Brown: Fly The Flag On Every Building

PM: Fly flag on every building​

04/07/2007

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GORDON Brown last night staged a show of defiance against terrorist killers by ordering ALL government buildings to hoist the British flag.

And he wants every public building from schools to hospitals to follow suit.

The PM is convinced the patriotic gesture will help create a new sense of Britishness — and send out a never-say-die signal to extremists.




But Mr Brown REFUSED to rip up the Human Rights Act despite Britain’s security crisis.

He told MPs it must stay — in a snub to Sun readers who voted overwhelmingly to scrap the Act in our hotline poll.

The PM unveiled his flags plan during his first ever Commons statement as Premier.

He wants Britain to be like the United States, where even private citizens fly the Stars and Stripes in their gardens.

In a document titled The Governance of Britain, he told MPs: “The Union Flag is one of the most recognisable symbols of the UK. In other countries it is regarded as a source of pride.

“The symbols of the UK are among the most recognisable in the world. The government will consult to bring in new measures to change the restrictions on flying the Union Flag.”

Government buildings are able to fly the flag on only 18 days a year.

Mr Brown wants it to flutter in Whitehall and around the country every day.

Schools and other state-owned buildings already have the right to display the flag.





But the PM wants ALL to create a sense of national pride by hoisting it all year round.

This is how we would like to see the flag flying across Britain.

A massive 23,919 Sun readers rang our hotline yesterday to demand new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith tear up the hated Human Rights Act.

That amounted to 98 per cent of those who voted. Just 358 people voted against.

We had called for changes after revealing how the Act hampers our security forces’ ability to protect the nation.






It also prevents police and immigration chiefs from expelling dangerous criminals and would-be terrorists like those who tried to blow up London’s West End and Glasgow Airport.

Security chiefs say it is a scandal that hundreds of illegal immigrants on wanted lists cannot be deported, as courts say it will infringe their human rights.

But the PM said axing the Act would rob British citizens of their “fundamental rights”.

Judges who apply the Act in court would use the European Convention on Human Rights in its place, he told MPs.

Instead, he wants a new Bill of Rights which he says will stop judges using the HRA to turn justice on its head.

Tory leader David Cameron has promised a similar Bill of Rights — but says he would scrap the HRA altogether.

He fumed: “Surely at this most serious of times, why can’t we have greater clarity on the Human Rights Act?”


KEEP the flag flying at home or work with our mast-have giveaway!

We are giving a 36in x 24in (2ft x 3ft) Union Flag FREE to each Sun reader. Send a sturdy A4 SAE, with a 70p stamp affixed, to this address: Sun Union Flag Offer PO Box 5553, Brightlingsea, Essex CO7 OFB.


http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007300702,00.html


Fly The Flag In Every Garden: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...14/nbrown14.xml

 

Why the fuck would he want us to fly the stars 'n' stripes in our gardens?

 

Read it properly will you...
He doesn't. He wants us to fly the Union Jack.

 

See, before we start flying the flag or anything, we have to get the British sense of humour back. :tongue:

(edit) And it's actually "Union Flag". Someone corrected me on it ages ago. I don't have a clue why, but for some reason Union Jack is the wrong name. Weird eh?

 

lol ah ok, gotcha. Are you for it or against it?

 

Flag flying? It depends, I guess. I think before someone is proud to be British, they have to decide for themselves what that means.

What d'you think of the national anthem?

 

National amthem....It's Ok..

But really, I don't wanna fly the union jack outside my window. Personally, I feel more Scottish than British. If he wants to fly our flag everywhere, he'll need to install a seance of Britishness in us first.

 

hah i gotcha p_13 we need more of you comedy back dear fellow

 

I think I understand his logic, he's trying to encourage disparate groups to feel part of a single nation, without a focus symbol that can be difficult to achieve. Sure it wil encourage some jingoism but I do believe the good will outweigh any bad.

 

Human rights?


We don't need no stinkin human rights. the human rights act is hated, screw my rights.

All children should be made to sing god save the queen before every school day.

Fly the flag, be proud of our hatred of human rights.

 

maybe gordon brown ain't so bad after-all, i like the sounds of this- bout time we got some sense of being british again :H

 

In most cases the flag can actually be called the 'Union Jack'. The name comes from the maritime bow flag of naval ships. The jack pole at the bow of the ship often flew a smaller version of the Union flag, thus being commonly known as the Union Jack.

It's only in official documentation use, such as Acts and such, that the flag is known as the Union Flag.

Apparently, it may also have something to do with King James VI who issued the design of the flag. Jack/Jac/Jacobus being Latin for James... Ummm...Yeah. I know some shit...

 

Firstly I've made my opinions on the tabloid press clear before so I won't go over it all again but none of it is credible really.

Idiotic. Raising a silly little piece of material is not staging a show of defiance against terrorist killers, it's raising a silly little piece of material. Besides these 'terrorists' haven't killed anyone so who or what is it defying?? Surely if that's the first sentence then anything written after that is also nonsense.

History has taught us that waving flags only causes problems and conflict. As soon as people feel superior because of where their parents had sex or the colours of their flag then they just start brainless battles with others who's parents may have had sex somewhere else or have a different coloured flag/skin. Now that's something to be proud of.

They want to create a sense of national pride? What has this nation done for me to be proud of? Nothing. It smacks of uniting the country into an 'us and them' mentality.

Read this article http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/06/374609.html on how the media, even the so-called liberal press are inaccurately reporting Iran and thus are brewing up unwarranted hate. Flag waving does exactly the same thing. It's all excuses to start wars. Brown comes and says he'll surrender the right to declare war and then will make it appear we're threatened so people will vote in favour of it. Underhand tactics.

