I like

[Gandalf]

You can respect the things that you like such as cuisine, but it is also healthy to have an innate resistance to the elements that upset you.

I regard myself as an estranged Englishman. I love my country, but I also despise it. It is hard to reconcile those polarities.

I am looking forward to my trip home, but I know in a matter of weeks once my food rush is done, the cost of the rail service service, a sight of the monthly bills, and the daily news will start to bug me and I will be ready to leave again.

Not everyone is hurrying to live in the UK, least of all an awful abundance of English people.

[Beanz]

I look at it in a similar way to self respect. If you don't respect yourself the chances are you will not have much respect for others either. The politically correct brigade, who in an over eager attempt to appease their own ingrained prejudices, tried to align national pride, the Union Jack and particularly the English St George's Cross as an indication of a hostile attitude to immigrants and non white citizens, are actually the ones with a racist agenda.

By accident of birth,fate or pure chance we are born in a specific place on Earth. Why not embrace that reality and celebrate the history and cultural heritage that growing up in that specific country has given you. To be blindly patriotic without acknowledging the negative aspects of a country and to be so hyper sensitive so as to not be able to tolerate criticism, is stupid and dangerous, but to just pretend it does not matter is equally dumb.

When I go away I miss the green hills and moorland , the 7760 miles of coastline, the woodlands and heath, the bogs, the lakes , the trees, the rain, the Cities, towns , villages and hamlets, the crofts and farms. They were here a long time before the government or church and will be here for a long time after.

[Gandalf]

I look at it in a similar way to self respect. If you don't respect yourself the chances are you will not have much respect for others either. The politically correct brigade, who in an over eager attempt to appease their own ingrained prejudices, tried to align national pride, the Union Jack and particularly the English St George's Cross as an indication of a hostile attitude to immigrants and non white citizens, are actually the ones with a racist agenda.

By accident of birth,fate or pure chance we are born in a specific place on Earth. Why not embrace that reality and celebrate the history and cultural heritage that growing up in that specific country has given you. To be blindly patriotic without acknowledging the negative aspects of a country and to be so hyper sensitive so as to not be able to tolerate criticism, is stupid and dangerous, but to just pretend it does not matter is equally dumb.

When I go away I miss the green hills and moorland , the 7760 miles of coastline, the woodlands and heath, the bogs, the lakes , the trees, the rain, the Cities, towns , villages and hamlets, the crofts and farms. They were here a long time before the government or church and will be here for a long time after.

Part of me loves the fact that I am English and speak in a particular way and have reference points that excite me and characteristics that seemingly motivate others to like England too. I like that I am English, it is an intrinsic part of who I am. There are elements of being English that define me.

I don't adhere to a flag, nor care about anthems, but I do have an affinity for British culture. It is British literature and music that I see to return to more than all others. What turns me away is monarchy, politics, celebrity stalking and a police state mentality. And it really is a police state mentality and a media worship of our dear leader.

I can't be doing with any of that and seemingly everyone outside of the Daily Mail agrees.

[El Kabong]

I believe the great Merle Haggard said it best "If you're runnin' down our country, man you're walkin' on the fightin' side of me"

[Beanz]

I believe the great Merle Haggard said it best "If you're runnin' down our country, man you're walkin' on the fightin' side of me"

"You made a great play"

What kind of sentence is that?

That is a great example of over egging the pudding. If you listen to the backing music anyone would think he had run into a burning building and saved someone's life. OK so I can understand how people think it's disrespectful to burn a flag and yeah it was kinda neat to just snatch it before they had a chance to do so, but i don't equate that with a great act of heroism. It seems in America if you don't fly a flag you are seen as unpatriotic and In the UK if you do fly a flag you are perceived as a racist. I do not believe either is true. I personally do not have a flag in my Garden but will hang one in the window sometimes when the English football team play to show my support. If i saw somebody burn an English flag I would just think "What a dick" because that flag does not define me and England will still be there however many flags he burns. We live in a democracy and people are free to do what they wish, but being so ashamed of your own country that you are embarrassed by a bit of flag waving is a bit weird and repressed.

[Dia bando]

I believe the great Merle Haggard said it best "If you're runnin' down our country, man you're walkin' on the fightin' side of me"

"You made a great play"

What kind of sentence is that?

That is a great example of over egging the pudding. If you listen to the backing music anyone would think he had run into a burning building and saved someone's life. OK so I can understand how people think it's disrespectful to burn a flag and yeah it was kinda neat to just snatch it before they had a chance to do so, but i don't equate that with a great act of heroism. It seems in America if you don't fly a flag you are seen as unpatriotic and In the UK if you do fly a flag you are perceived as a racist. I do not believe either is true. I personally do not have a flag in my Garden but will hang one in the window sometimes when the English football team play to show my support. If i saw somebody burn an English flag I would just think "What a dick" because that flag does not define me and England will still be there however many flags he burns. We live in a democracy and people are free to do what they wish, but being so ashamed of your own country that you are embarrassed by a bit of flag waving is a bit weird and repressed.

Beanz I think Miles has been at the cooking sherry again, and he is missing his sparring with Dildo Bagins I no Dildo sorry Bilbo set standards we must try to maintain.

[Gandalf]

I don't get the argument. Bilbo would be on your side. He likes all that.

