By Dan McCurry
The Union Jack is one of the great design classics of all time, but unlike most great design classics, this striking piece of imagery was created before the days of intellectual property protection, allowing it to be hijacked by various groups over the years and stolen away from its unifying intent, culminating in the disgusting defamation by a political movement founded on racism and hate. Well we’re gonna take it back! We’re gonna take it back and restore it as the symbol of our vibrant, tolerant and multicultural nation, that is Great Britain today.
Originally created by an English Admiral, the union flag flew on both English and Scottish ships following a Royal decree in 1606 and a hundred years later in 1707 it become the national flag. With the rich history of empire this piece of red white and blue fabric became imbued with history, authority and culture; a symbol of our unity and tolerance.
When the age of empire ended so did our identity. A young designer called Mary Quant realised that these cheap pieces of fabric coming down from flag poles around the world could make quite good shopping bags and socks. To the amusement of the young generation and the fury of the old the flag became a symbol of irony from a generation determined to break their country away from the past. But with no clear path to a future identity we drifted into decline and into discourse.
However, the end of empire carved a new and unexpected identity. The Commonwealth was born with a vision to create an English speaking network of democracies throughout the world, linked through commerce and existing as a permanent legacy of the achievements of the British Empire. It didn’t quite work out like that, but the people of the empire would become the identity of our nation. But those immigrants found conflict in this nation as they made their mark.
While the Caribbeans brought new music and dance and the Indians provided our new national dish, the far-right had picked up our flag and waved it as their own, creating a symbol of hatred and division; a design classic that was recast as a banner to a Darwinian master-race. We, the socialists, defeated those purveyors of hate and we won over our sceptics.
The racists still remain as a political force, but more as a barometer of discontent than a serious proposition. Their hidden agenda is often comical as they call for the banning of the Notting Hill Carnival on Health and Safety concerns. The immigrants themselves have dealt with their issues; the brave good-judgement of Jack Straw and Margaret Hodge channelling the frustrations of each community into a consensus for all. The recent Islamist protest against returning soldiers was tedious but not inflaming, demonstrating the common view of the group as being on the fringe with no widespread popular support.
So I say that we are one nation, with one voice, but the business is still unfinished as long as the symbol of our unity still flounders. The reputation of our union flag continues to remain in tatters. Torn and discredited by the story of our struggle for identity, it remains to this day, an embarrassment to our movement. To restore it would be to end the chapter; to symbolise our unity, mark our break with the past and celebrate our identity with the future.
Of the two photographs attached here, one is of me, and the other of Councillor Alibor Chowdhury of Tower Hamlets Labour Party. The union flag in the background has been superimposed. The picture of Alibor is an exciting image; the one of me causes the viewer to recoil. On viewing this image, some people say that my hand is raised as if in a Nazi salute, but I’ve tried lots of images; it’s not the fact that I’m speaking with my hand raised that causes the viewer to be reminded of the Nazis.
People say that the photo of Alibor captures a serene expression and that makes it a better photo. To this I agree; it is captivating to see a Muslim man with an expression of serenity posing before the union flag. The message is too deeply engrained in our subconscious; we see in our flag, a message of hate. We associate our national emblem with a rallying banner of racism.
We can restore our flag to its rightful place as the symbol of our multicultural identity, but it would take a national effort over six months to achieve this. We will need the white population of this country to avoid waving the flag for those six months, while the black and ethnic minority communities must fly it every day. We must see black teachers wearing union flag ties, Asian nurses with union flag buttons. We can’t possibly suggest that white people shouldn’t fly the flag, but can at least communicate the message that we want the black and ethnic minorities to claim it as their own for this limited period.
We need African traffic wardens with union flag hats, Arabic doctors with union flag stethoscopes, black police officers wearing union flag aerials on their radios. Across the country black and Asian people must make the flag their own. After six months of this campaign the union flag will be fixed in the minds of every British citizen as a flag of multiculturalism. This is now the flag of all communities, the flag of our future; the flag of unity.
If the six month campaign starts at the Labour party conference in September, then the six month campaign will end on Saint George’s day the following spring. We’ll make this day our Union Day and have every house in the country waving our Union Flag and carry on waving it through till election day.
If you support this campaign and would like to see it develop, please join the Union Nation Facebook group for updates.
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As one Old Labour MP , I think, put it...'Under New Labour only the future is certain....the past is always changing'.
All that said, I do think you deserve considerable praise for your considerable courage on your comments on our 'rich history of Empire'. Not an easy line to take.
However its the right one. The way we relate in Britain to each other given the large scale immigration for our former colonies - past, present and future - cannot be fully considered unless one has a sober and considered look at the British Empire and its impact on all of us, good and bad. Its time to move beyond the shallow interpretation of white liberal guilt.
