We need to reclaim the England flag from the far right
I am the MP for Wembley Stadium, the home of English football, and that’s something I take great pride in, not least seeing the huge crowds attending games in my constituency.
So I watched with great interest the outrage regarding Nike altering the colours of the England flag on their latest kit design for the national flag.
Some people are clearly angry about it, and I think as a general rule companies probably shouldn’t tinker with our national flag, but the inconsistent and selective nature of this outrage is blindingly obvious to me.
Unsurprisingly, far-right voices, never missing a trick to try and claim the England flag as their own, were all over social media tying the design tweak to a football kit to their usual bigotry.
‘It just goes to show cultures don’t mix,’ read one response to a debate on the kit, while another said ‘those that see no problem are woke lefties with pronouns and think that immigration is not a problem.’
One caller to a radio show even said the change was ‘representative of cancel culture.’
It’s a reminder that, whether we like it or not, our flags have become political, and that comes with risks.
I fear this issue is getting out of hand and has been, like the St George’s Flag or Union Jack themselves, commandeered maliciously by the far-right, for their own divisive intentions.
When confected rows like this take place, it’s important to take a deep breath, and consider if Nike tweaking our flag is as big a deal as some people want it to be.
After all, it has happened before.
Where was the moral outrage when the Conservative Party changed the Union Jack in their branding to all blue, without the red? Were the Tories accused of being unpatriotic?
How about when UKIP changed the flag to purple? Were they accused of being anti-Britain by fellow right-wingers?
Or what about police officers who wear the thin blue line badge (a black Union Jack flag with a thin blue line running through it). Are those officers going against British values?
Previous England football kits have altered national emblems too. During qualifying games for Euro 2012, tiny St George’s Crosses in different colours were dotted over the shirt.
Those previous occasions, whether sporting or political, did not receive anywhere near as much if any outrage at the time.
So, the question is, what is it to be patriotic? And what does the flag mean, now the far right seem determined to co-opt it?
My brothers had serious fights with racist skinheads carrying the Union Jack 45 years ago. More recently, I remember walking through the Wembley crowds not too long ago and someone carrying a huge St George’s flag shouted racial slurs towards me. I turned around mad as hell, and they walked past heads down.
It was a shocking incident that I reflected on this week as the England kit row got increasingly silly, with even Rishi Sunak getting involved, ignoring the Tories’ recent history with altering the flag and warning Nike they ‘shouldn’t mess’ with it.
The Conservatives have long fanned the flames of divisive culture wars for electoral gain, but even Labour also showed outrage because it seems to do anything less would be accused of not loving your country.
This whole debate is nationalism on steroids. Many people are using this issue to compete about who is more patriotic than the other. There is no flag big enough to satisfy some of these far-right individuals.
But patriotism should not just be about a flag – holding a flag and being racist is not patriotic.
Maybe progressive politicians are missing a trick.
Perhaps if we all covered ourselves with a flag, we could start to discuss why a football kit costs nearly £125? Or why football kits are so often made with cheap labour from abroad, instead of supporting local UK businesses?
The truth is, I would drape myself in a Union Jack if it meant that some of the UK’s biggest injustices could be heard – and justice delivered.
If the victims of the Windrush Scandal covered themselves in Union Jack regalia, would they have finally received justice?
If the WASPI women came out waving the flag, would they finally receive the compensation they so badly deserve?
If the postmasters who suffered so badly from the Horizon scandal came out in patriotic red, white, and blue suits, would they get their compensation and sentences overturned sooner?
And if the victims of the Windrush Scandal covered themselves head to toe in Union Jack regalia, would they have received much more compassion and finally received justice and compensation?
If the flag is what it takes to get the whole country on the side of fighting injustice, I say let’s get sewing!
But this particular row is a distraction, and one which the government relishes.
We must be mindful of those wanting to take advantage of, as Martin Luther King put it: people’s soft-mindedness.
The legendary activist said: ‘The soft-minded man always fears change. He feels security in the status quo, and he has an almost morbid fear of the new. For him, the greatest pain is the pain of a new idea.’
But patriotism isn’t a new idea, it is just one that we’ve seen abused by those seeking to take advantage of the soft-minded.
I receive tons of abuse from people with flags in their profile pictures. Patriotism is not just about sticking a flag in your bio, but how you treat your fellow countrymen and women.
The truth is, it is my flag just as much as anyone else’s.
I am British and was born here, in our amazing capital city – no matter how many right-wing trolls online tell me to ‘go home’.
My parents who came to the UK were as British as the people already here when it comes to their language, what they were taught in school and their respect for British traditions.
So no matter what our views on the Nike row, is it past time to reclaim our flag from the far right?
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk.
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