I am the one that opposes all regarding these kinds of things.

[El Kabong]

I believe the great Merle Haggard said it best "If you're runnin' down our country, man you're walkin' on the fightin' side of me"

"You made a great play"

What kind of sentence is that?

That is a great example of over egging the pudding. If you listen to the backing music anyone would think he had run into a burning building and saved someone's life. OK so I can understand how people think it's disrespectful to burn a flag and yeah it was kinda neat to just snatch it before they had a chance to do so, but i don't equate that with a great act of heroism. It seems in America if you don't fly a flag you are seen as unpatriotic and In the UK if you do fly a flag you are perceived as a racist. I do not believe either is true. I personally do not have a flag in my Garden but will hang one in the window sometimes when the English football team play to show my support. If i saw somebody burn an English flag I would just think "What a dick" because that flag does not define me and England will still be there however many flags he burns. We live in a democracy and people are free to do what they wish, but being so ashamed of your own country that you are embarrassed by a bit of flag waving is a bit weird and repressed.

Rick Monday served in the Marine Corps Reserves, just so you know. The reason such a big deal was made out of it was because Rick didn't make a huge deal out of it, he was just doing what he thought was right and didn't expect any accolades for what he did. His explination of his actions "If you're going to burn the flag, don't do it around me. I've been to too many veterans' hospitals and seen too many broken bodies of guys who tried to protect it." although that's not as heroic or patriotic as what soldiers did on D-Day or Okinawa or at Inchon or San Juan Hill or any military battles that clip shows you what the average guy thinks of his country.


As for your bolded part that is not the case at all. Some people choose to display the flag, and others do not. Some people think they are displaying the flag correctly but aren't and people take notice of that and aren't too pleased by it. I do not display the flag at my place, but it does not make me any less patriotic or proud of my country. Neither my parents, grandparents, or brother & his family display flags at their houses...it's not something everyone does, in fact I am not certain if I could name you a person I know personally that displays a flag.


It's a shame where England has gone, you can't even display a flag without being called a racist? That's bullshit, I would be outraged.

[TitoFan]

I believe the great Merle Haggard said it best "If you're runnin' down our country, man you're walkin' on the fightin' side of me"

"You made a great play"

What kind of sentence is that?

That is a great example of over egging the pudding. If you listen to the backing music anyone would think he had run into a burning building and saved someone's life. OK so I can understand how people think it's disrespectful to burn a flag and yeah it was kinda neat to just snatch it before they had a chance to do so, but i don't equate that with a great act of heroism. It seems in America if you don't fly a flag you are seen as unpatriotic and In the UK if you do fly a flag you are perceived as a racist. I do not believe either is true. I personally do not have a flag in my Garden but will hang one in the window sometimes when the English football team play to show my support. If i saw somebody burn an English flag I would just think "What a dick" because that flag does not define me and England will still be there however many flags he burns. We live in a democracy and people are free to do what they wish, but being so ashamed of your own country that you are embarrassed by a bit of flag waving is a bit weird and repressed.

Rick Monday served in the Marine Corps Reserves, just so you know. The reason such a big deal was made out of it was because Rick didn't make a huge deal out of it, he was just doing what he thought was right and didn't expect any accolades for what he did. His explination of his actions "If you're going to burn the flag, don't do it around me. I've been to too many veterans' hospitals and seen too many broken bodies of guys who tried to protect it." although that's not as heroic or patriotic as what soldiers did on D-Day or Okinawa or at Inchon or San Juan Hill or any military battles that clip shows you what the average guy thinks of his country.


As for your bolded part that is not the case at all. Some people choose to display the flag, and others do not. Some people think they are displaying the flag correctly but aren't and people take notice of that and aren't too pleased by it. I do not display the flag at my place, but it does not make me any less patriotic or proud of my country. Neither my parents, grandparents, or brother & his family display flags at their houses...it's not something everyone does, in fact I am not certain if I could name you a person I know personally that displays a flag.


It's a shame where England has gone, you can't even display a flag without being called a racist? That's bullshit, I would be outraged.

This is all the reasoning I need to justify my opinion that flag-burning is wrong.

[Gandalf]

You can respect the things that you like such as cuisine, but it is also healthy to have an innate resistance to the elements that upset you.

I regard myself as an estranged Englishman. I love my country, but I also despise it. It is hard to reconcile those polarities.

I am looking forward to my trip home, but I know in a matter of weeks once my food rush is done, the cost of the rail service service, a sight of the monthly bills, and the daily news will start to bug me and I will be ready to leave again.

Not everyone is hurrying to live in the UK, least of all an awful abundance of English people.

Spot on. There is good and bad in everything. Unfortunately the bad has started to accumulate and that fed into Brexit, the rise of UKIP, massive wealth inequality, different rules for different people etc. I think it is a very patriotic thing to point out the flaws because in your heart you do only want the right thing. I think some of my earlier posting on topics like this fed into the growing zeitgeist. What I felt was by no means an anomaly. It is what many people also thought too. I look at Tommy Robinson and no way is 99% of the public against him. Maybe the extremists and some of the radical neo Marxist left, but ordinary people are really not. This feeling really took me by surprise on my trip home. I didn't quite realize how angry people are. I saw that it was actually me that had calmed down on a lot of things and I saw that I had actually turned a bit soft.