Flying the flag

There are rules for flying a flag, the only ones you can freely fly are the national ones such as the Union flag and the Cross of St George and only then if they are unmarked by other symbols. So, the government in the shape of Eric Pickles wants to cut red tape and let anyone fly the flag they want too. Which in essence is a good thing, though oddly enough I can foresee problems ahead.
Express.

FLYING a flag in England is to be made easier under new Government plans.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles wants to cut red tape to let sports teams, pubs and societies hoist flags ­without paying a £335 fee.
Current strict rules ban flying all but county or ­national flags without ­permission from the council.
Under the new plans flags, including ­regimental standards and the gay rainbow flag could be raised without planning ­permission. Mr Pickles said: “If people want to celebrate something that is ­important to them by flying a flag they should be able to do so without having to fill in forms or paying town hall ­officials for the ­privilege.”

Nobody I know other than a few frothing at the mouth leftists and Islamists could or would have a problem with any non political association flying their flag, but we all know that at least those 2 groups have a major problem with freedom of expression with regard to anyone who is not like them and have in the past sought to use by any means possible to shut down any form of expression from groups they oppose. Just look at the Islamist "Shariah gay free zone" attempts in Tower Hamlets, still I suppose anyone flying the black flag of jihad will at least be easy to find when inevitably the Islamists go too far. Same with the patriot hating left, they already have a problem with people flying the national flag anyway (we're racist apparently) and so will see this as a swing to the right by the government.
Still the law of unintended consequences is bound to rear it's ugly head on this one, after all if you give people the freedom to do something, sooner or later they'll end up doing something with it you didn't expect.
I expect this will get very interesting very soon if it goes ahead with people trying to wind up those they oppose so expect a lot headlines about punch ups in the cities very soon.