When the late John Hume was a young boy, his father took him to an Irish Nationalist meeting in his native Derry. It was just after the Second World War and the troubles were still over 20 years away, but the room was nonetheless filled with Irish tricolour flags and rebellion was in the air. Seeing his young son’s eyes gleaming at the sight of the flags, Hume’s father looked down at him and said simply, “don’t get involved with that, son”. When the young John Hume asked him why, his father replied simply: “You can’t eat a flag”. his would be a saying that Hume himself would use and become famous for, meaning that issues like housing, employment and a host of other societal problems can’t be solved simply through nationalism and waving a flag around.
I am reminded of this, when I see pictures of the cross of St George and Union Jack flags that have gone up around England and indeed when I see the red crosses painted onto numerous mini roundabouts in Gateshead. You can’t eat a flag.
Terror in a small village
It can be well argued of course that not only can you not eat a flag, but that the present febrile atmosphere in many parts of England, fed all summer by prominent right-wing politicians is becoming decidedly dangerous for many people.
For example, it was reported on 9th September that two weeks earlier, what was described as a mob had walked along one of the main streets of Faversham, the small town in Kent where the narrator lives.
They were stated to be crudely daubing roundabouts and zebra crossings with red crosses and hanging St George’s flags from lamp posts. All the while they were said to be chanting “Seig Heil”. The mob was also said to have been emboldened by Reform, and by politicians from other parties being unwilling to call them out. It was further claimed that they were using the St George’s flag as a symbol of prejudice to instil fear and hate and fear, not as simply bunting.
The narrator then continued: “Fast forward a week, and late at night, a small group stalked the streets – hanging up more distressed nylon and subjecting residents who objected to abuse and threats, filming them for social media channels. The ringleader and his followers also conducted a street patrol – making sure his flags were not touched. Stickers for the British National Socialist Movement, an extreme neo-Nazi group, have materialised on the town’s postboxes and street furniture. Residents feel they are under siege – and the atmosphere for people, especially those of colour, in the town is like the 1970s when the National Front held sway (I’m in my 50s so I remember that time well, and I cannot believe we are back in this position)”.
The next day, the veteran writer about racism in Britain, Gary Younge was noted as saying that while not all xenophobia is racist, all xenophobia feeds racism and that the moment we are going through presently as a country felt different to other outbursts of xenophobia and somehow more dangerous.
Real patriotism
We seem to be at a menacing crossroads in this country, and we badly need some leadership to help us define what patriotism really is. For far too long images and definitions of patriotism have been dominated by a right-wing discourse around flags and other symbols and has been notable for its distinct lack of inclusivity. You only need to watch one of the many programmes about 1940’s Germany on television every week on the Yesterday Channel or PBS America, to see where the preponderance of flags and the exclusivity of certain groups can lead.
Surely, there is anyway a deeper, more satisfying and more meaningful patriotism, which is far away from the pictures of men waving flags outside hotels and shouting obscenities. That is patriotism based on genuinely helping the country and those around you.
This patriotism includes performing acts such as giving blood, helping in your local community as a volunteer in some form or other and, unlike many right-wing newspaper owners, paying your taxes properly to help us to have well-funded public services. Meanwhile, four years ago the most patriotic thing you could do was surely to get your Covid-19 vaccine as soon as you could.
Positive and negative identities
There is one other aspect to the flag waving which I find troubling and that is the aspect of positive and negative identities.
To try and explain what I mean I will give you a couple of scenarios of what I think could be said to be positive English identities. If someone said to me that they were proud to be English and I asked them why and they responded, ‘because England has produced the players of Shakespeare and the music of The Beatles, both of which have gone around the world and entertained and enlightened people’, then I would think that was a very fair comment. That would be a positive identity, simply identifying positively with what you see as your country.
However, what we are seeing outside hotels and in other respects is I believe a negative identity. It is saying we are proud to be English because to us that doesn’t include various groups of people. It is a negative emotion which of course can then lead to negative actions.
A positive North East identity
Here in the Northeast, we need to develop a positive identity for ourselves around our sense of place, our heritage of warmth and human decency, our traditions of innovations and inventions and perhaps most of all a positive identity which looks forward as well as backwards. There are strong foundations upon which we can build an identity that is both positive and inclusive.
And let us also remember but real patriotism is found in things like small acts of kindness to those around us and working towards making the country a fairer and happier place. There is surely a lot more to patriotism than just waving a flag around.
Because after all, you can’t eat a flag.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO OUR CROWDFUNDER
HELP US BECOME STRONGER SO THAT WE CAN CONTINUE TO DELIVER POWERFUL CITIZEN JOURNALISM!
