Mine expired at the end of May. The first application went missing, so I redid it in mid-July only to get a terse email saying that I’d applied twice and that’s not allowed so one would be rejected. Getting the medical appointment was probably the quickest part, only two weeks. But I have to drive or get the train to Clacton (yuk) which is 15 miles away.
This is a great idea. Gammons are marking-out their territory so that us normals who want to avoid no-go areas where racists live can stay in our cars and move on to somewhere else.
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What is the issue with hanging the st george flag out?
When people fly the saltire here no one goes hmm what a racist
I’m glad I can fly my national flag without people thinking I’m a racist.
Flags are an inherently silly thing to argue about.
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The article helps explain it.
There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with the flag, or wanting to display it, obviously. What is questionable is the motivations and past actions and associations of key figures behind the campaign.
This was linked in the BBC article:
I think you’d (not you personally Cal, just generally) have to be naive to think this recent campaign has nothing to do with the wider political context and the rise of an unpleasant form of English nationalism. What I will add for clarity, is that I am not saying that everyone taking part is a racist or unpleasant nationalist with ill will, many will be doing so with innocent intentions. While I am not a believer in nationalism, I don’t think that every form of (English) nationalism is a problem and fair enough if people take pride in their country or flag.
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No doubt in my mind the leadership has unsavoury connections. Still don’t know if I’m a fan of the wholesale labelling. Same way the Pro-Palestine groups were labelled ‘leftist’ ‘terrorist sympathizers’ (insert any other insult here). It’s just blatant smearing to shut down people (and generate more hostility). As we’ve seen with Palestine Action being made a terror group, it makes things worse.
While on this Tories as per usual are pricks for weaponising this issue. Where was their concern for English pride in the last 14 years when they ran the country in the ground? Or that immigration is their fucking mess? I can’t stand these people.
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Its all part of the woke right’s grift. Same right wing ecosystem will be crying about free speech and two tier justice when they get send down for being racist cunts.
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It seems these far right activists have “damaged” your flag for the general population then which is a shame.
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It’s upto the regular folks to get their flag back.
Do it before it becomes another Swastika (which used to be such an auspicious symbol for Indians & South Asians)
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I think @JakeyBoy summed it up perfectly for me. I actually get jealous when I see other nations being patriotic and flying their flag because the minority of pricks on the far-right have weaponised it in England. Seeing the pride the Scots have in their nation and flag is genuinely touching. I wish I was Scottish and could join in.
@RockyMaivia Yes, I agree that wholesale labeling isn’t very mature of me. I look back at truly unifying moments in England (like the Olympics, the summer of 96 for example) with a nostalgic melancholy. I really do wish there was a way of the majority taking back control of a less threatening form of patriotism, but this campaign to put flags up seems designed to intimidate rather than inspire.
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I wasn’t directing it at you btw mate, it was a general statement.
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I find English patriotism without some kind of underlying sense of self deprecating irony very weird.
Flags have started appearing in the town I live in. I don’t approve or disapprove but it doesn’t feel like the country I’m used to.
Hmm I actually haven’t been out much lately, when I do I should pay extra attention out of curiousity…
Some dickhead near me has started flying a massive England flag. And I say dickhead not because it’s an England flag but because it’s an England football flag - the FA crest. Outside of a major tournament.
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@Truth_hurts you can tell an election is coming up
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I know, I didn’t take it personally. But it’s a valid reminder and I am very guilty of seeing a St. Georges flag and assuming the worst. I can be better than that.
I do find it the flag shame phenomenon of the UK so odd, it’s one of the things I’ve never quite been able to understand over the 20 odd years I’ve been here.
Most other countries absolutely love their flag. In Denmark we put flags on our Christmas trees, birthday cakes and when someone is having a birthday party you line the street leading up to their house with little Danish flags.
Maybe it’s because people’s identities are rooted more regionally? People from Cornwall are very proud of being Cornish, same with people from Yorkshire, Devon etc.
Then on the other hand there are countries like Italy that also have very strong regional identities but who absolutely love their flag and are united by their Italian identity.
Just seems odd to me - I wonder if there was the same sort of self-deprecation around the flag and being English/British in the early 20th Century or if it’s something that came about after WWII and post-modernist “enlightened” thinking.
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This sounds good, but we both know that neither party is going to bring in anything that doesn’t benefit tourists more than the people.
It’s terrible how locals are marginalised on tourist beaches. Then again, I’ve paid for beach access a few times out there, so I’m part of the problem.
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Not saying it’s the sole reason, things are rarely that simple, but I think the National Front coopting it in the 70s and 80s plays a significant part in it.
I also think that ostentatious nationalism, and behaviour generally, is also something that we traditionally find culturally a bit distasteful. I think English people are quite understated in that regard (massive generalisation, but those are hard to avoid when you try to talk about a single national cultural identity in a one size fits all kind of way)
Not sure how much “post-modernist ‘enlighted’ thinking” has to do with it given that’s not going to be something solely confined to English shores, which would surely mean we’d also see a similar aversion to the national flag in other countries too if that was the reason why.
But then again, I’d imagine that “far right groups coopting the flag” is something that has also happened in many other countries too, without it leading to some sort of disdain or discomfort surrounding the flag in question.
So I guess what I’m saying is, “fucked if I know”
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