Residents in a quiet Kent market town have spoken of their fear of gangs of machete-wielding thugs who have been hacking down England flags put up by patriotic locals. Faversham, a small market town around 25 miles from Dover, has been dubbed the “epicentre” of the nation’s so-called flag wars fought between rival groups erecting or pulling down national symbols put up in our streets.
GB News presenter Patrick Christys reported from Faversham and found evidence of England flags which he said had been “desecrated”. The news channel reported in one recent incident a gang of men carrying machetes ripped down an England flag displayed at a funfair. A young woman told GB News she witnessed the man removing the flag when families and children were nearby. She said: “There was a group of four males carrying a big machete, taking the flag down. “I went over and said, can I have the flag, it’s our country’s flag, and he was stood there with a big machete in his hand.”
The woman claimed the men had been targeting St George’s flags displayed by locals. The woman also claimed the men, who did not speak English as their first language, approached “underage girls” and were asking “them to go and do sexual activities”.
Another person told GB News: “We’ve got to get Great Britain back to being Great Britain again. I mean, our grandparents, most of us here would have probably fought in the war for this country.
“We should be allowed to be proud of where we come from. And also, you know, flying all the flags like we have been. It’s bringing communities together. It’s bringing people together.”
The local residents were speaking as the local council has said it will remove the England and British flags from lampposts in the area. The display of flags from street furniture began over the summer as part of a campaign called Operation Raise the Colours, which was said to be aimed at inspiring national pride. However, some have questioned if the initiative has racial undertones.
Speaking to GB News, another Faversham local said: “The thing I like about the flags is that we’re trying to remind everyone this country has a great history and a great culture and it shouldn’t be erased.
“We should be learning this at school from a young age, because there are a lot of countries that would love to have the history and culture we have here.
“I’ve got a flag flying from my house, and they had the audacity to stick a sticker on my back fence that basically says, ‘we all bleed the same’.”