Against The Odds - Slough Flies The English Flag...

Slough Town Hall is to fly the Cross of St George, the national flag of England, on St George's Day for the first time next year, thanks to Diana Coad, a prospectuve Tory MP for Slough.

Cue panic in Labour ranks, and a quick quote from a seemingly un-informed bystander...

Says Rob Anderson, Slough's Labour Group Leader: "I do not need to prove my Englishness by wrapping myself in the flag of St George when the Union flag is the flag for everybody."

The "flag for everybody"? No it isn't. It is simply the flag of the UK, it does not represent ethnic diversity. In fact, some see it as an imperialist left-over. And Jack Straw has made plain that public buildings in Scotland and Wales will be exempt from new guidelines to fly the Union flag and be able to fly their own national flags, the Saltire and Welsh dragon instead.

So, "The flag for everybody", Mr Anderson? No. It is simply the flag forced upon England by an increasingly non-democratic government, trying desperately not to reveal to the electorate in England what devolution has done elsewhere.

India-born Professor Vijaya Gupta, founder of the Slough Senior Citizens Group, said: “Regionalism signifies diversity, and can cause havoc. We saw what happened in India as a result of the Partition. England is part of the United Kingdom and I think the Union flag is enough. It covers England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.”

Actually, regionalism does not come into it, Professor. England is as much a nation as Scotland or Wales and with devolution for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland running apace, and health apartheid, the West Lothian Question and Barnett Formula heaping inequalities aplenty upon the electorate in England, some form of English national representation is now needed in the UK.

And the English - and by this I mean citizens of England - should be as free to fly their flag from their public buildings as the Scots, Welsh or Northern Irish.

And to have their NHS and public services funded to the same levels as elsewhere in the UK, too.

At the moment, lives in England are not valued as highly as those in Scotland. MPs representing Scots constituencies force legislation onto England and we heavily subsidise the other nations of the UK, to our own detriment.

Anybody who objects to positive manifestations of Englishness in England is, at the best of times, suspect or at the very least ill-informed. But at these, some of the very worst of modern times for every man, woman and child in this country, such people are either on the deeply corrupt political gravy train or so out of touch that they should not be quoted in the first place.

More here.

Hat-tip to Flagman.