South West councils warning as Union and St George flags spread
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0r7egezzg4o
Posted by Ophiuchus171
South West councils warning as Union and St George flags spread
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0r7egezzg4o
Posted by Ophiuchus171
33 Comments
> Faith Stafford from Ubuntu Counselling Service in Exeter said some asylum seekers and refugees are experiencing “renewed trauma” because of the increase in the Union and St George flags.
> “One of my counsellors, who is usually assertive and well-adjusted, told me she’s avoiding going out in public,” she said.
> “For our clients, the symptoms of trauma, nightmares, blackouts, voices, self-harm, are being re-triggered.”
I remember JSO spraying red paint all over and how they got absolutely hammered by the media.
Should’ve painted red crosses in front of oil giants and planes instead!
If they can’t look at the flag of the country that is granting you asylum without trauma then maybe a question should be asked if this is the right place for them.
I’d take it as genuine patriotism if everyone who I’d encountered online who was for it didn’t rant about immigration.
If “Jack the strangler” started putting up socks on people’s doors, eventually they’re going to associate it with being strangled. Even if it’s just a filthy wee sock.
But ach, trying to explain how it works to someone who downs cans every night is like explaining astrophysics to a house plant.
If they just let it be it would probably fizzle out on its own but buy removing them they are just making it worse.
Someone did a terrible job on a round a bout near me. Trails of red paint as drivers went over it.
Looks more like a scene of an accident now.
Spraying paint on council owned or privately owned property is a criminal offence, no matter the jingoistic intentions behind it.
The far right used to condemn Just Stop Oil for throwing paint around. Now they’re doing it themselves, and justifying it because “Muh Britannia”.
We cannot give in to mob rule and normalise lawbreaking like this if its in the name of nationalism.
Lock them all up and throw away the key.
If the likes of Tommy Robinson try to bring up riots over it like how they were last year, then set the police horses and water cannons on them.
>Faith Stafford from Ubuntu Counselling Service in Exeter said some asylum seekers and refugees are experiencing “renewed trauma” because of the increase in the Union and St George flags.
Mind boggling that this can be included in a serious news article
Just paint the roundabout red. There’s no way their commitment would cover the white paint needed to do the same.
It’s hard to look at a shittily-done cross spraypainted onto a roundabout and see it as a sign of national pride. It’s very much in the “‘Becky’s-a-slag’-on-a-bus-shelter” category.
*Faith Stafford from Ubuntu Counselling Service in Exeter said some asylum seekers and refugees are experiencing “renewed trauma” because of the increase in the Union and St George flags.*
Renewed trauma? What the fck does that mean? They are in Britain. Of course, we’re going to fly our flag.
*”One of my counsellors, who is usually assertive and well-adjusted, told me she’s avoiding going out in public,” she said.*
Tell her to grow a backbone.
Great more vandalism, really makes me proud to be English.
Poorly painted red lines are a great example of British craftsmanship. Perhaps we can get some blue plaques to honour the heroes costing local councils millions.
Me and my family are refugee escaped from religion oppression, we put up Union Jack and St George flag because our neighborhood were taken over by the people we escaped from, and we has to self-censored and pretend we follow the religion to avoid death or mutilation.
St George’s Cross and Union Jack is the symbol of our resistance against oppression, misogyny and homophobia, it represents our dream of Freedom and liberty.
Those people who are graffitiing the flag everywhere recently are not doing so in good faith.
It’s not intended as a display of patriotism, regardless of what they may claim. It’s about intimidation.
It’s such a diss to the flag to reduce it to some half arsed graffiti symbol
Better hide when the world cups on, more enemy flags will be flying . Imagine the trauma and flashbacks, might even cause someone to break the law.
Allowing far right agitators to co-opt the English flag was probably the stupidest thing we as society allowed happen
The last group of people we should have ever let co-opt patriotism
Big news, you can’t just rock up and start altering the appearance of markings on the Highway network. Or vandalise other public property/signage.
Also, the crosses on roundabouts look fucking shite. There’s one near me that looks like it was sprayed on from a moving car. If I cared that much about the St George’s Cross I’d probably be a bit insulted.
Nothing says pride in your flag like a half arsed job and on faded/scuffed surface.
The flag waving smack of deep insecurity to me. If people thought this was a great country we wouldn’t have to daub red crosses everywhere.
They think it’s patriotism, but it isn’t. Patriotism is working with your fellow citizens to make the country a better place for everyone.
It’s mad, i wonder where did all this sinister flag repression start? I bet it was done in secret to appease some backwards cultures that are incompatible with democratic British culture.
[oopsie](https://bylinetimes.com/2025/08/01/reform-council-accused-of-trump-like-behaviour-over-pride-flag/)
I’m here with my popcorn watching the self righteous brigade slowly realise the pendulum has swung back.
So the country’s flag causes trauma – what about all the bennies?
