The PSNI have removed LVF flags from an estate in Holywood, Co. Down.

Officers recovered paramilitary flags from a gang of men in the Loughview area at about 10PM on Friday night (although details were only released last night). 5 men were questioned and 2 have since been reported to the DPP.

The first convictions for displaying paramilitary flags came as a result of an offence in Loughview in 2003 when 4 men were charged and convicted under the Terrorism Act (2002). The LVF in the area obviously aren't fast learners!

Follow up:

It's good to see the police enforcing this legislation. Paramilitary flags are a real problem, especially in loyalist areas. They're an affront to decency and taste and shouldn't be tolerated.

The flags are used to mark territory, to intimidate people (Loughview is a mixed estate) and to infer support for illegal organisations far in excess of the levels of support they really enjoy. Nobody wants to have to look at them every day, especially when they're left there for months to get all tattered and torn.

Not only are they an embarrassment to drive past, they make the area look even more ghettoised and what business is going to want to set up in an area that appears to be run by criminal gangs?

I hope this is the beginning of a long chain of similar actions by the police.