Helen Bach: Flying the flag?
Wasn't it Scooch who sang 'Flying the Flag' as our Eurovision Song Contest entry one year?
I've looked it up and it was in 2007, and the correct title is actually 'Flying the Flag (For You)' - just in case you need that for your pub quiz or appearance on The Chase!
It was quite a camp, joyous affair, with airline-type uniforms worn by the group. However, the waving and flying of flags sometimes has more complex meanings, doesn't it?
From my knowledge of history, when a country was/is conquered by another, the first thing that is done is that the old flag is taken down and replaced by that of the new in an act of dominance, sending a clear message that somebody else is in charge now.
In the USA, I believe they have the Stars and Stripes in every school, and they pledge allegiance to it. Indeed Donald Trump has a ginormous Stars and Stripes in the garden of the White House, flying from the enormous flagpole he had installed after his return to power. It seems clear, therefore, that flags mean something.
Which brings me to the sudden outbreak of flag displays on our streets, with those of St George and the Union Flag sometimes appearing overnight, and with red crosses spray-painted (often quite badly!) on white road markings such as mini-roundabouts or pedestrian crossings.
Is this a feverish display of patriotism for King and Country? Is it to support the women's football and rugby teams in their respective World Cup competitions?! Or, dare I ask, is there something slightly more sinister at play here? If you're suddenly flying flags outside, for example, a school where the children have immigrant parents (who have moved here quite legally), what exactly is that message?
I'd like to hope that this hasn't been done as an intimidatory gesture, but as a child and grandchild of immigrants, I just wanted to flag up that it could feel like that.
I read the Northants Telegraph article on the issue with interest, and could really relate to what the journalist said about growing up in the 1970s, in the era of National Front marches, skinheads, and sectarianism. That is a time and a place that none of us want to revisit.