Why is the NHS in a flap about flags?

In the latest fit of hysteria over people raising a Cross of St George or a Union flag outside their homes and elsewhere, the chief executive of an NHS trust in England has claimed that black and Asian staff have been left feeling ‘deliberately intimidated’.

According to the Guardian, the anonymous NHS official in question said he felt that the flags – raised by members of the public across the UK this summer – were ‘creating no-go zones’. He said the flag displays were ‘designed’ to make staff feel uncomfortable. The disclosure comes a week after health secretary Wes Streeting claimed that NHS staff were bearing the brunt of the return to the ‘ugly’ racism of the 1970s and 1980s – an era of violence, harassment and intimidation by the likes of the National Front.

To an extent, I can understand why some black and Asian people are perturbed by the flags, given that far-right movements and organisations in the past have sought to co-opt them. But so-called progressives now vilifying campaigns like Operation Raise the Colours and others putting up Union Jacks as racist and xenophobic are making things worse. They are telling black and Asian people that they should find the flags intimidating and unwelcoming. Indeed, by automatically dismissing the Union Jack and St George’s Cross as racist, xenophobic and ethno-nationalist, they destroy their potential as symbols of cultural unity and shared values.

The ‘progressive’ assault on flag-raising has been relentless. Since it started, Operation Raise the Colours has been derided as some kind of boisterous far-right uprising, focussed on intimidating ethnic and racial minorities in Britain. My reading of it is rather different. It is instead a quiet expression of cultural resistance among the traditional working classes, where feelings of marginalisation and disaffection run deep.

Time and again, Britain’s public institutions – including the NHS – have been more than happy to celebrate the history and culture of other countries, while doing down Britain and England. Multicultural ideology has effectively elevated minority identities, while denigrating the national identity of the majority.

Raising the national flag is considered to be perfectly normal behaviour in many parts of the world. Why shouldn’t it be deemed normal here? Those now doing so aren’t trying to revive the National Front. They’re merely trying to reaffirm a bit of national pride after years of being put down.

As symbols of patriotism, flags have the power to foster a more cohesive society in an increasingly volatile world. Public institutions like the NHS shouldn’t be demonising patriotism. They should be encouraging and celebrating it, preferably with a flag.

Rakib Ehsan is the author of Beyond Grievance: What the Left Gets Wrong about Ethnic Minorities, which is available to order on Amazon.