Flagged as Inappropriate
When Oasis signed to Creation Records in 1993, Liam Gallagher was asked why the sleeve of the band’s demo tape had featured a striking image of the Union Jack looking as though it was being sucked down a plughole. The junior Gallagher sibling replied with characteristic bluntness. ‘It’s the greatest flag in the world,’ he growled, ‘and it’s going down the shitter. We’re here to do something about it.’ The previous year, Morrissey had provoked the last lingering vestiges of the British music press’ right-on rhetoric when he’d wrapped himself in the same flag during a gig at London’s Finsbury Park – yet within two or three years, the Union Jack was as pervasive a symbol of ‘cool’ as it had been in the mid-60s, climaxing with the unveiling of Geri Halliwell’s memorable mini-dress at the 1997 Brit Awards.
For years, the Union Jack had been claimed as the national flag of Britain’s least appealing cottage industry, the far-right; after being associated with the ugly and the unedifying – football hooligans, racist agitators, blinkered skinheads – Morrissey’s theatrical and provocative posturing with it in 1992, when allied to some of his most contentious lyrics, had been condemned by even those still prone to forgiving his increasingly lacklustre material because they remained in love with The Smiths. That the Britpop scene then took it on board initially appeared equally provocative to some, yet by the time Noel Gallagher’s trademark guitar bearing the image had become representative of a new era, the connotations that had plagued the Union Jack for decades had gone and it was now merely another fashion accessory.
As a child, I had an old clock from the 60s beside my bed, one whose face bore the Union Jack – a rather kitsch product of Swinging London that I nevertheless warmed to; it was an early introduction to the national flag and I was made aware this was mine. Whenever a major sporting tournament such as the Olympics or the World Cup came around, I noticed each country had its own equivalent, whether the Stars & Stripes, the Tricolour or the Hammer & Sickle. When I was nine, Marvel Comics introduced their first British superhero, Captain Britain, whose costume incorporated the Union Jack. Despite the fact that the American artists who drew the comic portrayed London as a bizarre architectural hybrid of Oxford’s dreaming spires and whatever they’d seen in old Sherlock Holmes movies, one story actually featured then-Prime Minister Jim Callaghan. After years of following the exploits of US superheroes, to have one of our own laying claim to my pocket-money was a novel sensation and reinforced the curious pride in my flag I’d had subtly drilled into me.
Around the same time, a similar expression of pride was being displayed across the pond by a rock band, and their pride was represented by a flag whose history was even more controversial than the Union Jack. When sons of the Deep South Lynyrd Skynyrd appeared on ‘The Old Grey Whistle Test’ performing ‘Sweet Home Alabama’, their barbed response to Neil Young’s ‘Southern Man’, the Confederate Flag was unfurled behind them as they hit the chorus of a song that celebrated their corner of the USA. To the cosmopolitan rock aristocracy of LA and New York, Lynyrd Skynyrd were little more than hicks, emanating from a part of the country they only knew via ‘Gone with the Wind’ and the Civil Rights battles of the 60s – oddly neglecting the fact that Skynyrd were from the same geographical region that had given birth to rock ‘n’ roll in the first place. If the band had been British, the LA and New York response would have been mirrored by London if a successful act suddenly emerged from the wilds of Cornwall. Yes, there was snobbery involved, but also an unease that this band didn’t apologise for being Southerners and instead revelled in the fact.
The Confederate Flag has a complicated history, but originally arose from the bloodshed of the American Civil War and is linked to everything associated with that conflict; regarded by some as more of a national flag in the South than the Stars & Stripes, it went through several designs during the war, but the version we all today think of as the Confederate Flag was a variation on the second design of 1863-65 and had been used as the Army of Northern Virginia’s battle flag. Also known as the Dixie Flag, it has come to symbolise the obstinate independence of the South from the rest of America and when Lynyrd Skynyrd decided to perform with it as a backdrop, it was still viewed by most of the US as a negative icon of certain cultural traits they’d rather remain in the past. The Confederate Flag would probably have been largely condemned to the museums of America had not the South continued to cling to it long after the Civil War ended in the same way that Yorkshiremen here insist their county is somehow a separate entity to the Britain beyond its borders. In the wake of DW Griffith’s 1915 silent epic, ‘The Birth of a Nation’, the revived Ku Klux Klan adopted the Confederate Flag as their own, further enhancing its unenviable reputation.
