And something else:
What Englishman or woman has not watched or been to the Promenade Concerts and when “Land of Hope and Glory” is being belted out and sung by the whole hall not felt an inner glow…fucking hell I’ve been and the tears ran down my cheeks and did I care?
Not in the slightest
I think you mean “Hear, hear”. (Add exclamation points as necessary)
What Englishman or woman has watched or been to the Proms and not fallen asleep?
Well I’ll be savagely rogered with the sharp end of a 2 foot fencing stake. 
Fall asleep at the Proms? :dubious:
It’s a tad noisy y’know, makes sleeping a bit difficult
Hmm.
I’ve never been, but I was often cashiered into watching as a littl’un. I was under the impression that it was just an excuse for a really good nap.
You need to go my friend, it’s well worth it and you’ll never forget it.
Custom is to take and wave flags BTW but any flag is acceptable.
Except swastikas that is
Ooops, got carried away there.
Of course I meant
Hear, Hear!!!
Ooops, got carried away there.
Of course I meant
Hear, Hear!!!
:: pounds boot heel on desk, pumps fist in air and whistles loudly::
It’s a bit of a hike (or swim) nowadays 
Anyway, if I can’t take my swastika flag then I’m definitely not going.
In your opinion, should flying a flag on St. George’s Day (or all the time) be (a) transparently optional (b) strongly encouraged by the authorities or (c) a legal requirement for all English people.
You are Al Murray, and I claim my £10!
Really? Where’d he say it was a legal requirement? Or is this a multiple choice for him to pick to clarify his position?
If you don’t want to join in the celebration, don’t. Frankly, those here who are puzzled as to why anyone would want to fly a flag (god, I’ve got Eddie Izzard streaming in my head now!) come off more churlish and wet blankety. (mangetout–I’m looking at you, too). 
The flag is a symbol of all those good things that chowder admires about his country-nothing more, nothing less, or so it seems to me.
Where’s the harm in showing pride in your heritage and country? I am enraged and disgusted at most American foreign policies and some domestic policies, but to see Old Glory waving in the wind on a bright sunny day makes me tear up at times. If you don’t get it, you don’t get it. It’s ok to not get it… but it’s ok to get it, got it?
Well, I was momentarily worried that I was just threadshitting, but to be perfectly honest, I think chowder shat in his own thread, by framing the thing so confrontationally.
If this had just been a celebration thread, I’d have wished him the best and been on my way.
I’m not puzzled as to why anyone would want to fly a flag. I’m puzzled as to why some people seem to think I should, but seem reluctant or unable to explain why.
To quote Morrissey,
“I’ve been dreaming of a time when
To be English is not to be baneful
To be standing by the flag not feeling
Shameful, racist or partial.”
From the song Irish Blood, English Heart.
He got in lots of shit for waving an union jack around in the early 1990s, then everyone got on the Britpop wagon and started doing it.
He’s just surprised that someone thinks he should fly the flag.
chowder was complaining about that, and also about people who might be offended by the flag. If you’re offended by an English flag in England I suspect that world travel probably isn’t for you, and I’m totally with chowder on that one; but I can see where Mangetout is coming from.
As noted above, for a while seemingly the only people in Britain flying the Union Jack or St. George’s Cross (outside of football stadia) were National Front-types, or the sort of people who wanted people like me (English-born and still a proud citizen, but of Indian descent) beaten bloody in a gutter or shipped off to “wherever I came from”.
It’s multiple choice.
It would be temerarious to chide chowder for displaying a flag from his house or his car. He is perfectly entitled to do so if that is his desire.
I’d like him to clarify his position, or his opinion, regarding those who choose not to do this, and to explain unequivocally and unambiguously why he thinks they should.
More relevant lyrics.
"The Scottish and the Welsh now have their own assemblies
While the English are left wondering “Exactly who are we?”
It’s a question that needs answering before the Battle’s lost
And the forces of the Right bedeck themselves in George’s Cross
We need to reassert an idea that can create a nation
That’s united out of choice and not by pigmentation
A symbol of inclusion from which nobody is barred
Something we can point at and say “That is who we are.”
So let the symbol of our nation be a pub
Because it symbolises the things in life that are English and are good
Irrespective of your faith, sexual preference or race
Let the symbol of our nation be a pub."
http://www.mjhibbett.net/songs/lyrics/thesymbolofournation.htm
OK, I had a hard day and I’m tired, but I don’t see where the OP said you had to fly one, too. If he did, then he’s a lil’ deluded or maybe he didn’t express himself clearly.
FWIW, I have a union Jack on my car’s back bumper–a souvenir from my last trip to UK. Since my heritage is a hodgepodge of Scotland, England, Wales and northern Ireland, I figure it covers the bases.
I find the whole question of self-identity a bit too complicated to sum up with a flag on my car, however, I really wish you’d refer to the Last Night Of The Proms as such. Don’t tar the rest of the huge concert series with that brush.
It’s strongly implied in posts 22 and 25, stated outright in 28(not adressed to me specifically, but inclusively).
Okay–I’ll leave you Brits to argue amongst yourselves. (does anyone really think the summation of all feelings, thoughts and desires can be shown in one symbol of anything?).
I’m taking my aching Yankee head to bed. Long live the Queen. Mustn’t grumble about the flag. Least said, soonest mended. Spiffing and tally ho, what? and all that.