How come these councillors don’t get it? Those flags have been put up by angry, frustrated residents who are sick to the back teeth of being told its racist and nationalistic to display their country’s flag. They’re sick of being told they should be ashamed of Britain and its history. They’re sick of being told their patriotism is offensive to people. Well, tough if it is. People who hate our values, our culture, our past shouldn’t come here. And if they do – they should adopt our culture and not try to impose their own.
If you’re a guest in our country - respect it. Or get out of it!
As for those councillors in Birmingham and Tower Hamlets they clearly hate Britain and everything it stands for. But worse they hate the fact that millions of people still have a huge love for, and feel great pride in this country, which is what they’re determined to stamp it out.
Birmingham council was perfectly happy to have Palestinian flags flying all over the city. They presented no danger at all apparently – it was just the British ones.
Could all this anti-British flag sentiment have anything to do with the fact that Birmingham has the highest proportion of Muslims among all English and Welsh Core Cities?
Ditto Tower Hamlets which also has a significant Muslim population and multiple Muslim councillors.
Could it be these councillors believe the British flag is alienating ethnic minority voters? You’d hope not because very often ethnic minority people feel a far stronger sense of British identity than white Brits. They’re proud to be British and to wave our flag in gratitude for what Britain has done for them.
But back to Birmingham – not only has it been happily flying Palestinian flags it was also flying Pakistani ones to celebrate Pakistani Independence Day. Why? This isn’t Pakistan.
They even flooded a local library in green and white - the Pakistan flag colours - at great cost to ALL local residents, not just the Pakistani ones. None of which was deemed offensive or divisive. But apparently Union Jacks and the St George’s flags are.
All of which is totally at odds with what Keir Starmer says. He wants people to fly the British flag whenever and wherever. “Labour is a patriotic party,” he says. Which seems a bit of a joke as the two councils now tearing down our flags are Labour councils.
Now people are rising up all over Britain as part of a campaign called Operation Raise the Colours. They’re people who aren’t ashamed of their country. And they don’t see our flag as an embarrassment, an affront or an insult.
They feel great pride in being British and they want to be free to celebrate the great things about this country without being told they’re Nazis, racists or jingoists.
Nor do they want to have to keep apologising for the sins of our past. And they refuse to keep prostrating and flagellating themselves over things that happened hundreds of years ago because they know they can’t change it.
As a country we can only learn from it – and we have. The people who want to erase the Union Jack from our cultural footprint are pretty dense because they confuse patriotism with nationalism, which are two entirely different things.
Why don’t the haters see that patriotism is a positive force for good that can unify nations because it fosters a sense of shared identity and belonging.
Maybe that’s what irritates those people who want to banish our Union Jack. They don’t want this nation to be unified around its Britishness and its shared pride. They want it stamped out and replaced with something far more sinister.
I’m not usually a flag-waver, but I think I’m about to become one. As for those Birmingham residents who had to watch their council take them all down. Well, they’ve just put them all up again.
Good on them. They must keep doing it. The nation is behind them!
