I don’t know whether this is true everywhere but England are having a fairly successful World Cup but there’s very few flags in evidence. Have the flag shaggers ruined it for all of us?
England flags
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I noticed this early on. There are a few more now, but still far fewer than in previous tournaments. My guess is that you’re right and the flag shagging crowd have made the semiotics too toxic.
Not one near me.
We moved last year and as we drove in there were flags halfway up the lampposts and even the white horse on the hill had a red fabric cross on it.
They were removed soon after.
I’m not sure how it was before here, there’s one flag on a house nearby, some pubs have them on but there are only a few cars with flags on ( though having them on doesn’t help fuel consumption ).
Quick answer is yes, the racists have, as ever, ruined it for everyone. As an aside, I’ve been doing quite a lot of driving around the place in the past few weeks, and noticed that all the flags which were so plentiful a year ago have either disintegrated into dishrags on the lampposts, or disappeared completely…
Nothing shows patriotism more than a cheaply printed flag, made in China, zip tied (without even trimming the ends) halfway up a lamppost on a road opposite a pub. If you are an idiot that is.
There are less flags because people do not want to be associated with what the flag has become of late.
Areas around Birmingham have seen lots of conflict over flags (google Stirchley flags) and I think that certainly there are less cars with the window flags than at previous world cups. Not sure in areas associated with heavy flag activity – eg brownhills – whether there are less flags on houses than before.
Have seen a lot of Canadian flags around, but maybe not just for the World Cup, but also Canada Day last week and also re-asserting patriotism generally in the wake of Trump’s threats
But it also has had right wing connotations recently being adopted by the idiots who blocked the centre of Ottawa with huge trucks for several weeks a few years ago
I live in Lichfield with its Reform Council. It is one place where racism is not an issue or wasn’t an issue until the mob decided to erect flags all over the city. They have created division. My wife complained to the council and after being fobbed off to 4 different departments we finally got an answer that said ‘we should be proud of the flags’. Possibly proud if erected for the right reasons but we all know that they were not erected for the ‘right reason’. I remember two times in my life when flags were prevalent as a genuine feeling of pride. When England won the World Cup in 1966 and the Queens jubilee where we had joyous street parties. If we were genuinely proud of the country we wouldn’t see the litter that has become an emblem of our decay nor would we see a big increase in casual violence that seems to be prevalent everywhere. I genuinely think the country is in a big decline. Too sad.
One of the curiosities of you look at pictures of England fans at the 1966 World Cup is that there isn’t a St George’s cross in sight – it’s all Union Jacks. That certainly wasn’t the case in Wales Northern Ireland or Scotland. Basically it presented an assumption that Great Britain was England.
An assumption that is still held to by some Sais. Unsurprisingly I haven’t seen a single Cross of St. George flaunted in my little corner of The Sunny Tropical Republic of Wales.
But we have a Welsh chap who has a Y Ddraig Goch flying in his garden a few minutes walk from us. I am rather jealous that he can fly his national flag without the worry that everyone thinks he is a racist bastard.
This was a reaction to the Raise the Colours wankers at Pontllanffraith. There are moments when I truly love my fellows. Sadly of course we have our share of racists halfwits, everywhere does but there are more people of good heart than otherwise and it’s important to remember that.
An atheist amen to that.
Yes, I think that the first time the Cross of St. George was used widely in a football context was in 1990, during England’s run to the semi-finals of the World Cup in Italy.
Who needs flags when you could wave this nudibranch?.
There are lots of England flags in a street not far from me, whereas most of the others have vanished. Curiously it’s the main drag in the only ward that has a Reform councillor. Coincidence of course.
Oxfordshire, of all places, took on the flagshaggers and won
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jun/23/nationalist-group-stop-hoisting-st-george-flags-oxfordshire-court-injunction
Not only that, but one of the leaders of the Oxfordshire “Raise the Colours” charmers has other concerns of his own:
https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/26240871.raise-colours-figure-accused-making-indecent-child-images/
It’s only a matter of time before he denounces the charges as ‘politically motivated’.
I saw my first one last night on a car, but in mitigation he was heading for Luton.