A row has broken out over Reform UK’s plans to limit the type of flags flown over Lancashire County Council’s headquarters.
The authority’s ruling group voted to launch a cabinet-led review of the symbols that can be raised at County Hall in Preston.
However, the party has already nailed its preferences to the mast, claiming that the proposed changes are designed to unify all Lancastrians under the banners of Lancashire and the UK – regardless of other aspects of their identity.
But opposition groups noted that the Pride flag, representing the LGBT community, would be the principal casualty of the rethink – and accused Reform of engaging in a culture war.
Reform UK votes for cabinet-led review of flags that can be flown at County Hall, blogpreston.co.uk
Tag: war on woke
Nigel Farage’s DOGE firebrands are already at war
Reform UK is mounting an Elon Musk-inspired bid to slash state “waste.” The fireworks have already begun.
MAIDSTONE, England — Half an hour into a Kent County Council meeting, council leader Linden Kemkaran has already taken aim at trans women in a “wig and a skirt” and migrants “invading” Britain.
This is the Garden of England — home to farmers, commuters, vineyards, seaside poverty, rich London escapees, and the beaches where tens of thousands of migrants have landed in inflatable dinghies — and it now belongs to Reform UK.
Nigel Farage’s DOGE firebrands are already at war, politico.eu
Reform UK-Led Kent Council Removes Trans-Themed Books from Children’s Library Sections
Kent County Council, led by the Reform UK party, has announced the removal of all books featuring transgender themes from the children’s sections of its libraries—a move that has sparked significant backlash and concern.
The council’s leader, Linden Kemkaran, revealed the decision via X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, 2 July. “Another victory for #commonsenseinKent,” she wrote. “My brilliant cabinet member Cllr Paul Webb has just got this trans material REMOVED from the children’s sections of all Kent’s libraries. Telling children they’re in the ‘wrong body’ is wrong and simply unacceptable.”
The announcement did not include details on which specific titles or materials were removed, nor how many books are affected. Kent County Council oversees 99 community libraries and operates five mobile library vans.
Antony Hook, the Liberal Democrat opposition leader in the council, criticised the announcement as both “vague” and “bizarre”, particularly as it was made on social media rather than through formal council channels. Hook has formally written to the head of Kent Library Services seeking clarification on what materials are being removed.
Reform UK-Led Kent Council Removes Trans-Themed Books from Children’s Library Sections, gayexpress.co.nz
Reform councillor’s boast about removing ‘trans-ideological’ books from children’s library sections was a lie
Paul Webb said he ensured books and material were pulled from children’s section of Kent libraries, but it emerges they were never there
A boast by a Reform UK councillor that he ensured the removal of “trans-ideological material and books” from the children’s section of his county’s libraries has fallen flat after it emerged that no such material ever existed there.
Reform councillor’s boast about removing ‘trans-ideological’ books from children’s library sections falls flat, theguardian.com
Backlash as Reform claims trans books removed from children’s library section
A council leader has been criticised after claiming the authority had removed transgender-related books from the children’s sections of its libraries.
In a post on social media, Kent County Council’s Reform UK leader Linden Kemkaran said the books were to be removed with immediate effect in a “victory for common sense in Kent”.
However, the council said a single transgender-related book aimed at adults was relocated from a display at the entrance of a library to a section unlikely to be visited by children.
Labour MP for Chatham and Aylesford Tristian Osbourne has called the alleged removal of the books “unedifying gender baiting of the LGBT community”.
Backlash as Reform claims trans books removed from children’s library section, BBC
Leicestershire social workers object to Reform policy they fear ‘promotes exclusion and marginalisation’
Removing these flags promotes exclusion and marginalisation – it implies people represented by those flags are not welcome
More than 100 Leicestershire social workers have spoken out against a new Reform UK policy they fear “promotes exclusion and marginalisation”. Their comments follow a decision by Reform to change which flags can fly at the Leicestershire County Council headquarters, in Glenfield.
The new policy means that community flags, such as the Pride flag and the disabled people’s flag, will not automatically be raised in the inner quadrangle at County Hall to celebrate events and celebration days. Instead, a decision will be taken by the chief executive “following consultation with the leader of the council”, the party’s Dan Harrison, over whether they can fly or not, leading some to fear they will not be flown going forward.
Some 102 social workers at the council have now written to councillors and the new Reform cabinet to “loudly” and “overwhelmingly” oppose the change in policy. They said they felt that flying community flags was a “vitally important” symbol from the council that it was “supportive of marginalised groups”.
Leicestershire social workers object to Reform policy they fear ‘promotes exclusion and marginalisation’, www.leicestermercury.co.uk
Reform council brings in ‘British values’ flag rules
Leicestershire County Council’s new Reform leadership has scrapped the authority’s flag flying policy in its first cabinet meeting.
The move, approved at a meeting on Thursday, means a previously agreed schedule of flags to be displayed outside County Hall in Glenfield has been discontinued.
The list included flags to mark events celebrating LGBTQ+ Pride Month, Gypsy Roma and Traveller History Month and Windrush Day.
New Reform council leader Dan Harrison said the changes to flag flying protocols were “to celebrate British values that unite us all”.
Some staff groups at the council, where Reform formed a minority administration following May’s local elections, raised concerns about the move.
Harrison described the eight-minute cabinet meeting, which had only the flag flying policy on the agenda, as “historic”.
Reform council brings in ‘British values’ flag rules, BBC
Reform’s phony war on ‘woke’
Three times Reform UK pledged to scrap schemes that don’t exist
Reform UK wants to scrap anything with even a hint of ‘woke’ about it. Now that they run 10 councils, they have their opportunity.
There’s just one problem: they keep targeting schemes that just don’t exist – at least not outside the imagination of the right wing press.
Reform’s phony war on ‘woke’, informuk.org
‘Posturing’: Farage’s Reform-quake so far limited to small acts of ‘war on woke’
Reform promised much to voters and now runs £8bn worth of public services. After three weeks, what has party accomplished?
When Nigel Farage held a victory lap of England after his mammoth local elections win on 1 May, he was characteristically bullish about Reform UK’s plan to shake up town halls.
[…]
Yet three weeks into power in nine of England’s cash-starved local authorities – where Reform UK now runs £8bn worth of public services – Farage’s “Reform-quake” has been limited to smaller but symbolic acts of the “war on woke”.
In Kent and Durham, councils with a combined £1bn of debt, one of Reform’s first acts was to take down the Ukrainian flag – hoisted to show solidarity with the war-besieged nation – and vowed not to fly rainbow-coloured flags in support of LGBTQ+ residents.
‘Posturing’: Farage’s Reform-quake so far limited to small acts of ‘war on woke’, The Guardian