Sports equipment company seeks permission to fly ‘woke-free zone’ flag
Liam Randall, local democracy reporter
An online sports equipment business is seeking retrospective permission to fly a controversial “woke-free zone” flag outside its headquarters.
Net World Sports came under fire in November last year after the flag outside it base on Wrexham Industrial Estate was slammed as “offensive” by a local resident.
Company founder Alex Loven defended the flag after claiming that a “cloak of wokeness” had taken over society, including education and the media.
It’s now been revealed that the flagpole which it is attached to, one of three located outside the firm’s main office on Bryn Lane, was installed without planning permission.
It follows an application being submitted to Wrexham Council seeking approval for the flagpoles in retrospect.
Several flags
In a letter to the local authority, an agent acting on the company’s behalf said: “Net World Sports is proposing to fly several flags on the site of the headquarters.
“Three flag poles flying three separate flags are already in place, therefore this application seeks retrospective advertisement consent for these flags in addition to another two flags.
“The five flags will be flown interchangeably from the three flagpoles.
“The flagpoles are located on a grassed area to the north west of the headquarters building on the corner of Bryn Lane and Ridleywood Road.
“Whilst the text and imagery on each flag varies, the maximum height of the individual letters and symbols will not exceed 56cm. No flags will be internally or externally illuminated.”
The application lists the slogans to be shown on the flags, including “Forza”, “Net World 3PL”, “Utopia City”, “Net World Sports” and the controversial “Woke-Free Zone”.
Insult
The term woke was originally used by African-Americans in the early 1900s, when its meaning referred to being alert to racial prejudice and discrimination.
However, in recent years it has been used as an insult in politics by those on the right to refer to people perceived as being “overly sensitive” about social issues.
Mr Loven, who was recently named as the richest young person in Wales in the Sunday Times Rich List, previously defended the flag after questioning whether “wokeness” was hindering people’s development.
The 36-year-old said: “It’s more than reasonable to question the value of the cloak of wokeness that has enveloped all parts of society from education to mainstream media.”
He later added: “Simply put, we question whether the woke narrative is aiding the development of young people and it would be completely disingenuous to say otherwise if we don’t believe in it.
“The world is a tough place and life is full of challenges. A sense of entitlement or bone idleness won’t get you anywhere. We should be building young people up, not pulling them down.”
A decision will be made on the retrospective planning application by the council at a later date.
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Woke has nothing to do with entitlement. That is a disingenuous interpretation. Woke refers to awareness of injustice, if he doesn’t like it then it would suggest this individual believes in his own entitlement to indulge in prejudice.
What he is saying then, there is no tolerance there only hate and attacking people that are different.
Why work there?
After reading the article and the word salad that Mr Loved uses to describe his interpretation of “woke”, I’m still not sure what his “woke free” workplace mens?
The (not so) clever use of words to disguise racism isn’t getting past me or many others. The use of the word ‘woke’ as a pejorative is racism. A word hijacked directly from black people (originally in the U.S.) for having the apparent bare faced cheek to protest against being second classed, brutalised, beaten and killed. Now we hear a company, hitherto unheard of (by me at least) and operating in OUR country, plans to display its’ racism on a flag whilst simultaneously and hypocritically taking coin from non white customers. Planning permission must be declined by Wrexham council and… Read more »
He should simply fly a flag that says “I’m a boorish oaf”,
Oh wait, that’s exactly what he has done.
Isn’t the opposite of being woke being asleep and I’m sure that’s what this type of person wants you to be, unfortunately being asleep can turn into a nightmare , and that seems to be what I’m witnessing this weekend
They used to say PC gone mad, now woke. All so they can carry on abusing and offending people. Defending the English empire as good, or the good old days when they could be openly racist. Let him have his flag, rather see the bigot coming and boycott anything to do with this company.
First the Beach Pavilion and now this, weird business plan, come on Wrecsam show him the door…
‘Net World Sports came under fire in November last year after the flag outside it base on Wrexham Industrial Estate was slammed as “offensive” by a local resident.’ Let’s keep a sense of proportion. It’s just a flag bearing a slogan which doesn’t really even deride anybody, much less incite violence or hatred towards any group. It’s just a daft phrase, nothing more. If the owner of this business thinks that there could be some commercial advantage for his business in advertising that he’s on the side of the dim of wit, or whether he actually believes this stuff himself,… Read more »
So many ‘down’-ticks? So be it, but I still think this particular ‘flag’ is so vacuously trivial that it really isn’t worth getting impassioned about it.
I agree to a point… Too much pearl-clutching over this gives ammo to the “you can’t say anything these days” mob as well as giving him a lot of free PR.
The hope is that people see it for the remarkably crass, unkind and immature gesture that it is and judge him accordingly. Certainly feels more like the rantings of a sad inadequate than a professional businessman!
That’s pretty much how I see it too.
Sounds like Trump’s Pillow Man to me…
I expect the word will be defined definitively shortly by Clark of Kent…