560 days ago
The Coronation weekend is over but as I drive around the villages around Wrexham and Chester I am struck by how much of the celebratory bunting and flags stay up. Even here on the Welsh side of the border, the red white and blue of the United Kingdom cannot be dodged. My Indian born parents-in-law, old enough to have been born under British Rule, still fly their Union Flags as do so many others. But for years flying such flags was expressly frowned upon by the liberal establishment that runs the media, academia and most of the political class.
1290 days ago
Kier Starmer is acting to purge some of the more extreme anti-semites from the Corbyn era from the Labour Party and that must be applauded. However, in his comments on events in Israel this week he sends out a clear dog whistle call to folks who hate Israel, many of whom do so because they hate the Jews. And that is one reason why, for many of us, Labour, a party where many of its foot soldiers snigger about those who respect the Union flag but put a Palestinian flag on their twitter account, remains beyond the pale.
1388 days ago
A common symptom of severe #BrexitDerangementSyndcrome is starting to hate symbols of the UK, decrying them as Alt Right and loathsome. Greeks can wave the Greek flag, Frogs can wave the Tricolor and folks in Islington can wave the EU flag which I like burning on special occasions as they are all good Europeans. But waving, or displaying, the Union Flag is a sign of supporting UKIP or being an extremist. Or both as anyone who is not to the left of Keir Starmer is automatically an extremist. Meet Sophia Collins.
2964 days ago
Mahamed Abdullahi, the vice president for welfare and community at King’s College London, has called for his university not to play God Save the Queen at graduation ceremonies. In a rant on facebook this elected official stated: "Hey guys, I want to get rid of the national anthem at graduation because it’s outdated and not reflective of the ‘global’ values that the college espouses. In the context of increasing far Right nationalism across Europe and the legacy of the British empire, it’s just a bit s--- and it doesn’t even bang. Basically, f--- the nation state.”
4399 days ago
Hell’s teeth I wave the Irish Tricolour at a sporting event and so I am not sure why it upsets me when folks say that the Union Flag has only recently become acceptable. I think it is a matter of who says it but also that it is so patently wrong. Saturday saw another encounter with folks who are without doubt good people. Nice people. But also, utterly deluded academic lefties. And I lost my temper. The Union Flag has always been “acceptable” to most people in this country. Indeed for most folks it has been – quite rightly – a source of pride.
The thesis of the Guardian reading classes is that somewhere along the line the red, white and blue was high jacked by extreme right wingers of the National Front and BNP and thus became a flag that could not be flown with pride. It was only somewhere between Austin Powers and Cool Britannia (1997) and Mo Farah, the Queen’s Jubilee (2012) that it once again became universally acceptable.
On Saturday, the thesis of the left was pushed even further
