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Flag waving

TheCatWoman

It seems that the English flag is being used again as a symbol of nationalism, being paraded around the streets by those wanting rid of asylum seekers and placed in gardens.

Do you feel comfortable with it? I don't, for me it's tainted by Neo Nazi's and other fascists, or for football.

In Britain we've never had a habit of flag use and worship like some other countries, mostly seen in America and I wouldn't like us to acquire the habit. 

Am I the only one to find it ironic that St George was a Turk? He supplanted St Edmund as Englands national saint on a whim of Richard the Lionheart, we have lots of native saints to choose from, St Alban, St Edward, St Thomas A'Becket, St Hilda, and so many more often more obscure ones like St Petroc or St Willibrord.

I also feel uncomfortable that as a non Christian the flag is a blatently Christian religious symbol, at least in Wales we have Ye Ddraig Goch, The Red Dragon, nice and mythological and non religious.

Parents

  • And the Scots right wing have joined the bandwagon:

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyxqknx7jqo

    The battle for Scotland's flag: Why the right has adopted the saltire

    Fun fact - the Scottish flag is the oldest in Europe, dating back to 832.

    It commemorates the crucifiction of Saint Andrew who brought Christianity to Scotland, so is another religeon centric sysmbol, but was primarily used to rally the Scots and French in their fights against the oppresive English regieme at the time.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Scotland

    Flags seem to be "claimed" by lots of groups at different times to act as a rallying symbol for their particular objectives and this will eventually shift to something else no doubt, just as it has always done.

  • in reply to Iain

    Iain I totally despise the right for hijacking the saltire. The SNP hijacked for their ends of indepdence. What are the right doing with it, nothing but anti immigrant bull****. Much the same as the protestants wave the union flag as way to show anti catholic feelings in Scotland. 

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  • in reply to Iain

    Iain I totally despise the right for hijacking the saltire. The SNP hijacked for their ends of indepdence. What are the right doing with it, nothing but anti immigrant bull****. Much the same as the protestants wave the union flag as way to show anti catholic feelings in Scotland. 

Children
  • in reply to Iain

    wish I was Australian/Scots so I wasn't appropriating cultural appropriation but anyway....

    "they can take our saltire but they'll never take our satire"

    hmm some times I think I work too hard at trying to laugh at stupidity :-)

  • in reply to Mr T
    Mr T said:
    I totally despise the right for hijacking the saltire. The SNP hijacked for their ends of indepdence. What are the right doing with it

    It is just a symbol that is jijacked by one group or another for its own ends as time goes on. 

    What is important is what meaning we assign to the symbol. If you can think of it just as a national label and not associate with any particular splinter group then you take away their power to get to you and they are just a bunch of idiots waving a flag as it it gives them power somehow, much as happened with the SNP.

    Steal their power over you by not caring about it would be my recommendation.