98% of Sun readers think we should scrap the HRA. Anyone want to warrant a guess as to what percentage of Sun readers actually know what the HRA entails? Nowhere near 98% is my reckoning... They just say what they're told to say, not thinking for themselves; wave your flag and shut up, we're right ok, don't question it, we're British. The best nation on the planet.

I personally would feel intimidated by the Union Flag/Jack/whatever hanging on every public building. I can't understand why these people are making such a fuss about it. To me that flag stands for imperialism, the slave trade and all the other things that made us 'Great'.

People who enjoy waving flags don't deserve to have one.

That flag has done nothing for me to be proud of.

Amen! Bring back national service and we'll have the scruffy youth who hate freedom so much protecting the whole country from The Hun and the those suicide terror darkies that pose such a threat to my way of life.

 

ugh, no offense guys. i'm all for seeing the british flag on government buildings and schools and the likes, but don't go over the top like the Americans.

Please.

I beg you.

By the time I left the States I was literally getting sick of seeing the flag especially cos of what it had come to represent. You could go to the States now and nearly every car will have a stars n stripes bumper or window sticker. You'll see flags flying out front of every home, and some even on cars (though technically only diplomats were supposed to have the right to fly a flag on a car).

It's all a bit OTT. And it can make someone who doesn't agree with the policies going on in the country feel like "if you don't like it then get the hell out of the country".
When in reality everyone should be encouraged to not harm civilians but to stand up and fight for what you think is right in the government.

The people in the States tend to take it as an "if your not with us you're against us" mentality, and I'd hate to see that happen over here as I think the people over here still have a fighting chance to get their government to take notice of them.


And though I don't know much about the Human Rights Act, anytime you start taking away pieces of legislation that were put in place to give people more freedoms then something has gone horribly wrong.

 

IMO putting it on schools is going over the top. I can't imagine what my old school would look like with a bloody great flag looming intimidatingly over it. Especially if it were mandatory, that's fucked. I've never heard of schools flying the flag over here...

It wasn't even put in place to give people more freedoms, just fundamental basic rights!! Taking it away is idiotic. Then again when Howard was standing against Blair in 2005 he was proposing scrapping it because of those naughty selfish gypsy types who were using the HRA to ask for basic life rights. The fact that people would even consider scrapping it is sick IMO...

 

phoenix_indigo I agree we don't need to go as far as some if not the majority of Americans.
To be fair is it really just Bush lovin Republicans ?.
I don't think so - but i'm sure you know better.
Imho the majority of Americans have pride in their Flag many nations do.
This goes over the notions of political allegiances and is national pride for the country and the values of the country - not really the politics of the country per se.

I'd love to have a big fuck-off flag outside my house.
The problem is to some who don't know me and had not seen me - i'd be some kinda nut or a racist bastard [even though i'm not white].
On the other hand to some i'd be hated for not being white and having the nerve to fly a flag. I have been heckled by a few idiots when i've worn a union jack t-shirt. It was not even a large flag just a small one - not that mattered to those idiots.

 

that's the thing see, i'm used to flags being flown over most businesses. i don't think it's mandatory, just something most places do.
i'm trying to remember but you can basically find a flag flying high over:
government bulidings
post offices
schools
factories
businesses (large ones not talking about shops and things ... though say a Mall would have a flagpole outside near the sign for the Mall)
restaurants
universities/colleges

thing is though, tis not just usually the American flag. American flag is on top (as that is mandatory) but then frequently the State flag would be flown under it. So it's a sense of not just national pride, but also local pride.

Some places might also have International flags as well if they are businesses owned outside the States. But of course, the American flag would still be highest out of a sense of respect for the country.

It's actually one of the ways you know something tragic happened, as you drive around town and the flags will all be at half-mast.


Because of all the 'flag waving' that has gone on now though it feels oppressive. I always said I was going to get a flag sticker and put it upside down which is a symbol of being in great danger or peril. As I've been convinced for ages that the US is in great danger and peril at it's own hands.


I can honestly say I've never put it together that you lot don't fly the Union Jack a lot over here. I just get sick of seeing those poxy England footy flags. *ugh*

 

You liberals make me laugh lol


Fly the flag with pride!

 

Who is saying they won't ?

 

that's what i dont understand. why would you get heckled for wearing a Union Jack? I think people should take pride in their country/homeland. I agree with the sense of pride as long as it doesn't alienate others.
That is why I disagree back home with people flying the Confederate Flag. Because that flag was made and intended to alienate people. Now, if you flew one of those I'd think you were a racist bastard.
(Am also shocked slightly as I always assumed you were white ... just read that ... does that make me a racist?) :tongue:

The American/flag thing I can't answer you with 100% certainty. I think the majority of the people that cover their cars and houses with the flag are right-wing Bush supporters. However, after 9/11 things went a bit mental (as i'm sure you could imagine) and EVERYONE started putting flags on their cars/houses, etc. I know it was meant as a unifying gesture. Doesn't matter what colour you are you are still an American, etc. Just, it also never ended. When the last election took place things were getting even more out of hand with the whole flag thing. Then it became more of a Bush-supporter issue.
Previously, any pro-candidate stickers would have rarely contained a flag but now every candidates stickers had flags, etc.
Just all to prove how "American" they were. Which is really a bit silly as they are obviously American or they wouldn't be able to run for office of President in the first place.

So, initially it was a solidarity move after the terrorist attack and then it became not only a way for loads of people to make money off the back of others, but a sort of pro-war and pro-Bush statement as well.

Just makes you get sick of seeing red, white and blue. :tongue: