The Tories' continued fixation with flying the Union Jack is deeply irritating. I wrote this on Twitter last night:
What really sickens me about the Tories use of the Union Jack is that they’re treating it as their flag, presuming this is their country. It isn’t, and I loathe their attitude that presumes the rest of us are happy that they can appropriate what is not theirs for their own gain.
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) March 28, 2021
Three things irk.
First, the national flag is not the Tories' to appropriate for their own use.
Second, to suggest that it is, as they imply, sows division on this issue, which cannot be helpful in any way, unless division is their aim.
Third, the instruction that the UK nation's own flags must be flown subordinate to the Union Jack is an uncouth indication of continuing colonial intent.
Implicit in all this is the deeply anti-democratic view that to disagree is to be unacceptable, when disagreement is at the very heart of democracy.
My fear is that literally nothing good can come from this policy, which has been so mindlessly embraced by Labour, as if to confirm that obsequious compliance with Tory agendas is now required.
How long will it be before flags are in classrooms, and planning permission for flagpoles will be automatic outside homes? I suspect both will happen. And all with the aim of dividing not just the Union, but England too. Labelling by the absence of a flag will become all too easy.
I confess, this is deeply unsettling.
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I think I’m going to start flying the Irish tricolour and the Welsh dragon outside my house if things go on as they are. My ancestry is (approx) 0.5 English, 0.25 Irish and 0.25 Welsh but I feel more affinity with Wales and Ireland than I do with England under the current political leadership!
🙂
Good idea, Howard. 🙂 Would be nice to see you again; maybe at a RadStats meeting when we can all get together again. Hope you have been well.
I lived in Nigeria from 94-97 and it was pretty commonplace for government/federal/state institutions to have photos of the current dictator photographed in front of the Nigerian flag. It usually didn’t last long – well until the next coup. Many a time I looked up to see a sunglasses clad Sani Abacha overlooking the office. When the flag changes from a Union Jack to an English St. Georges cross then……………………
When sailing, I have flown an EU flag instead of a Red Ensign for the 3 years. Seems to get a better reception.
So you happily fly the EU flag without protest yet you moan when others fly the Union Jack? What hypocrisy
You do realise that a yacht has to be flagged, I presume?
NB: I am also aware that this appears to be a duplicate identity
I did not say I objected to others flying a Red Ensign – merely that my EU ensign got a better reception in Scotland, France, Belgium and Holland. In England? I don’t think it made a difference.
@Clive Parry
And I hope you still continue to do so.
For the ‘EU flag’ was ‘adopted’ from the Council of Europe, itself created in 1949 by the Treaty of London, no less. And the UK of course still remains a member, though I’m not sure all the Tories realise:
https://www.coe.int/en/web/about-us/the-european-flag
Designed by a French-Germany painter Arsène Heitz, and a Belgian journalist and holocaust survivor, Paul Lévy, who was detained for a time at Fort Breendonk but released and escaped to London, where he worked for the Belgian government in exile. Lest we forget where things can end up.
“Against the blue sky of the Western world, the stars symbolise the peoples of Europe in a form of a circle, a sign of union. Their number is invariably twelve, the figure twelve being the symbol of perfection and entirety.”
Or, if you prefer, it was apparently inspired by a vision of the Virgin Mary, crowned with stars against the blue sky. Appropriate for today’s sunny weather. Happy Easter.
🙂
I fully support the Toryscum fixation with the Union Jack. Indeed, I am please to announce a range of Union Jack products such that even in the privacy of the toilet your eyes will be able to rest on this glorious flag:
Union jack toilet paper – allow your bum to feast its eyes on its wonderfull colours
Union jack toilet roll covers
Union Jack bog brush – to clean the toiley with – no turd is safe.
Downing Street and the Mendacious Fat, the Uk’s esteemed great leader will be supplied gratis with supplies (bog roll extra width and double strength).
I will leave readers of this august organ to speculate on my seriousness.
Peter May on Progressive Pulse gave us Cold War Steve’s take on flags the other day. http://www.progressivepulse.org/society/fascistic-tendencies. Of course it couldn’t happen here.
Very good
Starmer does not show any appetite for confronting this head on. Has he accepted that the voting public he needs to win back is essentially Tory and so he must not challenge what he sees as Tory positions or Tory icons? I fear what he has offered so far is not working. I listened to Tom Watson on (I think) The Week in Politics on radio 4 on Saturday, saying he is playing it just right but on the Spycops bill, challenging the new policing bill, and really addressing Tory corruption and cronyism he’s the man who isn’t there.
‘The Butcher’s Apron’ means nothing to me other than that I live in a country of rich people who like to rub the faces of the less well off into the dirt 24/7, 365 days a year.
You can say what you like about the U.S. and elsewhere, but this country (when you really think about places like Jersey etc.,) has the oppression of people through money off to a high art. With the decline of our empire, the only thing that came home was empiricism – not able to subdue foreigners our Establishment decided to take it out on us instead.
Sceptred Isle? Septic Isle – that’s what we and our so-called democracy are. The Gerrymandered State in all it’s glory.
The problem for the British left has always been one of how to address the question of patriotism without it turning into jingoistic nationalism. George Orwell famously wrote:
“In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings. It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during ‘God save the King’ than of stealing from a poor box”
We’ve all possibly moved on from standing to attention but there is still the question of the flags. Let’s be clear. It’s only Union Flag. And Not the European Union flag! It’s perfectly OK to paint a circle of stars on your face!
