A fatwa on the England flag

The leader of Oxfordshire County Council issued a stern warning this week. Acts of ‘intimidation’, Liz Leffman said, had left residents feeling ‘distressed, unwelcome and unsafe in their own communities’. ‘We will not hesitate to take further legal steps where necessary’, she said, reassuring Oxonians that this outbreak of criminality would be met with the full force of the council’s authority.

This is very strong language. So strong, in fact, that you could be forgiven for thinking that Oxfordshire might be in the midst of an epidemic of burglary, knife-crime or drive-by shootings. You would be wrong. The ‘crime’ Leffman is referring to is flying the English flag.

‘The widespread installation of flags by Raise the Colours is not a sign of patriotism’, said Leffman, referring to the campaign launched last summer to flood England’s towns with national flags. Apparently, flag-raising ‘is an act of intimidation and division that is having a real and damaging impact on our communities’. Locals were left under no illusion as to the council’s commitment to end the scourge of patriotism: ‘The council has a responsibility to act where behaviour undermines community cohesion and the safe and inclusive use of public spaces. That is why we are taking firm action.’

The Raise the Colours campaign had barely got off the ground last year before councils across England cobbled together various excuses as to why English flags had to be removed from public view. Most of them resorted to pedantic interpretations of the local planning laws, as was the case with Tower Hamlets in London and the Birmingham City Council. None had the courage to say what most of us suspected was their true motivation – and what Oxfordshire has now said openly – namely, that they cannot stand to see open displays of English patriotism.

Indeed, Leffman’s threats and condemnations are only a more extreme form of the objections to Raise the Colours that have been present from the beginning. Last year, an NHS official told the Guardian that the preponderance of English flags had ‘intimidated’ staff and created ‘no-go zones’. The Guardian itself seemed to view Raise the Colours as the biggest threat to British democracy since the Nazi aggression of the Second World War. In the mind of so-called progressives, flying the English flag – especially by working-class types – is tantamount to fascism. While most members of the UK government lent their support to the campaign (who could forget Keir Starmer’s claim that he hangs the English flag in his home and always sits in front of a Union Jack?), it was still hard to avoid the impression that they were doing so under duress.

In fact, we shouldn’t really be shocked that Oxford is now threatening to prosecute locals for pinning their national flag on lampposts. If the past few years have taught Britons anything, it is that the only acceptable expression of national pride is Paddington Bear. Nothing else can be tolerated. That is why, last year, a 12-year-old girl was sent home from school for wearing a Union Jack-themed dress on ‘Culture Day’, and why Winston Churchill is set to be replaced with a hedgehog on the five-pound note. Even Shakespeare’s birthplace has been converted into a melancholy shrine for his ‘supremacist’ beliefs.

None of this is to say that the British establishment doesn’t like flags. It loves them – just as long as they have nothing to do with England or the United Kingdom. The day after Oxfordshire announced its ban on the English flag, Oxford City Council proudly hoist the transgender flag above the town hall to mark the ‘International Day of Transgender Visibility’. In December, the same honour was bestowed on the Palestinian flag to announce the arrival of a mayor from the West Bank. Indeed, as any recent visitor to the city can attest, Pride flags and Palestinian flags are as ubiquitous in the city as shops selling Harry Potter memorabilia.

There is an even greater irony in Oxfordshire, of all places, issuing a progressive fatwa on the English flag. Every year, millions of tourists descend on Oxford to essentially pay homage to the nation’s history and culture. They can see it all: England’s oldest university (which predates the Aztec Empire), the Radcliffe Camera, Christ Church college, the pub where CS Lewis and JR Tolkien drank – so much that is great about England is on display, except of course the national flag.

There is some consolation in the thought that the war on the English flag is almost certain to end in failure. Because, if the Raise the Colours campaign showed us anything, it is that the English have well and truly had it with the kind of national self-loathing Oxford remains committed to. Patriotism, at long last, is no longer a dirty word. Oxford should get with the programme.

Hugo Timms is a staff writer at spiked.