carolinelucas.bsky.social profile picture

Caroline Lucas @carolinelucas.bsky.social

Spot on @johnharris1969.bsky.social. The Right are hijacking Englishness with narratives of exclusion, exceptionalism & imperial nostalgia,& progressives haven’t even got onto the bloody pitch. We urgently need to tell more compelling stories of who we are #AnotherEngland👇

The rapid spread of these banners is unsettling – and shows how the hard right is reaching people and places the left cannot, says Guardian columnist John Harris

Flags as symbols of prejudice, not pride – and a distinct air of menace. Welcome to England 2025 | John Harris

The rapid spread of these banners is unsettling – and shows how the hard right is reaching people and places the left cannot, says Guardian columnist John Harris

Replies

  2. mickb123.bsky.social profile picture

    @mickb123.bsky.social

    It's a bit late to be saying this now. The left and liberals have been disowning Englishness for decades, which has contributed massively to where we are now.

    1
  7. kuyvonbraun.bsky.social profile picture

    Kuy Von Braun II @kuyvonbraun.bsky.social

    The cheap flags from Aldi & red crosses (they’d do swastikas, but the twirly bits are tricky) are to intimidate non white people. That’s it.

    & Labour can barely bring themselves to call this out 🔥

    1
  10. antireactionary.bsky.social profile picture

    Paul Treanor @antireactionary.bsky.social

    You can't "tell stories of who we are" because there is no shared identity, and no shared community anyway. There is only polarisation.

    There is no "we" in Britain, nor in other west-European nation-states. There is nothing to "reclaim", and no "common values".

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  11. solomonhughes.bsky.social profile picture

    @solomonhughes.bsky.social

    If you want the "Progressives on the pitch", the kind who might back ANL/RAR type pushbacks John wants, then you both surely need to back "Progressives" like Zack Polanski in the Greens, Left Labour or left-of-Labour MPs etc. Backing Chowns/ Ramsay or Tom Watson respectively got you here

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  13. debzoid.bsky.social profile picture

    Art of Debra Fear @debzoid.bsky.social

    Perplexed having been out of UK since 19th Aug when last night a Portuguese guy asked what’s with the flags? I’ve been gone a week and it’s viral flags? this pops into my head ‘Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an English person gone dumb’ Embarrassing smacks of US nefarious influence and money.

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  14. agendaforreform.bsky.social profile picture

    Graham Davis @agendaforreform.bsky.social

    The great irony of of this flag waving is that St George was a foreigner from of all places Turkey. Remember the 2016 Brexit poster showing thousands pouring into Britain with the message 70m Turks will be able to come to UK cos of FOM?

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  15. niggleoid.bsky.social profile picture

    Nigel Holmes @niggleoid.bsky.social

    I have friends and family who support this flag waving nonsense. None of them really know what it's about or why they're supposedly protesting. Everyone of them uses the local etnic takeaways, shops in the Pakistani owned mini-mart, and is looked after by the local Indian GP. WTF!!

    1
  18. dralant.bsky.social profile picture

    🖐️ DrAlanT 🎬 📚 📎 @dralant.bsky.social

    👁️ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 'Historically, the countries of England, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Ukraine, Malta, Ethiopia, the regions of Catalonia and Aragon, and the cities of Moscow and Beirut have claimed George as their patron saint...' 😵‍💫 #r4today

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  19. blaurock.bsky.social profile picture

    Phil Wood @blaurock.bsky.social

    I speak as a writer & occasional academic. What I did is harder than it was. Universities have been stripped of their humanities. I have a soft spot for theology, which is a shadow of its former self. Our media is peddles right-wing & anti-migrant hate. religionmediacentre.org.uk/news/reframi...

    Efforts to stem the decline of Theology and Religious Studies degrees include re-imagining the content, challenging misconceptions, and communicating well with schools and parents

    Reframing theology and religious studies at British universities - Religion Media Centre

    Efforts to stem the decline of Theology and Religious Studies degrees include re-imagining the content, challenging misconceptions, and communicating well with schools and parents
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  22. anianegwr.bsky.social profile picture

    Anianegwr @anianegwr.bsky.social

    Embrace British Pluralism. That is, the recognition of Great Britain as a multicultural, multilingual and multinational space. I welcome that the Greens embrace this in their constitutional policies.

    The political expression of this is to build a Confederation of Democratic British Nations.

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  25. hindleylancs.bsky.social profile picture

    Michael Hindley @hindleylancs.bsky.social

    The problem is that a whole host of alterntive & progressive histories of England/Britain are no longer read & the old trades union teaching has withered, as have institutions like the Workers Educaion Association (WEA)

    1
  26. midwitmorality.bsky.social profile picture

    @midwitmorality.bsky.social

    Zoe Williams blamed the natives of Epping for the reason a 14 year old girl was sexually assaulted within weeks of migrant men being moved into the local hotel. They just weren't welcoming enough, you see.

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  28. sezworldjustice.bsky.social profile picture

    @sezworldjustice.bsky.social

    Who was ST George?! They will cling on to anything to show false corrupt fraudulent belief in ideology of the stupid, brainless AHs!

    2
  29. julialt.bsky.social profile picture

    Julia LeeThorp @julialt.bsky.social

    That’s more like it John Harris/Guardian, for calling out the rank, cheap prejudice. Let’s have less of the paralysing ‘both-sides’ and more of this straight truth-telling

    1
  32. stja.bsky.social profile picture

    Steve Jackson @stja.bsky.social

    The right, or the media? Or is that the same thing?

    Because I'm not sure the media are interested in other narratives.

    That's why we're here.

