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Reclaim the Flag
People, we have a problem, for the land is disunited. If recent polling suggests just over half of ethnic minority adults see the St George’s Cross as racist, then we should all be very worried. Those adults are not observing the events of Operation Raise the Colours in a vacuum. There’s a history going back decades of the England flag being used as a racist symbol. If you don’t remember, then you’re lucky to be young enough to not have witnessed it.
When I drive around and see the St George’s Cross, I wonder whether I’m welcome in the area. I saw the image above on a back street in Brighton and it captures that feeling in a tongue-in-cheek manner. Flags are territorial, they suggest ownership, and they can tell you who’s welcome and who isn’t. Just ask anybody from Northern Ireland whether a flag is benign. They can be, but they’re often not, especially in a nation that wears its politesse and diffidence on its sleeve like a Scout’s badge of honour. We are a country of “it is not the done thing”.
Without giving too much away, I’m black British. And I’m proud of both my African ancestry and British citizenship. I often say that Britain is one of the best places in the world to be black, which is not to say that it’s perfect - it isn’t. Nowhere is. It’s not to absolve Britain of its part in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, or in colonial conquest, but to acknowledge that despite some of its ills, this is a nation of good eggs.
Many of those good eggs are also proud to be British, and under normal circumstances would be happy with the England or Union flag being flown at the Olympics and other sporting competitions, or waving them vigorously at the Last Night of the Proms. However, if you asked them their thoughts on people like Laurence Fox and Tommy Robinson, they’d probably give a very British response like, “oh, he’s an absolute knob”. Yet these are just two of the people who’ve parked their arses on the Union Flag and St George’s Cross, and by default have imbued these symbols with what they represent.
The St George’s Cross and the Union Flag do not belong to them alone. And the sentiments they express while using those symbols do not represent large swathes of the British people. Whether we/they like it or not, the flags still belong to all of us. And if we allow only them to define what these symbols mean or who is welcome beneath their banner, we all become co-opted by their corrupted campaign. So what do we do? We take those symbols back. We Reclaim the Flag from those who want to create an “us” and “them” society. We use those same symbols to express attitudes that are anathema to the Christian nationalists, the xenophobes, the racists, and divisionists.
And that’s why I created this (basic) store and the various flag designs, so that people can express themselves as English and British outside the orbit of the Tommy Robinsons of this world. Surely no Christian Nationalist would object to a flag that says "Love thy Neighbour". Not for nothing does Jesus say in the Book of Matthew that it is one of the two most important commandments. How about a flag that says "Refugees Welcome", to perfectly encapsulate what this nation is and aspires to be. And finally, "Not All Angles", because not all Angles who fly the Cross of St George are Christian nationalists, xenophobes, racists, or divisionists.
