Tensions have soared throughout communities over folks’s proper to hoist Union Jack and St George’s flags in personal and public areas
Individuals wave flags earlier than a live performance to mark the eightieth anniversary of VE Day in 2025 (Picture: Getty Photos)
A Royal Navy captain who helped to liberate the Falklands Islands from Argentina has mentioned Britons should “use” the Union Jack flag to forestall extremists from reclaiming it. Captain Malcolm Farrow OBE, who served as a lieutenant commander beneath Process Power chief Admiral Sandy Woodward in 1982, mentioned the federal government and public should each heed the “lesson” of the Sixties when the rising Nationwide Entrance “hijacked” the flag.
His feedback come as tensions soar throughout communities over the precise to hoist Union Jack and St George’s flags – with councils more and more divided over their method. Solely final week, south London resident David Gilley revealed he was ordered to take away a Union Jack flag from his balcony by Labour-run Southwark Council as a result of it was deemed “offensive” to his neighbours.
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However Capt Farrow, 81, a member of the Flag Institute Council and adviser to the all-party parliamentary group on British heritage, argues that it’s exactly when bizarre Britons don’t show patriotic flags proudly that extremists seize the chance to “hijack” them. He mentioned: “Should you don’t use it, you lose it. Within the Sixties, we misplaced it to the Nationwide Entrance. They only picked it up and ran with it. It was a good suggestion of theirs, sadly.”
Union Jack and St George’s flags fly from lampposts in Birmingham throughout the Elevate the Colors marketing campaign (Picture: PA)
The present bother emerged final summer time when grassroots motion Operation Elevate the Colors raised 1000’s of Union Jacks and St George’s flags on public lampposts, in a transfer welcomed by many however criticised by others as racist.
Councils have since spent over £115,000 to take away flags, in response to the newest information based mostly on Freedom of Info requests.
Capt Farrow suggests Operation Elevate the Colors is a British well mannered protest towards the backlash to patriotic flag waving that successfully tells the federal government: “‘Hey, come on, look, we’ve had sufficient of all this. That is our flag and we’re happy with it, and begin taking some word of us’.”
He added: “We don’t do what the French do, and have a mega riot. We make a stiff cup of tea and put a flag up. I like the thought, it makes folks really feel extra patriotic and creates group cohesion and a way of frequent objective. That’s what a flag is for.”
Capt Farrow mentioned the UK has “not historically been a really flaggy nation”. The Union Flag was initially utilized by Britain throughout her empire constructing, and principally by the monarch, the federal government and the armed forces as an alternative of the frequent man.
He added: “By way of this era of historical past, we have been an homogenous nation. Most individuals have been born and grew up, and lived and died in the identical village. Everyone knew who all people was. Nobody was invading us; we weren’t beneath risk.
“We didn’t have to assemble across the flag and struggle off the enemy. There was no crucial, no motivation to have a uniting flag. Why would you need to? As a result of we knew who we have been.”
Whereas Saint George’s Cross has been used as a logo of England because the interval of the Crusades – the non secular wars arising within the Center Ages – Capt Farrow says it was additionally by no means declared the nationwide flag and was not often flown on village greens.
He argues flag waving patriotism arrived after the top of World Warfare One when Britons sought to hitch newly unbiased nations proudly displaying their flags throughout the globe.
Mr Farrow mentioned: “Individuals began asking, ‘What flags can we fly as residents?’”
Captain Malcolm Farrow says all Britons ought to ‘use’ flags to forestall them being utilized by extremists (Picture: SUPPLIED)
David Pritchard, senior lecturer in criminology and social coverage on the College of Portsmouth, mentioned using the Union Jack flag as an emblem for far-right political actions dates again to the post-war interval – no less than to the League of Empire Loyalists, which later grew to become the Nationwide Entrance.
Extra just lately the English Defence League has used variations of the Cross of St George in its protests, he added. However Pritchard emphasised that the flags are usually not intrinsically the symbols of the acute proper of politics.
He mentioned: “The far-right’s use of the Union Flag and the Cross of St George are rooted in a mix of nationalist symbolism, historic id, and political messaging.
“The Union Flag and cross of St. George are usually not inherently far-right. They’re nationwide symbols utilized by folks throughout the political spectrum. The problem arises when far-right teams co-opt them for exclusionary or extremist functions, which might result in tensions over their historic that means and public notion.”
Three in 5 Britons need to see extra flags flying in public areas, in response to a 2025 survey for suppose tank Extra in Widespread. Slightly below half – 49% – believed councils ought to solely take away flags wherever they pose a security threat, the identical survey revealed.
The federal government has been contacted for a response.
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