Besides news of some councils banning the flying of England flags as being not politically correct , the police have also issued a warning about them obscuring views from cars and therefore possibly incurring a Huge fine :rolleyes:
flags

Well *I* am proud to be English and will fly my flags on the car until we are actually stopped by the police and told it is illegal!

English flags ARE politically correct ...it is the small minded morons who have nothing better to do with their time who will insist that they are not. Almost ALL other countries in the UK are allowed to display their flags without all this nonsense and it is high time we claimed the same right!

YAY ENGLAND!!!!!

Edited to add...our flags fly from the sticks attached to the back windowd ..if any pedestrian or cyclist get hurt by the flags then they must be closer to the car than the side mirrors ;) :D

I'm totally with you here Mel :)

link

There is nothing left to say apart from this world has gone mad!!  :rolleyes:

If I sit and think of the double standards around today with all of this political correctness rubbish I think I'll just go mad!!!!

Its too much!!

Couldn`t agree more Mel! And if I was there I`d have one on my car let them take me to court & make fools of themselves :D How can it be illegal to fly an English flag in England on your own car?? Crazy!!!!

Christine, Spain.

Apparantly, in Boston Lincs (Where Stephen works) the Police are removing flags from cars saying that they are offensive to immigrants :rolleyes: I thought the whole point of being an immigrant (including when the English move to other countries) was that you became a member of that country and NOT that the country revolved around you?

Am I way off base here?

Oh and if the Police take OUR flags off, I will take legal advice ;)

If the immigrants want to come to our country then as far as im concerned they can respect our flag, they are keen enough to become British citizens and reap all the benefits.  I think as a nation we put ourselves out enough for immigrants .... but dont get me started on that one

For part of the world cup I was in Crete with a group of friends and we hung huge england flags off our balconys and had england Lilos, the greeks didnt complain about that in fact they cheered England along with us ;)

Actually the police are not AGAINST all the flags, an official spokesperson on the BBC news said that small flags are fine if properly secured.  They are worried about the larger flags either potentially obscuring a driver's vision or coming off and causing an accident.

Obviously individual police forces may choose to act in ways that are quite ridiculous but then as I always say, one cannot legislate for a**holes :D

ps to be really pedantic it is the English St George that those who do this are flying, not the Union flag which is the British one :D

Now i'v read this im off to buy some car flags and hang m big england flag outside the house.

Who mentioned the Union Jack? I thought the whole thread was about the English flag - which is the cross of St George.

The Union flag  is a combination of the flags of England, Ireland and Scotland. Originally the Scottish and English flags came together in 1606 then altered in 1800 to add NI.

Union Flag and Union Jack are one and the same in case anyone was wondering. :)

sorry all hog wash to me ...i am flying my flags with pride I am English and will support my team in euro 2004 come on lads make us proud of you !!!!

My wife is foreign (well, British now). When she was granted citizenship she had to swear allegiance to Queen and country in front of a solicitor. Everyone taking on citizenship has had to do this for many, many years. She is very proud to be British and would never dream of breaking this agreement. I think that this should be taken seriously and those who break this promise should have citizenship revoked.

There's no reason why a person can't be British without severing their roots- after all most of us are British and also English, Scottish, Welsh etc.

In conclusion - none of us should have to be ashamed of our flag - whichever one you prefer to fly.

Hi gang,

I believe we've been here before with regards to St Georges Day.  I am South African and my wife is English she comes from a long line of very proud english men & women and if anyone told her to remove her flag from the car I think that get a clip up the earhole.  I've said this before and I'll say it again "I have never, ever known a country to be either scared or to ashamed to fly its countries flag because of the belief of others",  it's bizarre to me.  If I was English I'd fly it all year round.  Another question considering your Rugby Union team are World Champions why did I see no flags flown with pride then??

FLY YOUR FLAGS WITH PRIDE!!!!!

Henny :-)

we did here and and we had street party's when England won the Rugby , i live in a town that is very sport minded

No one mentioned the Union Jack (which the union flag should only be called in certain circumstances).

"If the immigrants want to come to our country then as far as im concerned they can respect our flag, they are keen enough to become British citizens "

As far as I know British does not necessarily equal English. 

hence my post ;)

But they become "British" citizens, not "English" citizens so they should respect all of the flags which make up the union jack :)

(why only call it Jack in certain circumstances?)

the Union Flag should be flown only by ships of the Royal Navy as a jack, (a small flag at the bowsprit)

Personally I find it rather pointless to fly my country's flag in my country? 

But hey, that is just me.

I have enjoyed seeing all the flags - I love Euro 2004 and the World Cup - I love patriotism and I love this country. Whats wrong with showing support? You would wear the colours of your team at a football match wouldn't you? :)

Exactly!  If I liked football and I was AT a match then of course it would make sense to wear my teams colours/scarves wave a flag etc.