One thing that really does need to be mentioned is that during the Empire the British were, I think (correct me by all means if I am wrong) the first Empire since Rome not to define itself by ethnicity. 'Cives Brittanicus sum.' In theory, we all had the same inalienable rights, whether white, brown or black. Of course that wasn't entirely true in practice, to say the least, but at least it was an ideal of Britishness which made an attempt at inclusivity. It is worth resurrecting this ideal in our diverse society if we are to avoid further cultural fragmentation.
The union flag is a powerful symbol of our nation wherever the constituent individuals came from so lets seize it as a representation of our unity of spirit and purpose.
I don't agree with your idea of the white population of this country avoiding waving the flag. There are white people in the country who's origins aren't British. French, German, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Polish to name a few. Should they be discriminated against because they're white? Those African traffic wardens, Arabic doctors, black police officers... have you asked them if they want to take part in this project? I think it would be easier to fix the Union flag into the minds of the population as a flag of unity if we were to have it waving from every government building (local and central). Every educational establishment, every hospital, and all police and fire stations. In addition, any individual who wants to wave that flag, should be able to, without fear of being accused of being racist for doing so. In all fairness, most non-British members of society don't actually have a problem with the British flag. It's mainly white politically correct Brits that do. My father has a Union flag sticker on his car, and was once verbally assaulted by a young woman for being a "racist xenophobe". I only wish I could have seen her face when he responded in his very thick eastern European accent.
I also share Tony Rhodes view on Multiculturalism. My parents are immigrants. When they decided to make the UK their home (over 40 years ago), they didn't expect members of the British public to make special allowances for them. They didn't expect local or central government to communicate in their native language. They realised that they would have to adapt to life in Britain. And they did. Now, adaptation doesn't mean that someone has to forfeit their own cultural identity. My parents, like many others that migrated to these shores all those years ago, retained what they believed were the best parts of their culture, and adopted what they thought were the best parts of the British culture. As members of the Christian Orthodox faith, they celebrated Christmas and Easter on different dates than here in Britain. Now they celebrate Christmas and Easter twice. On 25th December our family celebrates British Christmas in exactly the same way that most British families do. We even sit down and watch the Queen's speech (something that isn't as popular nowadays but we still like to do it). This in no way diminishes their identity. That has remained perfectly intact. I feel very confident that I would be able to pass on the important aspects of my parents' culture to the next generation of our family.
Again, its those politically correct individuals that take offence on behalf of minorities that are the problem. My parent's are perfectly capable of taking offence on their own. They don't need someone else to do it for them. I think you'll find most minorities feel the same way.
By providing application forms and leaflets in umpteen different languages, government departments and councils are relaying the message that integration doesn't matter, and there is no incentive for newcomers to learn this country's language. My parents learned to speak, read and write English all on their own. So will newcomers
I suspect the next few decades will see power being passed between the Tories and the Lib Dems, with UKIP in third place, and Labour on the fringe of politics. Only populated by the nutjobs. Is this what the Go4th campaign is about? The transformation the Labour party into the fourth largest party in Parliament?
This is now the flag of all communities, this is the flag of the future, this is the flag of unity, these are all very nice words but in reality laughable, Multiculturalism has been one of the biggest failures, we now have ghettoe's in our country where there are no go areas, where people refuse to learn the language of the country they now live in, we have groups of people who burn the union jack flag because they hate this country they live in, unity I dont think so.
We have people travelling to Pakistan and Afghanistan who are british citizens training in terrorist camps who openly say they wish to kill british soldiers, that our government are targets, is that unity?
The future, this country I believe does not have a future to look forward to, not a country that my parents and grandfather fought for, this country is now laughed at by the world for allowing it to be used as a dumping ground for hostile groups, we accept anyone into our country now, we have open borders, New Labour saying the immigration rules have changed is a joke, once on this soil people are basically here for good, our government does not even know how many illegal immigrants are in this country, the only reason why New Labour has such a lax policy on immigration is that these people will remain grateful to the party that turned a blind eye to them, more voters and it brings down wages.
The future in my opinion is very bleak, we shall see many more demonstrations as the years go on, people will not tolerate what is happening now, the street riots of the eighties will seem mild in comparison to what will take place in the future, we do not all live happily together as you seem to think and never will, when people are forced to adapt to things they fight against those very ideas not welcome them, where I live we have 157 languages spoken in our borough, to you that is wonderland, to me that is Armagedon, my friends children are now a minority in their own schools, this is not something to celebrate but rather something to mourn, I am so happy that as this country falls further into the Abyss that it surely will, I will no longer be on this planet........
Dont forget to celebrate St.Georges Day.........
It's that sort of answer to genuine concerns that is losing New Labour members, untill the party starts to take seriously the concerns of people then new labour have a very bleak future to look forward to....
It is finding suitable policy for dealing with the disaffection of traditional Labour supporters and heading off their likelyhood to vote BNP that we should be discussing.
(PS Have you ever heard about the EU and Regionalism?)