There’s been a steady rise in cases in some parts of England where raising the St George’s flag has become synonymous with hostility towards immigrants. That’s why it’s considered as a cause of ‘alarm and distress’, at least in this case. Especially given the background of this guy who’s been doing it.
So this isn’t just a case of an overreaction to a harmless act of national pride (which is what some might come away with if they didn’t read the article or know the context).
It’s a shame that the flag has become a proxy for racism. Not least because a lot of people put up the flag purely out of pride and with no malicious subtext.
But you can usually tell the areas where there’s a racist undertone because they have a ridiculous number of flags up.
Edit: fixed some typos.
In Canada, it was normal to have a flag on your house or car or whatever. Not a whole bunch, but one.
Then the pandemic happened, people went crazy, and the far right decided that they’d use MORE Canada flags to signal their craziness.
As the number of Canadian flags on a car or house increased, so too did the chance they were crazy… exponentially!
Yeah I think they changed the headline, because now it says “UK flag-raising group”, which makes it ambiguous about whether the flags or the group is of the UK. But I think they mean the group, because they’re primarily raising the English flag of St. George, as a white nationalist symbol.
The article says (even though, weirdly, between the lines) that the man had been spewing out anti-immigrant rhetoric and told that the flags are there to show that foreign-born people are not welcome on his island.
It’s not surprising that flags put by a person saying “I am putting these up as a form of showing the middle finger” are interpreted as being a form of showing the middle finger. Or in other words, causing alarm and distress.
As opposed to the traditional use of the Union Jack: Telling native born people they are not welcome on their own islands.
It’s not surprising that flags put by a person saying “I am putting these up as a form of showing the middle finger” are interpreted as being a form of showing the middle finger.
It’s the UK. Maybe the V instead?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_finger
Giving someone the (middle) finger, also known as flipping the bird[1] or flipping someone off,[1] is an obscene hand gesture. The gesture communicates moderate to extreme contempt, and is roughly equivalent in meaning to “fuck you”, “fuck off”, “go fuck yourself”, “shove it up your ass/arse” or “up yours”. It is performed by showing the back of a hand that has only the middle finger extended upwards, though in some locales, the thumb is extended. Extending the finger is considered a symbol of contempt in several cultures, especially in the Western world.
In the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, the V sign, “two-fingered salute” or “the fingers”, when given with back of the hand towards the recipient, serves a similar purpose.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign
With the palm of the hand facing inward toward the signer (i.e. with the back of the hand facing the observer), this is seen as an insulting gesture in Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, akin to giving the finger.
In the past few decades in England, I’ve seen the use of the bird finger increase relative to use of the backward V-sign. I’m sure the xenophobes regard this as another sign of national decline.
“Man breathing arrested for murder”
Most people don’t expend great effort to breathe, with intent to harass others.
Context matters.
Somewhere between the UK and US is the most politically perfect country. It must be
If all MAGAts and people like the guy mentioned in the article were indeed to go to that place halfway between US and UK, I would be delighted! ❤️
In some good news on this note, the UK Home Office said yesterday that they’re finally going to stop sending the police after people who make legal, but otherwise offensive social media posts.
When I saw the headline yesterday, I thought it was someone’s idea of an April Fools joke. It’s about time though, because it was getting out of hand.
(these are the numbers from 2023, I believe)
Yeah, they have gone full authoritarian at this point. The monarchy must be getting desperate.
Just pointing out that every single one of those arrests will be because a member of public has reported them.
The vast majority will have been targeted at a specific individual and are likely to have been in the forms of targeted abuse or threats.
A more accurate graph would have the number of people arrested for merely writing something the government doesnt agree with.
So many people just have this “oh it was written on the internet, it can’t be illegal”. Mate when you are calling for people to set fire to hotels to burn migrants for their skin colour it’s fucking illegal.
They’re the same people who were complaining when we weren’t mourning the loss of Charlie Kirk
