Over the past couple of months I've been reading a great deal about the concept of Englishness, it has timed perfectly with the erection of flags around so many of our towns.
There's a couple of quotations that I have come across over the past weekend that have resonated and, perhaps, suggest why the flag flying has taken over.
In his essay The Lion and The Unicorn George Orwell wrote "In the working class patriotism is profound but it is unconscious. The working man's heart does not leap when he sees a Union Jack, but the famous insularity and xenophobia of the English is far stronger in the working class than the bourgeoisie."
Contrast that with the words of sociologist Krishnan Kumar in 2014: "Bereft of empire, no longer a global economic or political power, confronted by seccessionist movements without and by 'alien' cultures within - the English seem to have found it best to turn in on themselves. Never having had an identity as an ethnic group, never having needed one, they are now... in the process of inventing one."
It seems to me that the flag flying epidemic stems from both of these extracts. Englishness has never need a strong identity (and indeed didn't even need one in the Second World War), but the loss of status - particularly felt by those who have been left behind - means all of a sudden we need to discover one, and one which may be deeply affected by the xenophobia Orwell identified 80 years ago.
Personal Blogs
Why are the working class searching for Englishness?
The flags were never really about patriotism, were they?
If you have managed to have any sort of conversation with anyone who has been raising flags on lamp posts and telegraph poles in recent months you can guarantee that, at some point, a certain phrase would be trotted out.
"We should be proud of our country, just like they fly flags everywhere in America."
It's a comment of unbelivable naivety and lack of understanding of different cultures.
It is true that Americans are undeniably proud of their national flag and treat it with reverence, for them it is a symbol of a created new nation with its peoples drawn together by conflict rather than a centuries older organically evovling one as is the case with England and our United Kingdom. In that sense our two nations, USA and UK are altogether horses of a different colour.
But in establishing that reverence, for American citizens, the flying of flags is not just about tying an Amazon sourced bit of polyester to a post with cable ties, but rather a process that is fundamentally about dignity.
In America the flying of flags is governed by the 'Flag Code', a non-binding federal law that dictates how a US flag should be displayed.
Perhaps those with cable ties and ladders should take notice of it.
The code states that the flag should never touch anything physically beneath it. In other words, it shouldn't be painted on roundabouts.
It goes on to state: "It is the universal custom to display the flag only from sunrise to sunset... the flag may be displayed 24 hours a day if properly illuminated during the hours of darkness." I haven't seen the usual suspects out lowering flags at night with the same reverence, have you?
Finally, the code states that when a flag is so tattered that it fails to serve as a symbol, it should be replaced in a dignified manner, preferably by burning. As the lamp post flags fray and run maybe it's time for those lads to start going round again, and showing the patriotism that people who are really proud of their flag show?
I very much doubt that they will, because it was never about patriotism, it was always performative.
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