The events of 2012 were miraculous in uniting the people of the United Kingdom. Following on from the previous year's Royal Wedding, the Diamond Jubilee and then the Olympic Games drew a whole nation together, waving the flag proudly, one and all.
The British flag.
I'm not betting against it that rewind five years from the start of the Olympics, people would be scared to associate themselves at all with the British flag. For the ensign which represented unity and equality, and not a race but each citizen of the nation, the action would nonetheless look an act of racial seperatism for the white people of the country. In 2012, British people of all origins wore kits based on the flag, wrapped it around them and sang the national anthem on their victory. The Union Flag is now chic. Every two-bit boyband or five-minute songstress will model their act on it.
Oh, if only it could be the same for the English flag, the flag of St. George.
I'm frankly pissed off by every single argument which one can throw at it:
It's mainly white? Yeah - that's the design, stupid, the Taliban flag was whiter. The hideous flag of the Nazis contained almost half as much black in the disgusting swastika as on its white roundel.
It's got a cross on it? Mate, I'm as non-Christian as you, but in case you haven't noticed, Britain has a millennium and a half of Christian governance. As long as the Church of England remains joined to the establishment, and that establishment headed by a monarch selected by Acts of God, you ain't removing that cross matey. Shall we also strike the Muslim Crescent from Mauritania in the west to Malaysia in the East? Thailand, historically Hindu but currently Buddhist, retains its Hindu heraldry. Wait a few millenia, when Christianity has fully faded as did the Paganism before it, and then we can give the country a facelift.
It was used during the Crusades, huh? The Crusades finished in 1291. Did you witness it? Do you know anybody who did? Or anybody who knew anybody who knew anybody (loop for full effect)? The Crusades came in an uncivilised Middle Ages, when leaders claiming to represent their religion went on conquest and war. Crusaders built Christian kingdoms on land taken from Muslims - but these Kingdoms were established later than and crushed later than the Muslim stakes in Europe. If you would like to remove St. George's Cross from the records, then I'm afraid that you would also have to remove anything used by Islam during the same period.
St. George was foreign? Hold on mate, I thought you wanted a flag which represents diversity?
England is not self-governed and thus the use of a flag as that of the nation rather than the people is difficult. However, I am pleased that my local unitary council fly the St. George's flag. Should the argument be that the flag is only the flag of the people, then to ban it is fascism, case study the Franco regime in Spain and their supression of the Catalan, Galician and Basque identities.
England is waking up from the New Labour propagation to hate everything that this country ever did or currently stands for. The ageing population - stemming from the post-War baby-boomers and the improved ease of reaching the pensionable age - is shifting this country to a sensible right position. It's not, and should never be, about hating other cultures. It's our fundamental right to want to belong to an ethnic group and display as such without harming others. When 70% of the English population (per census) identify as a member of the English group instead of, or in tandem with being British, it's a very big group to try to piss off! (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10010506/The-growing-cry-for-England-and-St-George.html)
