When you pick up a flag, you can’t expect to just have your meaning of it accepted by everybody, says musician Billy Bragg
When the Lionesses came home victorious after winning in Europe, delighted fans waved St George’s and Union flags in celebration of their win.
This week has seen flags being raised again in communities across the country, in a campaign which claims to be promoting patriotism.
The Wythall Flaggers group are asking for every street in their Worcestershire village to be covered in flags. They’ve crowdfunded around £3,500 towards costs through GoFundMe, where they describe themselves, saying: “This is NOT racist, never has been, never will be. We have members of the community of all ethnicities and religions stopping by and praising what we are doing.”
But, in an interview on LBC radio, musician and anti-racism campaigner Billy Bragg, asked presenter Nick Abbott: “What is the Flaggers’ motivation?”
Billy says
“In the case of the Wythall Flaggers, the question is, ‘what is the motivation behind this?’
I love our flag, I’m a patriot myself. But I don’t want my flag being used to intimidate my neighbours. I really object to that.
Say they (the Wythall Flaggers) put up a community Facebook page and said, ‘we want to do a St George’s Day event. Everybody’s welcome, come on down. You know, we’re going to celebrate the fact that St George was born in Lebanon. He came here. Now it’s part of our story,’ that kind of thing. You can see the context with that.
But when it’s just suddenly a load of flags appear, you do have to think to yourself, what’s the meaning of this?
I think, unfortunately, in the current context, where there’s so much hostility towards people who have come to this country without any papers, I think it’s a bit of a tinderbox around that issue. We’ve seen that with people outside the asylum hostels.
Clearly the people are demonstrating. They are very angry about the situation and it only takes a small thing to set this off into a spiral of violence.
If you see the flag of St. George flying from the church tower when you’re in the countryside somewhere, you know what the context is. Or you might see it when there’s a World cup on or something like that. And, you know, the context is support for sport.
But in the case of the Wythall Flaggers, the question is, what is their motivation behind this?
Flags have meaning. It’s true of the trans rights flag, the Palestinian flag, and it’s true of the flag of England as well.
It’s all about context, really. And in this context, I think there’s an ambiguity.
And from what’s been written on their GoFundMe, they clearly know there’s a provocative aspect to what they’re doing. And unfortunately, you know, these things can quickly get out of hand.
For instance, I’ll show you what I mean.
Next month, on 20 September, I’m doing a benefit for Palestinian aid at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire, and there will be a lot of Palestinian flags there. I’ll probably have one on stage.
There will be some people who say, ‘well, by flying that flag, you’re supporting terrorism.’ Whereas we know our intentions are purely with regard to humanitarian aid for people in Gaza.
So, when you pick up a flag, you can’t expect to just have your meaning of it accepted by everybody.
With patriotism, I think a person’s identity is their own sense of who they are.
Sometimes you feel a bit patriotic. Perhaps when the football’s on you feel patriotic or it might be when the coronation was on, you feel patriotic or trooping the colour.
I would say your, your flag waving patriot is someone who believes passionately in the symbolism of patriotism and they like the symbols because symbols are immutable, they never change – they mean the same thing all the time to them. Whereas my patriotism is based on values, the values we have as a society, values of tolerance and empathy, values of accountability.
These are the issues that I feel very strongly about.
My patriotism comes out when I see our country, particularly our government, not living up to those values.
So I think there are different types of patriotism and what we’re seeing, I think, with the Wythall flaggers is they’re trying to enforce their particular type of patriotism on everybody.
I don’t want it (our flag) to symbolise a narrow definition of Englishness, where everybody has to conform to a particular historical narrative that is exclusive, rather than being inclusive.
England is an amazing place. It’s one of the most multicultural places in Europe, and I’m proud of it whenever I look.
You know, if you want to see a reflection of what it’s like, look at any of our sporting teams and national sporting teams. We’re a multicultural nation. I’m very proud of that. And it’s what makes me feel patriotic.
Source: Mirror
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