Ignoring some of the essential flag burning of this topic, it's interesting how some react to such elements as burning a national symbol, either your own or somebody else's. I think GT182 sums it up rather clearly:
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Well the flag represents the house you live in, your country you call home, that you live and die for
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For me I'm not mortally offended if some scrote wants to burn the cross of st George or whatever, I find it somewhat disrespectful in the same way I find some folk who don't know how to close their mouth when eating, disrespectful and impolite. But then again I'm fairly realistic about what, at least the way things work over here; being patriotic about UK is all about. Or rather not about. To put it another way, I call my country home but I don't live and die for it. Perhaps if we were all transported back in time 60 years then I might think differently. I think this has something to do with the perceived or otherwise self effacing attitude that we brits are supposed to have.
American culture seems very different in this respect, perhaps given the nature of a country populated (initially) by european/other immigrants over the last 200 years or so where a sense of a new national identity is actively fostered. More "WOOO-HA! go America!" than the "yes... er quite, jolly good" you might expect from the typical English stereotype.
Whether the UK is richer or poorer for this lack of a strong national identity (outside of the football wa**** mentality) I'm not sure, but as I alluded to in my first post in this thread; we shouldn't make hasty new laws that potentially contradict that grey area we like to call freedom of speech ie. jail people for essentially doing something silly and in so doing making that expression itself a crime, when there are perfectly good laws already to deal with people setting fire to stuff in the middle of the street. All that is required is a modicum of common sense when using existing legislation, not making ill conceived 'headless chicken' laws for the sake of what I like to describe as popular opinion - something no law should be constructed upon.
I don't approve of the lack of gratitude some seem to show for what is their adopted home especially when they are spouting the worst kind of bile imaginable. If you want to complain, go right ahead, it's something of a national pastime for us brits
but do it with a little humility - let some of that britishness rub off on you.
But it's that lack of respect (which manifests itself in the flag thing, amongst other ways), the
cause and not the action that really annoys me. As I said (and have given some more thought to since) sod off to somewhere where, as an illiterate fanatic, you'll fit right in. Realistically you could be burning rubber chickens for all the difference it makes to any patriotism I might feel. As Neal said, "It's the idea the textile represents" the thing itself is just being used as a lever to polarize feeling, though I feel that most brits, myself included, have a somewhat lukewarm response to such actions**. Given this, these radicals would probably have more luck getting under our collective skin these days by attacking something closer to our hearts. Like taking the PG-Tips chimpanzees hostage, or something.
Lol, that's the trouble with relinquishing an empire that encompassed most of the known world- when all the apologizing for behaving 'like mad dogs and Englishmen in the midday sun' and owning everything and everyone in sight is done, or not having a good old fashioned straight-up enemy like 'Jerry'
to focus the nations intent upon, there's just no cohesion anymore.
I don't know what is worse sometimes; the lack of clear resolution and consensus in these matters or the fact that people seem to need some greater 'foe' in order to center the nation's intent towards something good and useful for a change.
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Illustrating this view is an amusing comment from another site, regarding the london bombings. Despite the outcry we were not off at the drop of a hat, invading Afghanistan (oops we're already doing that hehe), er, Pakistan then, because some of the chaps responsible went to alleged terror training camps there or somewhere near by.
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The British are feeling the pinch in relation to recent bombings and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." Londoners have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940, when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a"Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during the great fire of 1666.
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