In recent years, the high visibility of the Confederate Flag throughout the Southern states – something that even extended to its prominent display on the car star of cheesy late 70s/early 80s US TV series, ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ – has received vociferous opposition from the African-American community, something that has arisen anew in the wake of the horrific slaughter at Charleston this week. South Carolina still flies the flag above its statehouse, but there is increasing pressure to remove it that seems reminiscent of the controversy over the Union Jack flying above Belfast City Hall a couple of years ago.
At the moment, only Mississippi retains the so-called ‘Rebel Flag’ as part of its official state flag, squashed into a corner in the same way that Australia’s and New Zealand’s include the Union Jack. The Confederate Flag featured in a corner of Georgia’s state flag until 2001, having being adopted as a protest against attempts by Washington to end segregation in the Deep South in the 1950s. After the massacre at the church carried out by alleged White Supremacist Dylan Roof, pressure to eradicate the Confederate Flag has intensified, with Democrat contender for the Presidency, Hillary Clinton, adding her voice to those demanding what some see as akin to America’s very own Swastika to be dropped from any official state building.
However, some Southern states such as Kentucky, Louisiana and Tennessee continue to mark the birthday of Jefferson Davis, who was America’s ‘Alternative President’ during the Civil War, recognised as President of the Confederate States for three years. That the Confederate Flag remains potent symbolic shorthand for one of the few strains of pride America actually discourages, and continues to invoke a deep-rooted offence in its black population, is testament to the eternally emotional and divisive power of flags. At the moment, the Union Jack is in a kind of cultural limbo, temporarily threatened by the prospect of Scottish independence, and not really belonging to any specific group within British society, either far-right or fashionista. Regardless of whoever chooses to claim it next, I still think it’s one of the best graphic designs out there; and perhaps it’s time to appreciate flags in purely aesthetic terms rather than seeing them as the property of groups who co-opt them for their own dubious ends.
Petunia Winegum
-
June 25, 2015 at 10:04 am -
My dad once told me an hilarious story about his National Service in 1949 or so. He was posted to Germany and one day the troops all received orders to “saddle up” and rendezvous in this particular place. As the various Units assembled their vehicles were all equipped with large Union Jacks, and orders were to basically drive up to a certain place, for all the men to sit in their vehicles with their rifles visible, and then drive at high speed along a certain route, so that the flags were taut in the wind. It made quite a show. Dad said that as they were all following these orders, it dawned on him that this route was taking them along a line of glowering Red Army troops, who were staring at them, stone-faced from under their red star badged fur hats, all clutching the classic Russian machine-gun. He said they were literally close enough for him to see “the whites of their eyes” as the trucks and ‘jeeps’ sped past. The officers in charge of this whole show were evidently doing the classic “Flying the Flag” routine. The funny part though was that one part of the orders was dad said that all the guns they carried were unloaded, and all ammunition had been ordered to be left back at the Barracks, since the officers didn’t want some damn fool starting World War Three. Dad was a Corporal he said, so had responsibility for ensuring his group had strictly obeyed the order. He had no idea if the Russians were playing the same game or were just more reliable in terms of following orders….
-
June 25, 2015 at 10:18 am -
“The same way that Yorkshiremen here insist their county is somehow a separate entity to the Britain beyond its borders.”
You say this as if there were some doubt about the matter!
-
June 25, 2015 at 10:50 am -
Yorkshire, where men are emasculated whippet worrying whimps and women are obese ,spandex sprayed on, mobility scooter riding harridans. and Welfare Valkyries. Betwixt Heaven (London) and Purgatory (Scotland) there lies…Hull.
-
June 25, 2015 at 11:27 am -
You can always tell a Yorkshireman ……….. but you can’t tell him much.
