2 days ago
We should be plastering the St George's Cross all over Britain, not pulling it down
It is what has happened to areas like this, and a sense that they are rapidly expanding at the expense of traditional white, working-class communities, that is driving mounting public anxiety about our national identity. The wholesale transformation of places where money was always tight but British patriotism was unquestioned has not happened suddenly, but is accelerating with the arrival of thousands more undocumented foreigners with no pre-existing ties to this country every week.
The seismic demographic change raises profound questions over what it means to be British, and whether the scale of immigration (both legal and illegal) is slowly but steadily eroding our identity. What was once a source of British pride – widespread tolerance and even celebration of cultural differences – is giving way to very different feelings over changes that have begun to feel like a threat.
In Alum Rock and many places like it, churches are in danger of becoming redundant – Saltley Methodist Church, a building estate agents describe as a 'striking example of early 20th-century ecclesiastical architecture', is up for auction, while St Matthew's has been turned into a 'business centre' – and replaced by mosques. In communities such as this, Islamic courts are often used to resolve disputes, earning the UK a reputation as the 'Western capital' for sharia law.
Of course, this is still England: the point is that it neither looks nor feels like the country older generations know.
The extent to which growing public angst about these huge cultural shifts is born of 'xenophobia' is a hot debate, but it is very real – as evidenced by a new grass-roots movement to promote British flags.
In what looks very much like the beginning of a cultural fightback, up and down the country, activists have been turning lamp posts into flagpoles and painting flags on roundabouts. Tagged 'Operation Raise the Colours' on social media, the spontaneous flag-hoisting, which began in Birmingham, appears to be going nationwide, even reaching the predominantly black, Asian and minority ethnic London borough of Tower Hamlets.
Stupidly, councils in affected areas are busying themselves pulling down the flags. What madness! It is the worst possible reaction, encapsulating the mess we are in. As fearful authorities in Birmingham and London tear down our own symbols of civic pride, Palestinian flags (theoretically illegal in public places, without express permission, because the UK does not recognise Palestine as a country) continue to fly high. Watching public bodies bending over backwards to respect cultures and identities other than our own, voters despair.
Why can't our leaders see that the raising of British flags is not an act of aggression, but a cri de coeur from a 'native' population that feels subordinated and unheard? Instead of panicking, why don't they lean in, seizing the opportunity to remind anyone who might be 'offended' the name of the country in which they have chosen to live?
It is now 20 years since Tony Blair began retreating from the monster he and his party unwittingly created when they put multiculturalism at the heart of their policy agenda. Reeling from the terror attacks of July 7 2005, the largest mass casualty event in the UK since the Second World War, Blair issued a kind of rallying cry for our country. In a speech that overturned decades of Labour ideology, he warned immigrants they had a 'duty' to integrate, and told them they should adopt our values – or stay away.
What actually happened in the two decades that followed was the reverse. Successive prime ministers continued to allow vast numbers of foreign nationals to move here with little to no requirement to embrace, or even respect, our way of life and norms.
No wonder the white working classes, who have been most disadvantaged by the influx, and many others who continue to believe that our culture and values are superior to those in very different parts of the world, are feeling mutinous.
On TikTok and Facebook, in pubs and social clubs, and at kitchen tables up and down the land, tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of people who have never wanted anything to do with politics share their private despair and ruminate over what is to be done. Raising British flags – whether the Union flag or the St George's Cross or other national flags – seems a civilised way to push back.
Instead of trying to undo it all, politicians should read the room and actively support this peaceful reaffirmation of who we are. Places like Alum Rock demonstrate the case for going further. It is not the British flags but Palestinian ones that should be removed. Following in Denmark's footsteps, the flying of foreign flags should be banned altogether.
Be in no doubt: the mood of the country is precarious. It is time to put down a marker, and remind everyone where they are.
