[National flags in Epping, where I lived for 3 years.]
I've always been uncomfortable about the English national flag. It resonates its crusader past with maximum discomfort. It reminds the literate reader of barbaric times when “we” raped and pillaged our way towards Jerusalem. When flown at English football matches, it is barely tolerable and on those rare occasions when we smash the Aussies utterly forgivable. It even looks cute on the back of a Royal Navy frigate. But to wave it outside one’s dining room is in the worst of taste– at least in ordinary times. And these aren't ordinary times.
Unlike Americans who wave their banner proudly outside their homes and Israelis who wear the Star of David on their lapel, the English frown paternalistically on such simple pastimes. To the residents of Cambridge and Bristol, there is nothing more cringe-worthy than displaying the national banner for all to see. Nothing says “foreign” quite like a flag on a flagpole.
Our natural recoiling from flag-based nationalism has many roots. True enough, the banner of St George has oft been co-opted by the far right. Yet all this tells us is that the regular English feel no reason to own it. The more pertinent question is why we felt so uncomfortable with our flag in the first place.
There are many reasons, the main one being that it represents a different country. The flag of St George is named after a man who never lived in England and was made famous by a King - Richard the Lionheart - who never stepped foot here. Neither man had any relationship with the country nor spoke the national language. Instead they spent an inordinate amount of time in the Middle East slaying dragons and Jews respectively.
It represents a time when the country had a different national religion, a different elite language and an entirely different foreign orientation. Since the reign of King Henry VIII, we have gone from being a tiny Catholic, Continental power, interested only in wars with France, to being an international, maritime, Protestant polity with eyes on the open seas, capital and trade. Where internal conflicts and barbaric crusades used to be our stock-in-trade, Elizabeth I turned our heads toward toleration. Her religious settlement made us at peace with ourselves. Her alliance with Ottoman Muslims (against the Catholics) made us value economic growth over petty European religious bickering.
Put simply, the flag of St George represents an entirely different country, a barbaric nowhere at the ends of the Earth. To advance, our banner and our entire national identity had to change.
[A French-speaking, not very English, King sieges Acre in modern day Israel.]
Since we joined with the Scots as Britain, we have literally created the modern world. Almost everything we value as civilised, modern people was invented or made to work here. From representative Parliamentary democracy to the rule of law to the common law legal tradition to the telephone to the steam engine to the Industrial Revolution to the railways to free market international trade to international order to the computer to the internet to the toothbrush to the telescope to the Laws of Motion to the abolition of the Slave Trade to the mighty English language to Oxbridge to scientific discoveries galore to almost every major global sport, it came from here. When you have such a record of historical achievement - and that list is far from exhaustive - what need do we have to wave a blood-spitting flag from a different country, disappeared in the sands of time?
England knows this. The English know this. Which is why when you travel South from Gretna Green, the “Welcome to England” sign is smaller and less conspicuous than a traffic signpost, sporting the tiniest flag you could ever imagine. I LOVE IT! The subtle wink makes me smile. For far from being a sign (pun intended) of national shame, it is a telling psychological signal —- that such a land of achievement is well aware of its greatness. It doesn’t need an unrepresentative banner to diminish it.
Small countries often need flags and local languages to make them feel better about themselves. It’s the classic small penis problem. We are Basque! We have a flag! We have a local language! We are amazing and special! By contrast if you actually have done something special, you can put away your stupid flag and actually make some important scientific advancements. So when Scotland matches our piddly little non-welcome sign with the largest “Welcome to Alba!” you could imagine, the laugh is on them. They are feeling insecure. They think a big flag is going to change their destiny.
They would be better off remaining in the Union. Together we have transformed the world. Together we have made multi-national peace. Alone they can transform the flag-making industry.
Britain isn't merely the union between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is the transformation of a backwards, long forgotten vassal State of Christendom called Medieval England into the greatest nation that has ever walked the Earth. Almost everything that we take for granted in the civilized world came from here. Our Empire - as Empires go - was by far the most advanced and civilising the world has ever seen, putting those of the French, Belgiums, Spanish, Arabs and Aztecs into the humanitarian shade. (And let us not forget the Russian and Chinese, which the decolonisation brigade have forgotten still exist.) Which is why the embarrassing St George's flag has long since been eclipsed by the Union Jack, with the openness and multi-national co-operation it represents.