I’m not sure we are any closer to resolving the issue. We need to try harder. The British working classes are very patriotic and we shouldn’t concede that ground to the Tories unchallenged. I fear it will be a major problem in the Hartlepool by-election which we could well lose.
In “My Country Right or Left” Orwell sought to reconcile his feelings of patriotism with left wing views. I would argue successfully. We need to take a cue from the same approach.
The union flag is now the ‘Gessler’s Hat’ of the 21st century…..
As I declared my nationality in the recent census to as European I have the right to fly the European flag instead of some outdated red white and blue thing that I have never liked since childhood.
What about Sturgeon standing in front of the Saltire at her press conferences – is that “unsettling”, “sickening” and “appropriation” too?
In the context, no
That’s because she is quite specifically campaigning for a vision of Scotland
Johnson is not campaigning for a vision of the UK, whatever that is
And the baggage is fundamentally different
Of course, it’s always different when someone else flies the flag. They are always doing so for honourable reasons.That’s fine, nothing to see here.
You really do not get the difference between the flag of the oppressor and the flag of the pressed, do you?
In your simple little black and white world there is no nuance
In the real world there is
Please don’t call again
“Johnson is not campaigning for a vision of the UK”
The words ‘Johnson’ and ‘vision’ don’t sit well in the same sentence. But there are others in the Tory party who do have a vision. They are possibly an even bigger danger!
It’s a pity we can’t be more like the French or even the Americans who can fly their National flags without a scrutiny of their underlying motives. But we obviously can’t be. So maybe we should be looking for new design?
It’ll be needed if/when Scotland opts for independence: the absence of the Saltire will force a design re-think, just as the secession of Scotland will force a rethink of the purpose and governance of rUK.
Perhaps some will have noticed that the flags in the government briefing petit-palais are always so draped that the cross of St George is prominent. The rest of the Union appears stuck in corners with little relevance.
Is is hidden Tory policy to get rid of N.I. then Scotland, so that they will dominate and control the (English and a little Welsh) parliament for the foreseeable future?
‘What really sickens me about the Tories use of the Union Jack is that they’re treating it as their flag, presuming this is their country.’
Me too. But remember that the Establishment for which Johnson works has always believed that it is their country. That’s why they have never, and will never, give it up to a left wing party, whatever the majority wishes of the nation.
Oh, and their obsession with the Union flag also means they will never allow the blue of Scotland to be removed. Never, Nicola!
Well Richard, if you put a tasteful Union Jack up in the top corner of your blog you wouldn’t have to worry right?
j/k
Reminds me of the poppy. I lost my grandfather and two great uncles to the world wars so it’s always meant a lot to me. Now the whole occasion is rather distasteful with the sabre rattlers ventriloquising the views of the brave men who fought “the war to end wars.”
And heaven help anyone foolish enough to go on telly in November without one.
I agree
I never knew the grandfather who gave me his name
But I sure as heck resent the way the poppy appeal has been abused as a symbol of nationalism
I suspect a part of it is that the generations that actually fought and suffers in either of the world wars have either passed or are almost gone, so the direct memory and proper perspective – the real meaning of the poppy and the extraordinary blood sacrifice in the firs war, and the dire experience of fighting rampant populist nationalism in the second – have almost gone with them. We are left with the jingoistic and imperialistic false memories of the post war generation and their children. The elevation of Churchill to near-sainthood is a case in point: like any important historical figure – Cromwell, say, or the Duke of Wellington – there is much to be said, both good and bad.
I completely agree. It’s all part of the English exceptionalism and anti-internationalism the Tories now represent. There’s nothing worse than tenth rate politicians wrapping themselves in the ‘flag’ and claiming to be patriotic.
I suppose it goes with their arrogant claim to be the ‘natural party of government’, whereas in fact they represent a (albeit large) minority of the electorate, and only get their undeserved majorities thanks to FPTP and the idiotic tribalism of Labour.
Andrew is right. As those who actually fought in the two terrible world wars die out, empty jingoistic claptrap and sentimentalisation of ‘those who fell’ gets an airing from right wing idiots who never accepted the loss of the Empire. And that applies to the poppy as well as the flag. I stopped wearing one years ago when I realized how it was being appropriated by some of these people. I too can’t abide the November poppy fascism fest.
Incidentally, did anyone see last night’s Panorama about the extraordinarily poor testing of Covid samples at the MK ‘lighthouse’ testing lab? It seemed entirely apposite to me that along with the failure of the testing regime there, every time you saw the front of the building, there were 3 bloody great union flags flying outside. Ridiculous. Bombastic flag waving, and real life failure.
The future of the UK I assume.
Dear Richard
Thank you so much for this blog.
Johnson is not campaigning for a vision of the UK, whatever that is
It seems to me that having lost our identity in Europe, and facing a very uncertain future on the global stage with no outlet for his colonial obsession, Boris Johnson is *very much* engaged in a campaign for a vision of the UK, ‘whatever that is!’ This is desperation. He has no idea what it is but it does have a colonial flavour and it starts with everyone gathering around the flag and inhaling….deeply. That is the substance of his campaign.
I’m looking forward to Boris channeling his “inner-Churchill” and announcing that “a chintz curtain has descended on the English Channel!”