This is the first World Cup since the England flag became a symbol of national pride and defiance, adorning windows and lamp posts throughout the country. And how the wokerati hated it. The England flag is divisive! they yelled. It makes people feel uncomfortable, they insisted. The flags must come down, they demanded. Now we’ll be seeing more than ever in the wake of England’s opening 4-2 victory against Croatia on Wednesday night. And why not?
Quite why the England flag, uniquely, should have such power is never explained. Quite why the Scottish or Welsh flags, or the French or German flags, don’t have that same divisive power is never articulated. Because, of course, there is no logical answer. Because, of course, it’s all anti-English prejudice. It’s not the flag itself that the wokerati despise. It’s the very concept of Englishness.
The Left's Reluctance to Embrace English Identity
The surveys don’t lie. The more left wing and woke a person is, the more likely they are to describe themselves as British rather than English. In fact, they’re more likely to assign themselves any identity – to their town, region and continent – except Englishness. Nearly a century on from George Orwell’s famous line, there is still, among left-wingers, “something slightly disgraceful” about being English.
Oh dear, oh dear. How they must have suffered these last few months with the England flag flying so proudly. How they must have grimaced as they drove along streets and were confronted, God forbid, with that disgraceful thing, national pride. How they must have gone through such intellectual contortions to convince themselves that the flag is somehow a symbol of division and even racism when surveys show that people of all colours and creeds are, with each year that goes by, increasingly feeling a sense of English first and British second.
The World Cup: A Time of National Pride
And now, hilariously, over the next few weeks those intellectual contortions will become even more agonising. Because, behold, we have the World Cup. And as we all know a major football tournament has until recently been the time that people en masse have displayed the flag – flying it from cars and vans, displaying it in flats and houses, and wearing it on jackets, on T-shirts, you name it.
The red cross on white background is, after all, aesthetically perfect. I’m biased, but just aesthetically, I see it as the most beautiful flag in the world – simple yet so pleasing, even magnificent.
Now, surely, even those kill-joy lefties will find it impossible to decide which flag is being flown for supposed reasons of divisiveness and which is being flown in support of Harry, Jude, Declan and the boys. For a few precious weeks they will go through paroxysms of confusion as they try and fail to out-think the sheer illogicality of their position.
If the England flag flying from that SUV in Guildford is okay, then why is it so unacceptable in the council estate in Gillingham or the high street in Grimsby? Meanwhile, those of us for whom the flag has always been a source of inclusive, colour-blind collective patriotism can enjoy the next few weeks like never before. The flag will be everywhere for as long as England stays in the tournament.
The Future of English Patriotism
My only hope is that, once it’s all over, as it will be at some stage, our beautiful flag continues to be flown with pride everywhere. The more widespread, the easier it is to demonstrate its inclusive power, not that it should need to be explained. No, whatever Orwell said and whatever the woke might want, Englishness is here to stay. Far from being disgraceful, it’s a thing of collective beauty. Just like the flag.
