This is mostly creative stuff, but amidst the national trend for gammons putting up flags on lampposts, I had this to say on Facebook. I would have leant more into them being thick racists, but I tried to keep it more balanced:
It’s fascinating but depressing to see the discourse about “Operation Raise the Colours”. The latest craze from the cognitively impaired “patriots” that brought us Brexit etc. It’s really difficult to engage with them. However, I have to give some credit to the ringmasters behind it. It’s difficult to criticise people wanting to be patriotic and celebrate the flags when that’s what they claim it is.
But that’s not really the motive, is it? It’s a bluff, a dog-whistle gesture that’s really about nationalism, territorialism and xenophobia. They can’t wait to cry that “if you don’t like the British/English flag being flown, you should leave the country” or turn to whataboutery with Pride flags or Palestine flags.
This isn’t America, where they have their flag everywhere. We don’t need visual reminders all over the place to be proud. Unless of course, the flag display isn’t for our benefit in the first place. Which it isn’t. They’re trying to send a message.
And unlike in America, where they have the decency to respect the flag and put it on flagpoles, our local heroes are zip-tying them to railings and lamp posts, or daubing them on roundabouts. There’s a difference between respectful displays of a flag and plastering them around public spaces: often upside down, or even managing to paint a Danish flag on a traffic roundel. But why should such details bother our brave patriots who bought some Chinese-made flags and crudely attached them halfway up some street furniture?
Even if this was genuinely a moment of national pride, the way it’s being done just isn’t refined or British. Isn’t this the bargain-basement level of patriotism? Being a patriot means doing something for your country: kindness, charity, social or civic duty, or genuine heroism.
We should see more pride in the country and perhaps even in flags. But if this is what that looks like, it’s not saying very much at all, beyond something crass, grubby and basic.