Flying the Union Flag

Unbelievably, Chris Kanizi, owner of the award-winning chippy in Greenwich, has been told to remove his patriotic Union Flag mural from the front of his business. If it’d been Banksy’s political propaganda the council would be celebrating, because it’s our national flag, it seems they’re complaining.

If that weren’t bad enough, Nike and the Football Association have appropriated the Saint George’s Cross on the England top and diversified it by making it navy, light blue and purple. Why can’t they leave it alone?

We should be celebrating everyone who flies our British and English flags and encouraging more to do so. They are making an incredibly important and positive statement about the importance of our culture, our values and our position in the world.? Kanizi, who originates from Cyprus, should be praised for embracing our culture and championing our national identity.

At the same time, don’t be fooled by political parties, like Labour, who cynically use the Union Flag to try and win over traditional voters. Many Labour politicians are dismissive of our national flags. Remember Emily Thornberry’s mocking comments about the household in Rochester that had a white van outside and flew the English flag?

It’s not long-ago Labour annual conference closed with everyone waving the Palestinian flag rather than the Union Flag. It’s not surprising we haven’t seen any Labour politicians condemning the mass Palestinian flag waving hate rallies in London.

Labour politicians are the ones who celebrate multiculturalism, not national identity. It’s a Labour council that’s trying to get Kanizi’s mural taken down.

Talking of murals, we all remember Starmer’s friend, Jeremy Corbyn, supporting the anti-Semitic mural in East London. It seems in Labour some murals are acceptable whilst others aren’t.

Let’s be honest, there are people in our country who are happy to fly foreign flags, even the jihadist flag, but wouldn’t be seen dead with a Union Flag.

It illustrates how we’ve created a country where people rightly have the freedom to display other countries flags. But we’ve also now got people who hate our country, who hate the armed forces that give them that very freedom.

It illustrates how multiculturalism has failed. It illustrates the challenges we have to putting pride back into Britain, to build stronger integration.

Our politicians can start re-building pride by insisting all public buildings – schools, libraries, council offices, and so on – must fly the Union Flag. All levels and arms of government should use the flag as a matter of course in all marketing, promotional and communications materials.

Taxpayers money to charities, agencies and not-for-profit organisations should carry a requirement for our national flag to be displayed – similar to when all European Union schemes in the UK had to carry the EU flag. We should also encourage private companies and individuals to fly the Union Flag, whether it’s through the planning system, or by providing grants.

Let’s get more people proudly displaying their patriotism as they do in Denmark and many other countries around the world.

Britain needs more people like Chris Kanizi, who spent ￡250 of his own money, to fly the flag, and fewer people like those on the hate marches. Britain needs more politicians who want to take our country back. We need fewer politicians who want to give our country away by promoting multiculturalism.