-
June 25, 2015 at 3:14 pm
-
-
June 25, 2015 at 1:43 pm -
Never ask an Englishman where he’s from, if he’s from Yorkshire he’ll tell you.
If he is not, it’s a tad unfair to embarrass him..-
June 25, 2015 at 11:33 pm -
I’ve just seen a Yorkshireman who must have been dyslexic:- he were wearing a cat flap.
OK, I’ll get my coat.
-
June 26, 2015 at 9:48 pm -
Indeed. It is very unEnglish to crow about one’s good fortune.
-
-
-
June 25, 2015 at 10:20 am -
Those offended by an image printed on a piece of material are of course are, in the land of the free, still free to offend by wearing apparel emblazoned with images of mass murderers:
-
June 25, 2015 at 10:31 am -
Pedants corner: it’s only a Jack when mounted on a jack-staff, otherwise it’s the Union Flag.
I’ll get my coat
-
June 25, 2015 at 10:34 am -
Actually no, research into the origins of the Union Jack in 2013 apparently confirms otherwise. Both ‘Flag’ and ‘Jack’ are correct -according to Wiki.
-
June 25, 2015 at 11:16 am -
Flying it the right way up is complicated enough…..
-
June 25, 2015 at 11:26 am -
Flying it the right way up is complicated enough…..
Dear God, don’t remind me! I was a Sea Scout ..and they were really anal about the Union Dishrag being the ‘right’ way up. God help any piper who piped an inverted flag…you’d think, from the way the Pack Leader went on that I had personally broken into the Queen’s bedroom and
butchered and eatenraped her prize corgi (this was Norfolk after all).After that I would mentally sing the lyrics to “God Save The Queen” every time we stood for the National Anathema ….Gawd Bless her ‘han hall wot sails in ‘er…
-
June 25, 2015 at 11:29 am -
It is very much to be hoped that the makers of Union Jack boxer shorts have considered this point. No true Briton would feel comfortable wearing a permanent distress signal.
The makers of lady’s undergarments have a slightly different problem; which small bit of the flag to make their thongs from.
-
June 25, 2015 at 11:33 am -
The makers of lady’s undergarments have a slightly different problem; which small bit of the flag to make their thongs from.
I am pleased to see readers of this blog are so sensitive to Womens’ Issues. Tanga Width-it’s a feminist thing! (according to various females of my acquaintance who spake thus ” only in the bedroom, you try walking around all day with something razoring your bum hole, Mr Perverted Dwarf!”)
-
June 25, 2015 at 11:38 am -
Indeed! Flossing is a thoroughly good thing. But not there.
-
June 25, 2015 at 11:46 am -
Men have more sense, but then panty-line was not historically an issue on the rugger pitch
http://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/231423814555-0-1/s-l1000.jpg
-
-
-
June 25, 2015 at 11:35 am -
Navy blue surely?
-
June 25, 2015 at 11:40 am -
Well, they’ve got three choices!
-
June 25, 2015 at 1:04 pm -
One of the more famous German Punk songs of my youth recounts a lesbian encounter in the Ladies at a Berlin tube station. “Your knickers with the Queen From London on them, Silver Jubilee, Hee Hee”
I mention this because Tanga makers of the World might like to avoid the whole ‘which bit of the Union Jack’ problem and go for reissuing the Silver Jubilee ones…thus keeping the patriotic theme.
-
-
-
June 25, 2015 at 10:28 pm -
“The makers of lady’s undergarments have a slightly different problem; which small bit of the flag to make their thongs from.”
Whereas makers of men’s undergarments have solved the problem.
-
June 26, 2015 at 10:09 am -
…..and that, ladies and gentlemen, is irrefutable proof that the invention of shirts and trousers was a Good Thing!
-
-
-
-
June 26, 2015 at 1:27 pm -
How would Wiki know? It’s written by Yanks!
-
June 26, 2015 at 9:55 pm -
What? All 300 million of them? And every one of them genuinely surprised by the undeserved vituperation that is heaped upon them by self-satisfied unimaginative cretins?
