The Union Flags Must Come Down – Before Weymouth’s Streets Become a Free-for-All
Flagman UK has not merely put Union Flags back on Weymouth’s lampposts.
Never forget who is behind this flagshagging craze:
It has issued a dangerous challenge to the principle that the law applies equally to everyone.
Dorset Council removed the flags on 5 September after stating that permission had not been granted for anything to be attached to its street furniture. The council was explicit: its decision concerned the lawful and safe use of public infrastructure, not opposition to the Union Flag.
Yet within days, the flags were back.
New photographs show members of Flagman UK working during the evening of 15th September, using ladders and high-visibility clothing to reinstall the displays along Westwey Road and Portland Beach Road.
This is no longer simply a debate about flags.
It is about whether an organisation can disregard a public authority’s decision, put the prohibited displays back and effectively dare the authorities to do something about it.
If that behaviour is allowed to stand, the precedent is profoundly troubling.
Flagman UK has invited anarchy.
If its supporters can attach Union Flags to council lampposts without permission, what prevents another organisation or individuals from attaching its own political symbols?
Why couldn’t Labour flags go up?
Or Palestine flags?
Or Pride flags?
Or environmental campaign banners?
Or posters supporting virtually any political cause?
The answer cannot be that one particular symbol is acceptable while another is not.
The whole purpose of having rules governing public infrastructure is to prevent precisely this kind of free-for-all.
And there is a further consequence which Flagman UK appears either unwilling or unable to acknowledge.
By placing highly visible, unauthorised objects on public lampposts, it has effectively turned those objects into targets.
Not legitimate targets for vandalism or criminal damage, but targets for opposition, protest and potentially irresponsible behaviour.
Paintballers have already stated that they consider them as “fair game” precisely because they have been deliberately placed there despite the council saying they should not be.
That does not make damaging them lawful.
But it demonstrates the reckless nature of the situation that has been created.
When people start believing that the rules can be ignored, other people may conclude that their own rules can be ignored too.
That is how public spaces descend into tit-for-tat behaviour.
One group puts up its symbols.
Another removes them.
Another replaces them with something else.
Paint gets fired.
Property is damaged.
Political confrontation escalates.
And eventually everyone loses.
The answer is not complicated.
The law must be enforced.
If the flags are unauthorised, they should be removed.
If they are repeatedly reinstalled in defiance of the authority responsible for the street furniture, enforcement action should follow where the law has been broken and the evidence supports it.
The principle must be applied consistently, whoever is responsible and whatever symbol is involved.
Because Weymouth’s lampposts do not belong to Flagman UK.
They do not belong to Labour.
They do not belong to Reform.
They do not belong to campaigners for Palestine, Israel, Europe, Brexit, environmental causes or any other political movement.
They are public infrastructure.
And public infrastructure cannot become a battlefield for competing political symbols.
The Union Flag has a legitimate place in Weymouth’s history and civic life. The town has displayed Union Jacks for generations, including during the extraordinary celebrations marking VE Day in 1945. Weymouth Town Council itself has an official programme for flying the Union Flag on significant civic occasions.
But patriotism is not a licence to break the rules.
Indeed, if someone genuinely respects the flag, they should understand that attaching it unlawfully to public property does nothing to enhance its standing.
It risks turning a national symbol into a political projectile.
Flagman UK has now created a situation in which the flags are no longer simply being seen as expressions of national pride.
They are increasingly being seen as unauthorised objects deliberately placed where they should not be.
That distinction matters.
Because once the authorities establish a rule and someone simply ignores it, the message to everyone else is devastating:
If they can do it, so can we.
That is precisely how anarchy takes hold.
And it is why this cannot simply be allowed to drift.
The unauthorised flags should be removed, the rules enforced and any proven breaches dealt with through the law.
Anything less risks creating a dangerous precedent in which public property becomes fair game for whoever is prepared to ignore the rules most aggressively.
Weymouth does not need anarchy disguised as patriotism.
It needs one rule for everyone.