Just go and to speak to the Arabs of Israel and you'll understand this difference in branding. Take a trip to the Crusader town of Acre (Akko) and tell the local salesman you’re English. He'll tell you what he told me: Ah….English…Richard the Lionheart! Then go to the Negev and announce to the Bedouin that you're British. They'll tell you what they told me: Ah…British….(big smile)....you’re our friends. English and British aren’t synonymous: they represent a millennium of difference. And when you see that Acre’s main thoroughfare is called Rehov Saladin and the tiny, adjoining alley with overflowing litter is called Richard the Lionheart Street, you’ll laugh at “your” monarch’s humiliation, not cry vengeance. Richard was a barbarian from a different country.
The above being said, you can imagine my thoughts about “Operation Raise the Colours”. The proliferation of St George's Banner on the streets of Stevenage and elsewhere seems like athrowback to a different millennium and a different country. It makes me feel like a foreigner, a British immigrant in an English land.
Or at least that’s what I would have felt if it hadn’t been for a nefarious, countervailing phenomenon, namely the proliferation of the even more horrendous Palestinian flag. Seeing the banner of this anti-peace, racist, sexist and violent entity lining our streets makes me - makes us - seethe with anger. It will not pass. Videos of working class people from Liverpool to Essex raising the national flag in their own country is less of a reminiscence of those good ol’ pre-Tudor days and more an expression of opposition to Palestinianism.
Ironic, is it not, that St George’s banner only makes a revival in an era of Crusades?! Out of retirement one last time to fight the Saracen. This time, however, it’s different, because for the 10th Crusade, the shoe is on the other foot. In the past, “we” were the barbaric aggressors. “We” came from the backward land with outdated customs. “We” were those who would strike down helpless Arab women in the street and humiliate downtrodden Jewish scholars. Sure, the Arabs had conquered the Levant; sure they had imposed a Jizyah tax to raise revenue from the “infidel”; but they were a definite step up from Byzantine barbarism. Where once Heraclius had banned the Jews from Jerusalem, now all faiths could pray freely and live in (relative) toleration. If we had been alive then, we would have cheered on Umar against Heraclius and Saladin against Richard. Frankly, it’s hard to imagine Maimonides working under the Lionheart.
[The other team.]
But today, the tables have turned. The Arabs have come here. Palestinianists are the Crusaders and we are the Saracen. They are the backward, violent savages and we are the relatively enlightened. Any Saturday night in Bracknell will show our still-ingrained Viking roots, but compared to the hate, homophobia and antisemitism of Gazan society, I know whose side I’m on. I know which society I wish to defend. I know who Maimonides would work for today. The Flag of St George, for a short time at least, has become the defence against invading ideologies that have no place here. This is yet another Crusade that needs defeating.
The moment that Councils prohibit the Palestinian emblem from public spaces, you can be sure that the English flag will be rolled up once more. People will still be pissed off with the unconsented rate of immigration, but they will express their concerns through the normal, democratic process. The desire to raise the flag, by contrast, is the response to a foreign interloper; the hateful symbol of Arab rejectionism. They don’t want to see it on our streets. I don’t want to see it on our streets.
When the appallingly anti-patriotic and anti-Western Jeremy Corbyn poses for photos amongst a sea of Palestinian emblems - not even one national flag in sight - we know that he's playing for the wrong team. Hamas really are his friends. Can someone please give him and his movement a one-way ticket out of our country?
Ultra-leftists and Islamists can't have it both ways. They say that the English flag is divisive. Then what the hell is the Palestinian flag? They say that the English flag balkanises our communities. Well what about the Palestinian flag? They call for peace, love, motherhood and apple pie. Then why do they support a nation soaked in terrorist blood? Would it not be better to get all flags off the streets so that we can get back to being the Britain that defined the modern world? Would it not be better to end these weekly, hateful Palestine protests - with their foreign, rectangular, nylon provocations - so that we can get back to the innovation which is us at our best?
BUT let’s say this. If we must have flags, then let them be the national flag. The English flag belongs in England. The British flag belongs in Britain. The Palestinian flag belongs in a dustbin. Only when they finally seek peace, should it be retrieved for view in the civilised world.
Great read, but my take on the increased popularity of the England flag is that it is more of a reaction to the Scottish (and to lesser extent Welsh) devolution movements. I think most english would have happily focused on the the Union Jack. Unless we are talking football of course!
Interestingly, this has been brewing longer than one might think. When I lived in the UK from 2000-2007, all the English flags came out for the World Cup. A colleague of mine told me that all these England flags was a new phenomena and the English tended not to do the whole flag-waving thing.