-
-
-
-
June 25, 2015 at 11:06 am -
“… perhaps it’s time to appreciate flags in purely aesthetic terms rather than seeing them as the property of groups who co-opt them for their own dubious ends…”
If only the EU flag would stop sending my blood pressure soaring every time I saw it …
-
June 25, 2015 at 11:38 am -
From my observation, the propensity of any nation to fly its flag at every available opportunity is in inverse proportion to its establishment, stability and comfort in its own skin.
All relatively ‘new’ nations tend to fly their flags all the time everywhere (I include the USA in this), nations recovering from invasion or external oppression do likewise (France, Eastern European mini-states etc.) and pretty much anywhere in the Third World because they know no better. They’ve all think got a point to prove and, rather than going out and achieving something, like development, just get their nationalistic stiffy from waving their gaily-coloured rag in your face everywhere – or in the faces of their own populations, just to remind them they’re now a ‘proper country’.
It is quite rare to see the Union Jack (or Flag) flying anywhere in Britian, and only then on ‘special occasions’. QED. -
June 25, 2015 at 11:47 am -
Isn’t the only purpose of a flag to identify which troops belong to which side on the battlefield, or ships at sea? They seem only to serve a military purpose and in peacetime, only enflame nationalistic tendencies. Belonging to trade blocs and alliances seems to me to render them even more irrelevant. Burn ’em all – unless we go to war again, I suppose.
-
June 25, 2015 at 12:02 pm -
Tell it to the Marines….
http://www.christianvoice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Photo20_16A.jpg-
June 25, 2015 at 12:31 pm -
I do have exactly that same flag in my living room – purely as irony, of course.
-
June 25, 2015 at 12:44 pm -
I recall that in the Olympics they were playing fast and loose with the flag as a design motif, rather than as an emblem of group identity.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/team-gb-unveils-stella-mccartney-designed-685132
Strange new ways of thinking. You have “one of the most beautiful”, so you butcher it. Super.
“”For me it’s one of the most beautiful flags in the world and it was important for me to stay true to that iconic design but also to modernise it and present it in a contemporary way. “Ultimately, we wanted the athletes to feel like a team and be proud with the identity we created.”
The weirdest thing is that we never had the flag on runners as I recall, they just had bands of red/white and blue. The flag only appeared on their numbers, if at all.
-
-
-
-
June 25, 2015 at 11:59 am -
We have moved on from the idea that guns kill people and now everyone realises that it is flags that kill people and that The Dukes of Hazzard are the root cause of America’s problem with violence.
I am reminded of G.K Chesterton’s poem The English Graves…Were I that wandering citizen whose city is the world,
I would not weep for all that fell before the flags were furled;
I would not let one murmur mar the trumpets volleying forth
How God grew weary of the kings, and the cold hell in the north.
But we whose hearts are homing birds have heavier thoughts of home,
Though the great eagles burn with gold on Paris or on Rome,
Who stand beside our dead and stare, like seers at an eclipse,
At the riddle of the island tale and the twilight of the ships.For these were simple men that loved with hands and feet and eyes,
Whose souls were humbled to the hills and narrowed to the skies,
The hundred little lands within one little land that lie,
Where Severn seeks the sunset isles or Sussex scales the sky.And what is theirs, though banners blow on Warsaw risen again,
Or ancient laughter walks in gold through the vineyards of Lorraine,
Their dead are marked on English stones, their loves on English trees,
How little is the prize they win, how mean a coin for these—
How small a shrivelled laurel-leaf lies crumpled here and curled:
They died to save their country and they only saved the world.-
June 25, 2015 at 12:16 pm -
More than one man was willing to die for Daisy Duke back in the day
-
June 25, 2015 at 12:53 pm -
Teenage boys certainly were!
Daisy’s distracting style seems to have swung back round into fashion, at least where I am: hotpants cut so high they make even Kylie Minogue’s famous gold ‘uns look positively Victorian in comparison. -
June 25, 2015 at 1:00 pm -
Not just men…us boys were glued to the set although I was still at that age where Girls were simply annoying and I wondered why Uncle Jessy didn’t use some of the shine profit to buy her a pair of jeans.