I did not say there was anything WRONG in showing support just that I thought it was a waste of time here; if I was in Portugal or wherever the matches are then I would of course fly my flag(s) :D

I am just as patriotic as the next person and love this country; whether or not I choose to hoist a flag is irrelevant. :)

But what if that football match takes place in your home town between local teams... would you not wear a scarf then when there supporting your team? Whats the difference? Just because you are in the place the team comes from, doesn't mean you can't show your support. :) go on, be a devil, buy yourself a flag... :D

Cos I would be in the ground waving my scarf during the match (hypothetically of course as I am not interested in anything footie) :D not just walking around town. :D

I think I will just have to resist the temptation..................... :D :D

We went to watch the rugby, England vs The Barbies last Bank holiday weekend and I had a great big English Flag and was proudly wafting it about at any oppurtunity ! :D I am sure I was  peeing a few people off by obscuring their view but hey you have got to celebrate when something good happens ! ! ;)

<<why only call it Jack in certain circumstances?) >>

Because it is only a jack when it is a small flag (smaller than the ensign) flown from the jack-staff at the bow of a ship!

But it *did* become popular useage which is why it can now be called either the Union Flag OR The Union Jack ;)

Naturally one call anything by any name one likes, a rose by any other name etc.......................... ;)

However it is a useful bit of trivia oft used in quizzes etc.

Tell me something tohme, because I am interested ...do you actually talk like that? I mean do you talk about yourself as *one* and use words like *oft* in regular speech or is it just when you are writing? Very few people in me experience actually say *one* nowadays...apart from the aristocracy of course :)

I am not being rude, just curious :)

Ooops just found this Melodysk.

I can tell you I am not from the aristocracy (unless of course I am someone's secret love child............. :D :D)  I grew up in the East End!

I do often use "one" on message boards as I have found that using personal pronouns can be misconstrued by some as a personal attack when one is generalising.  I don't use "one" in the vernacular however :)

I love the English language but find that most people adhere to the Pareto Principle of using only 20% of the available words 80% of the time and so can miss the subtle nuances that precisely the correct word can imply.  This probably comes from voracious reading in my "yoof" as we did not have a TV! :)

I do, use the poetic "oft" though quite a lot :)

But pedants will frown upon the wrong usage! ;) Also, if you are flying your national flag it must not be left flying overnight, but must be lowered at sunset. Not to do so is disrespectful to one's country ...

...................complete with Taps! :D

I havent done taps since the Guides ..and I am not starting now ;) Union Jack is what *I* was taught at school (all those years ago) and Union Jack is what I still call it ;)

I suppose it is like the difference between those who use serviette v napkin, or lounge v sitting or drawing room, lavatory v loo  etc etc.

No doubt the nomenclature matters little to some and a lot to others. Depends as you say on one's upbringing I guess.

Long live individualism! ;)

I doubt that very much ;) My Grandfather, a Major in the Army called the flag the Union Jack :D

The class system is very hard to boot out in some folks , isn't it ;)

Not necessarily :D  I see a lot of people without any class at all :D :D :D

Yet you still notice if they say napkin or serviette etc?

;)

Of course it's noticed - but it would be very bad manners to comment! ;)

:D :D :D

Exactly!

*snigger*

How dare the bureaucrats try and tell me I cannot fly my country's flag. I am English and proud of it. That is not to say I am racist because I am not. If I see someone else flying the flag of their country I don't want to blow their house up or wage a physical attck on them, nor do I feel threatened or intimidated by it. However I feel that this is P.C. gone mad :( Did the D-Day vet's go through everything they endured with this in mind? I don't think so, they were fighting to preserve the freedom of our country, to save us from crazed bigots .... What went wrong? We still have them!

just because we are not there i think it's just as important to support them from home , i would love to be there but commitments keep me here ...lets just hope the small few mindless idiots don't let us down AGAIN

Can they see our flags then? :D :D

have you seen the papers today :)

I would imagine it depends which *paper* ;) There is nothing in the DT about flags :D :D

no i said newspapers ?? :) but we won't get into that one LOL

Makes me laugh though (and somebody has mentioned it in one of the papers today too) - how many of these 'patriots' are happily flying their flag on a foreign car ?. I'd be too embarressed to fly a flag on my car (a Mini - German, even though it's only made down the road from me in Oxford).
It's a pity we aren't more patriotic when it comes to keeping our industries afloat - cars and otherwise.

Val

If they made decent cars we would buy one :D :D

Melody - Volvo 850 T5 Automatic estate :D :D

I agree - Saab & Mini !!.
Sad though, that this countries car industry went down the pan all those years ago (thanks to the lads at the top creaming the profits and investing nothing).

Val

ps. as you can tell, something close to my heart !.

Oi - both mine are British and one's half decent too (MG). The other's a Vauxhall which is pretty good for what we expect of it.

I am ducking now but I find the flags distracting, I think a car sticker would have been a better idea I love football but would not have the flags on my car.I saw a man driving a pickup truck with a massive one on his truck ! also shall we take bets on how long before one of these big flags cause an accident.

Also just a question how does one  ( snooty voice) go on in the car wash :) :) :) do the flags get soggy?  ;)

Whats a car wash then mattie?

LMAO

;)

<<<Also just a question how does one  ( snooty voice) go on in the car wash >>

you mean you WASH your car ? :D :D