mt61

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'.

Oh I don’t about that. Some rather large houses near me, have in their own grounds, flag poles. Put up when the Ukraine war started, now flying union Jacks.

Flag -waving does not correlate with wealth or income

I doubt many think about them when they are singing, you tend not to when you are singing in foreign language and this is the language of the past.

What they do not do is riot, holding song or flag as a captured symbol of a future no one should support. The line of argument out forward is comparing apples with oranges.

Logic really isn't a "thing" for those driven by propoganda, is it? But then if people are going to swallow the bait put out I suppose we shouldn't expect anything different.

Sorry, doing two things at once again! My post 01-Sept-25 10:00:20 was is reply to Oreo's

And Caleo Mon 01-Sept-25 09:46:49

I got the following from ChatGTP. I asked for a summary of a longer document, for posting to Gransnet,

Waving the Union Jack isn’t directly linked to wealth or income. Research shows no correlation between displaying the flag and someone’s economic position. Instead, it’s more about politics, identity, and context — for example, it’s more visible among Conservatives, Brexit supporters, or unionists in Northern Ireland, and less so in Scotland or Wales where local flags dominate.

In summary: the Union Jack is best understood as a symbol of national pride, political stance, or regional identity, not of class or wealth.

Public perception varies widely:

Positive – pride, tradition, shared history.

Neutral – just part of events (royal occasions, sport, festivals).

Negative – nationalism, xenophobia, or colonial nostalgia.

PoliticsNerd

I doubt many think about them when they are singing, you tend not to when you are singing in foreign language and this is the language of the past.

What they do not do is riot, holding song or flag as a captured symbol of a future no one should support. The line of argument out forward is comparing apples with oranges.

Logic really isn't a "thing" for those driven by propoganda, is it? But then if people are going to swallow the bait put out I suppose we shouldn't expect anything different.

That is so. I used to attend a Unitarian church. The saying was passed around ": Why are Unitarians the worst congregations at hymn singing? Answer:-- because they refuse to sing a line until they have decided they agree with it."

So Caleohow we perceive our national flags is all done to our individual mindsets

Those of us who are positive about the U.K. and are glass half full folks do not have a problem with our flags.

And then there are those who are negative glass half empty folks who look for the downside will have a problem with our flags as they equate them to values which are not their own…

GrannyGravy13

So Caleohow we perceive our national flags is all done to our individual mindsets

Those of us who are positive about the U.K. and are glass half full folks do not have a problem with our flags.

And then there are those who are negative glass half empty folks who look for the downside will have a problem with our flags as they equate them to values which are not their own…

No. It's the opposite.

Glass half full folks think our country is not beyond redemption despite its history of slavery and colonialism .

Glass half empty folks think our country can only be sorted by gesticulating with national flags and fearing foreigners/