I was still at primary school when it was first broadcast in the UK and I recall lividly walking into my rural (very bloody rural) Norfolk village school to find all my peers trying to put a southern drawl on their shitkicker broad North Norfolk accents…”Y’all cum’ on back now, bor” . I do believe some of the village Young Farmers (“armed wing of the Tory party”) even painted their tractors orange…
-
June 25, 2015 at 2:05 pm -
In a similar vein, for a whole summer, a friend and I proudly sported the bruises acquired by swinging in through the windows of her brother’s orange Ford Escort (with the occasional Rebel Yell thrown in for good measure).
-
June 25, 2015 at 3:47 pm -
A fair few bonnets paid the price too, what with those ‘hood slides’ little boys insisted on copying from the telly.
-
June 25, 2015 at 3:58 pm -
Yeah but we had been doing that anyways…copying Bodie & Doyle. Much to the annoyance of every Capri owner in Norfolk (and there used to be a lot).
-
-
-
-
June 25, 2015 at 7:28 pm -
“The shameful little minx was displaying her aurat,” cried the Imam.
-
June 25, 2015 at 7:48 pm -
Sweet
Fanny AdamsFarah Ann!
-
-
-
June 26, 2015 at 9:03 am -
-
June 26, 2015 at 9:42 am -
-
July 11, 2015 at 10:50 am -
-
July 11, 2015 at 11:10 am -
I remarked elsewhere about how fantastically symbolic and unifying it could have been if Confederate flags had all been flying at half-mast across the South, rather than being metaphorically burned.
Of course, what I have no idea about is whether those who fly them would have allowed that to happen, which may explain why the Yanks are behaving the way they are. I think we should be told.
-
-
-
-
-
June 25, 2015 at 12:25 pm -
Interesting to note that the National Front did not appear to originally use the British flag.
http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100108213609/uncyclopedia/images/f/fd/Nick-griffin-national-front.gif
Something about Patriotism and Scoundrels comes to mind. -
June 25, 2015 at 12:37 pm -
“Noel Gallagher’s trademark Rickenbacker guitar…”
Bloody hell, Petunia, this is what messing around with electronic music leads to! Mixed up with Townsend, perhaps?-
June 25, 2015 at 12:46 pm -
“”Freddie’s pranks were legendary,” Jim continued. “… once he got hold of some guitar act’s guitar, took the strings off, did a poo in it, put the strings back on and tuned it up perfectly. “When the guitarist went on, he could smell this awful gut wrenching smell and thought someone in the front row had farted!”
http://newspaper.jimdavidson.org.uk/newsitem.php?id=7-
June 25, 2015 at 12:57 pm -
Hope the judge isn’t reading this! And given yesterday’s post, he may well be!
-
-
June 25, 2015 at 12:48 pm -
It was an Epiphone – just to keep the record straight.
-
June 25, 2015 at 3:11 pm
-
-
June 25, 2015 at 1:34 pm -
Problem is, flags are just so convenient, aren’t they? Can fly ’em anywhere (up mountains, in cities, at sea – albeit from a submarine might be tricky), can furl ’em up and carry them about easily, can use ’em as impromptu cloaks, can paint ’em on stationary objects (or even stationery objects). Can’t think of any other symbol that’s so universally useful.
-
June 25, 2015 at 3:23 pm -
“That the Confederate Flag remains potent symbolic shorthand for one of the few strains of pride America actually discourages, and continues to invoke a deep-rooted offence in its black population, is testament to the eternally emotional and divisive power of flags. “
Or is testament to the desire of some to never, ever let go of the past. Especially if that perpetual outrage is financially lucrative.
-
June 25, 2015 at 5:16 pm -
There’s a big difference between respecting the past and being ruled by it, though. Not just in the deep South of America, either.
