Don't wave that flag!

 

Recently many Union Jack flags have appeared on the streets around where I live. I think it's a message from the newly Reform-controlled county council; I think they expect me to feel "How proud I am to be British!" 

Instead, the message I see is simply: "Fuck off foreigners; we're British and we don't want you". IMHO that's the message which any refugees, asylum seekers ...and many of my minority neighbours will be seeing. It doesn't matter a jot whether that is the intended message or not, because plenty of people in this country have made it clear that this is exactly their message and agents such as Reform UK are exploiting this.

I've always had a problem with some of the language you hear around nationality. Through some lucky accident of birth I am British: born in a wealthy, stable, country (with - big bonus - parents who, though not well-off, provided for, and loved us.) It seems odd to me that I am expected, by some, to be proud of this fact. 

In my eyes there's nothing wrong with pride in itself - pride in an achievement or skill, or in the skill and achievement of others whom you have either taught or are close to. (As long as it isn't accompanied by boasting and self-aggrandisement.) But pride in where you happen to have been born???? I can as much feel pride in this as I can feel personal shame for the appalling fact of colonialism by previous inhabitants of the land of my birth. 

I may feel pleased if England does well in the World Cup, or Team GB does well in the Olympics, but that's pleasure, not pride.

Ditto the concept of "love for my country".  Love is for people, FFS! It's something that, at least has the potential to be reciprocated, even if it isn't mutual. I can no more love a country (or any other institution) than I can a teapot.

So enough of these flags, profiling, and other transparent attempts by the media and extremists to otherize specific groups of my fellow humans. We're all the same species and need to look out for each other. 

Rant over.