If your goal was to drive people to the right and cause a divide, it’s a genius campaign because every person on the left decrying this is only going to feed into the narrative that the left hates symbols of English identity.
Criticism of the English flag is not going to endear yourself to the average English person, in fact it’s going to alienate them even further.
Yes you can claim the people behind this are far right, have bad intentions etc, perhaps there is truth there, but ultimately the argument boils down trying to suppress our own national flag and that is what many people are going to take away.
Starmers team for once played the PR game right when he released the statement supporting putting the flag up. However the rest of the left are falling into the trap.
>Faith Stafford from Ubuntu Counselling Service in Exeter said some asylum seekers and refugees are experiencing “renewed trauma” because of the increase in the Union and St George flags.
>”One of my counsellors, who is usually assertive and well-adjusted, told me she’s avoiding going out in public,” she said.
>”For our clients, the symptoms of trauma, nightmares, blackouts, **voices**, self-harm, are being re-triggered.”
I love living near a hotel full of people who start hearing voices when they see the flag. Really adds a relaxing, diverse feel to the area.
It comes down to the intention of the painter/person who puts it up.
I would ask those doing it: Why?
Because if they just really, really like the flag, then cool, but you know, I can’t just paint the flag on a bus stop badly, or someone’s wall.
It seems to be a bit more than “I like flag” though.
Perhaps it’s a generic “England is pretty cool” patriotic thing. They like the country and want to let everyone know.
Great. I love England. Love living here. It’s a good place. But we also have some rules on painting flags on public property. Maybe we can work on some reforms that allow roundabouts to be painted and then agree on what would work well there. It might indeed be a flag.
These are innocuous things. England good. Flag nice.
Is that the extent of it?
Because it also seems like maybe they have something else to say.
>”Why can’t we be proud of the country we live in and the ideals we choose to live by?”
You can. Walk around with a flag across your shoulders. Hand a dozen up on your house.
One of our ideals is an adherence to laws. Part of the less criminal part of all that are basic rules. Like you can’t just paint what you want on roundabouts.
I get the feeling what this is actually about is attempting to put flags in places they will get removed so that they can then have some manufactured outrage about flags being removed.
[These days you get arrested and thrown in Jail if you say you’re English.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkCBhKs4faI)
I can’t believe so many councils have such low political and media awareness when putting quotes out like “renewed trauma” from seeing the flags.
I agree there’s underlying racist intentions to this movement, but fucking hell, you’re in politics and still continue to let Reform and the media eat you alive with stupid quotes like that.
I do wish I saw more of the regional flags in the UK. Buckinghamshire in particular has a real banger.
It pisses me off that these right wingers have caused me to now think twice before associating with a George Cross, lest I be mistaken for one of them. They need to stop this nonsense or they will make the flag toxic.
They can shove the flags up their arses, the boring obsessive freaks. Have these fuckers got fuck all else to do?
In ww2 the nazis ruled that all Danish Jews should wear a yellow star. In one of the greatest reframes ever the king announced that therefore all Danes should wear it.
There’s a lesson in that somewhere.
I remember going to the US in the inter-Trump years and I would see American flags up *everywhere*. Not just people’s houses. Supermarkets. Restaurants. Shops. Office buildings. Encountered an enormous flag bigger than my living room flying over a second-hand car dealership. It was honestly rather obnoxious. So, even if this weren’t about immigration (which it is, but let’s pretend) could we please not get as insufferable about so-called “patriotism” as the Americans, please.
You shouldn’t be able to put anything up on something you don’t own, no one is saying you can’t fly your flag on your own property. It’s just not ok do do it on lamp posts, or to paint the highway.
What I see as being the issue that started it was some authorities being bit selective, by allowing Palestinian flags to stay up and removing St Georges or Union flags. I can see an argument for avoiding confrontation, but really it’s a bad argument, and it should have always been a zero tolerance approach to all flags on public infrastructure.
Of course, that’s allowed people to turn the narrative into not being able to fly British flags at all. It’s such an own goal, but hopefully a lesson to just make a rule and apply it to everything. Now we have to deal with really shit looking spay on flags, which to me doesn’t feel patriotic at all. The St George’s cross should look nice, not like some drunk guy with kidney stones has tried pissing on a roundabout.
If it’s not racism and it’s about pride for your country then here’s an idea for really showing pride in your country.
1. Don’t litter and in fact volunteer to pick-up litter to keep the landscape clean and beautiful
2. Participate in homeless counts. Knowing how many homeless people in your area will help funding. Some areas rather avoid the higher number of homeless people than get them help
3. Help your neighbours if they’re struggling in someway where you can help and they’re happy to take your help. The good vibes spread and makes happier neighbourhood
4. Respect public property. Damaging public toilets or vandalising road markings just wastes tax money. If you genuinely cared about your country and citizens then don’t spaff away tax money.