-
June 25, 2015 at 8:01 pm -
“Or is testament to the desire of some to never, ever let go of the past. Especially if that perpetual outrage is financially lucrative.”………correct, this is yet another symbol that the poverty pimps can rally to in the pretense that they are doing something for “their people”. Of course the descendants of slaves are no longer owned by white slave masters, they have progressed to being owned by the likes of the detestable Jesse Jackson family (junior just released from jail for stealing government funds while he “represented” “his people”) and a very lucrative living is to be had from their continued outrage. As an aside nobody talks of the truly abominable treatment that English and Irish slaves received in Jamaica and Bermuda, nor is mention allowed that most enslaved Africans were enslaved by Muslims.
Just about every flag can be said to symbolise some kind of injustice, targetting of the confederate flag shows only the shallow thinking of the likes of obama and his useful idiots.
-
-
June 25, 2015 at 5:19 pm -
STOP PRESS…
As Anna knows, I sell flags. I also have an Amazon store. There were at least three listings on Amazon.co.uk for the popular 5ft x 3ft Confederate flag which I had noticed had disappeared, so I emailed them late yesterday.
I have just received this email from Amazon:
“Hello from Amazon.
We are writing to let you know that the following detail pages have been removed from our catalogue:
ASIN: B001S96OLQ, SKU: 64-ZUYR-9SG0, Title: “southern usa confederate flag 90 x 150 cm”
This item has been identified as confederate flag merchandise. Amazon policy prohibits the listing or sale of confederate flag merchandise.
For more information on our policies, search on “Restricted Products” and “Listing Restrictions” in Seller Help.
**Action Required: Within 48 hours of this notice, please review your remaining listings and make any changes necessary to ensure compliance with our policies.Failure to comply with this request may result in the removal of your selling privileges.
We appreciate your cooperation and thank you for selling on Amazon.co.uk.
Amazon Services”
I read that following the shootings in Charleston, Obama not only called for more gun control (golden opportunity for him), but also suggested that freedom of speech might have to be (further) restricted. This must be a part of the latter.
-
June 25, 2015 at 5:24 pm -
Are you serious? Sheesh! That is astounding.
-
June 25, 2015 at 5:33 pm -
It’s serious. And Amazon are serious in making people “comply” with every jot and tittle of their immense collection of rules.
I wonder if they will do the same with the old South African and Rhodesian flags, which are also surprisingly popular. The shooter had those as badges somewhere on his person, didn’t he?
-
June 25, 2015 at 5:43 pm -
* Your search – confederate flag – did not match any shopping results. *
-
June 25, 2015 at 5:53 pm -
There are several on sale at ebay and normally google- shopping picks up ebay items, so plainly google have just blocked the search term. An interesting PR phenomenon.
-
June 25, 2015 at 5:59 pm -
What next? Mein Kampf? UKIP Manifesto?
How long before the EU directs that the sale & display of the component ex-nation’s flags will be forbidden? Was the 100 watt light bulb a foretaste?
-
June 25, 2015 at 6:13 pm -
I’m sure Cast-Iron Dave will quickly agree to it as part of his really-jolly-tough-renegotiation (not) – then he’ll claim a victory in getting it delayed by a month, after which Britain will be the only member state which ever applies the new rule.
-
-
-
June 25, 2015 at 6:19 pm -
Yet Amazon are merrily selling AWB flags and stickers….http://tinyurl.com/ouna7q6
(for those who don’t know or remember, the Afrikaner WeerstandsBeweging (Afrikaaner Resistance Movement…although I believe “Weerstandsbeweging” is an inseparable compound noun?) were (are?) those Afrikaaners who thought De Klerk a kaffier-loving dangerous liberal -who might even want to take away their guns.
-
June 25, 2015 at 6:49 pm -
Just checked the “Prohibited Listings” Amazon ‘Help’ page. “Confederate Flag Merchandise ” is on the list just above…
….”drop sided cots”
Seriously?!? Drop-sided cots?!? Anyone here whose loving mother didn’t gently lay them in a drop sided cot ? How did we all survive and more to the point, how did our owns kids survive and cope with the trauma of having to sleep in a drop-sided cot?!?
The Prosecution submits the following evidence , M’Ludd.
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b116/horta/img183_zpsotvcyatv.jpg
-
-
-
-
June 25, 2015 at 8:17 pm -
It didn’t take long for the knees to start jerking, did it? The Confederate flag is a part of American history, and it can’t just be erased. That one modern day racist nutter waved it whilst committing mass murder does not change that simple fact.
