Party had justified plan to hang flags in Nottinghamshire on basis that local businesses would foot £75,000 bill
A £75,000 scheme by a Reform-led council to hang union flags at sites across the county, which the party said would “not cost the taxpayer a single penny” as it would be sponsored by local businesses, has failed to attract a single sponsor, it has emerged. The plan to attach the flags to brackets on about 180 lamp-posts and other places was agreed in the autumn by Nottinghamshire’s council, won by Nigel Farage’s party in last year’s May elections. A report by the authority justified the £75,000 cost as a way to “enhance civic pride”, saying the national flag was “seen as embodying national unity and the collective values of all the peoples and communities of the United Kingdom”. After some criticism of the scheme and its cost, in December last year Lee Anderson, the Reform MP whose Ashfield seat is in the county and who is close to the council’s leader, Mick Barton, posted a video to social media. Filming himself in Ashfield at one of the flag sites, along with Barton and James Walker-Gurley, another Nottinghamshire council cabinet member, Anderson said: “There’s been a few people moaning about these in … the usual third-rate media outlets, saying it’s cost £75,000 and it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money.” He went on: “Let me tell you: yes, it has cost £75,000 to put these up all throughout Nottinghamshire, but the good news is, it will not cost the taxpayer a single penny because we want to get these sponsored by local businesses.
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Well, they've certainly got their priorities right. I'm sure the folks in Nottinghamshire are happy to pay for flags that will only encourage division.