-
-
June 25, 2015 at 6:22 pm -
But you can still purchase an ISIS flag apparently.
On 23 June 2015, Amazon.com (among other retailers) announced that they would no longer by vending Confederate flag merchandise on their site, a move prompted by controversy following the 17 June 2015 racially motivated shooting that left nine people dead at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina.
Shortly after vendors began pulling Confederate flag-adorned merchandise from their listings, a rumour began to circulate on social media claiming that the flag of the Islamic State radical militant group (also known as ISIL, ISIS, or Daesh) was nonetheless still available for purchase through Internet retailing giant Amazon.com — supposed evidence of an unseemly double standard:
http://m.snopes.com/2015/06/24/amazon-isis-flag/#mm7f0uFSZgtEviuJ.99
-
June 25, 2015 at 8:04 pm -
* a rumour began to circulate on social media claiming that the flag of the Islamic State radical militant group (also known as ISIL, ISIS, or Daesh) was nonetheless still available for purchase through Internet retailing giant Amazon.com *
How could such a “rumour” propagate? All folk have to do is type in the bloomin’ search term.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?biw=1024&bih=639&tbm=shop&q=isis+flag&oq=isis+flag&gs_l=serp.12…0.0.0.37356.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0….0…1c..64.serp..0.0.0.mMPLh-Qh8TU-
June 25, 2015 at 9:26 pm -
No longer available, Moor, but:
http://tinyurl.com/ovqyau4
The reviews are amusing!
-
-
-
June 25, 2015 at 10:37 pm -
I always always associate the Union Jack with that most unappealing of Cottage Industries – The Proms. Upper-Class Twits trying to conduct; imposing their dogmatic views -“more Mahler” or ‘More Neilsen” – not even more Mahler please – and waving their flags at inappropriate moments and usually mocking the lovely ‘Tom Bowling’ with inappropriate gestures and syncopated movements. This sort of thing needs to be stopped but the cultural Marxists at the Beeb force it down our throat every year – perhaps it is just a repeat – hard to tell really.
Anyway, the extreme right (can one be Right without being Extreme? or Extreme without being Right?) as P.W. calls them are anything but, being indistinguishable from Old Labour. Sadly mainstream politics may justifiably be called Extreme Left, the sort of people who waive their Rainbow flag from the roof of 10 Downing Street.
No idea who or what are Oasis.
-
June 25, 2015 at 11:44 pm -
I was just curious that you refer to the BBC as Cultural Marxists for broadcasting the Proms, yet the Last Night (from which you’ve drawn most of your summary of an event that encompasses a hell of a lot more) always resembles a Tory Party Conference set to music.
-
June 26, 2015 at 8:07 am -
I don’t think I referred to the Beeb as being Cultural Marxists specifically for the Proms Last Night, though I have little doubt that if I were to look at the prospectus for the coming season I would find rather a lot of political correctness – ever since Margaret Hodge found it too civilised and made it clear that it needed more rap, edginess, yoof. She seems to have got her way; I merely stay away.
Does not every political party – claiming to be the one and true embodiment of Britain as she ought to be – wrap itself in the flag.
-
-
-
June 26, 2015 at 1:36 pm -
I have no problem with the Confederate Flag – any more than the flags of Ulster, Scotland, England,Wales or Cornwall.
As the southern states are still part of the USA and those just mentioned are part of the UK, what exactly is the difference? I just don’t get it…
-
June 26, 2015 at 7:56 pm -
Struck me just now that if the Ban-It Fascists didn’t dominate the discourse, the most perfect symbolism to separate the wind from the noise would have been for wherever Confederate flags flew, to have seen them flying at half-mast.
-
-
June 26, 2015 at 7:58 pm -
Where is ANNA RACOON these days?
It seems that someone calling themselves “Petunia Winegum” makes most all contributions.
ANNA, you have something to say CONTRARY to the rabid norm. Why are you so shy these days?
{ 77 comments… read them below or add one }