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  33. tepicharliquin.bsky.social profile picture

    Tepic Harlequin @tepicharliquin.bsky.social

    I resented the BNP (yes, I am old) when they hijacked my Country's flag, and resent all those who are doing the same now. A true British patriot views those who wave our flags as very suspect, except at sports matches, the Last Night of the Proms, leading the army, or for those under ten.

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  35. blondenblueeyed.bsky.social profile picture

    Sky Goldstrand @blondenblueeyed.bsky.social

    Progressives are too self loathing. They despise their own countries and cultures. They are embarrassed by their own history. They’re incapable of creating a positive vision that would inspire anyone to follow them. The only time one sees “Progressives” organized is at a misguided pro-Pally rally.

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  36. blondenblueeyed.bsky.social profile picture

    Sky Goldstrand @blondenblueeyed.bsky.social

    And I disagree that it’s “the right”. It’s ordinary working class British men and women who are finally fed up with being treated like second class citizens in their own country by a government who foolishly tries to pacify a radical Islamist constituency. Something that has never worked anywhere.

    4
  37. blondenblueeyed.bsky.social profile picture

    Sky Goldstrand @blondenblueeyed.bsky.social

    The British have always been racist. It’s part of their national identity. That said, it’s mostly harmless banter. This is the nation that fought globally against the slave trade, and won. That embraced Jamaicans, Indians, and even Pakistanis (before they started getting all Jihadi)

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  39. ros14.bsky.social profile picture

    Nualaatpeace @ros14.bsky.social

    Our media and politicians with an agenda to rule are lying. Inciting & inviting the misinformed, racist thugs to militancy.

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  45. jebemtidusu.bsky.social profile picture

    Yarbles @jebemtidusu.bsky.social

    Nice idea but the establishment benefit from simplistic nationalistic tales, that's why they have been so desperate to control the narrative from the mass media and BBC to the destruction of the education system. They have all the cards 2029 Reform are going to be calling the shots.

    1
  46. knowledgeisall.bsky.social profile picture

    Gez Campbell-Smith @knowledgeisall.bsky.social

    Then maybe you and your party ought to have supported the "progressives" between 2017 and 2019, when the UK was on a Brexit knife edge with a hung parliament in Westminster, instead of doubling down on the isolation and demonising of them in the media at the time.

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  48. kaybell27.bsky.social profile picture

    @kaybell27.bsky.social

    Worse this hijacking is encouraged by our right wing MSM, who not only are misreporting they are using visual imagery to heighten their message. We must celebrate our history and our acceptance of others and not let the right seize our symbols and subvert the narrative.

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  51. stilluponthevine.bsky.social profile picture

    @stilluponthevine.bsky.social

    These are the same people who went Over the Top & marched into German machine gun fire 'for kinguncuntry' while the Farages sat guzzling brandy 20 miles behind the lines.

    You'll need a fucking dumb story to win them over.

    1
  54. nickcraw.bsky.social profile picture

    Nick Craw🇪🇺🇨🇦🇬🇱🇹🇭 @nickcraw.bsky.social

    Ive said this many times.

    Shakespeare shares his birthday with St George.

    If this was Germany they'd set a national holiday where people would dress up in medieval costume drink beer and do something fun/cultural.

    Instead we left the England flag to the racists with only sport teams to save it.

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  57. ampallanguk.bsky.social profile picture

    @ampallanguk.bsky.social

    There was an alternative... and the press as one voice screamed in an ever increasing level of batshittery and then absolutely shat the bed while telling everyone the bed shitting was all Corbyn's fault. That included fucking @johnharris1969.bsky.social . He got what he wanted; fucking sore winner.

    1
  58. philhjw.bsky.social profile picture

    Phil Williams @philhjw.bsky.social

    Why? What does this achieve? Unfortunately, there are some who are easily led and don’t have the ability to think for themselves.

    4
  59. billhayden65.bsky.social profile picture

    Bill Hayden @billhayden65.bsky.social

    He needn't blame the online world for the far-right's lack of meaningful challenge. I don't hear their ideas being challenged on the television either. The BBC gives us a running total of the number of desperate refugees who wash up on our shores in inflatable boats, and all as a failing of policy.

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  60. billhayden65.bsky.social profile picture

    Bill Hayden @billhayden65.bsky.social

    What would the 'progressive patriotism' he speaks of even look like? The narrative of English Nationalism the right are pushing is the only narrative I know of. It's going to be tricky to promote a sense of civic rather than blood-and-soil nationalism when it's created by the long shadow of empire.

    2
  62. englishcoin.bsky.social profile picture

    @englishcoin.bsky.social

    Your Green party of England & (Wales) is part of the problem. That's how much you think of England. Unless scrapping devolution is part of your middle class manifesto?

    1
  65. abbo17.bsky.social profile picture

    Abbas Zaidi @abbo17.bsky.social

    I think context is key here. If our Lionesses have won the euros again and there’s a genuine feel good factor, everyone feels like flying that flag, all creeds, culture etc… Take away the background feel good factor and what surfaces is the other reason why this flag is flying

    1
  66. redpandamoniums.bsky.social profile picture

    RedPandamoniums @redpandamoniums.bsky.social

    All the U.K. national flags are all stained with the filth of extreme nationalism, & stink of the far right agenda from our imperial history right through to latest racist agenda. The English flag especially so. It does not represent every English person. It is a symbol of hate & everlasting shame.

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  70. charnwoodmoto.bsky.social profile picture

    Charnwood Moto @charnwoodmoto.bsky.social

    Can you dumb politicians and journalists stop positioning this as “Left v Right.”

    It’s about Tolerance v Intolerance, Good v Evil, Civility v Stupidity.

    Until you wake up to this things are going to get a whole lot worse. Just take a look at how our cousins across the pond are doing.

    2
  71. w2aps.bsky.social profile picture

    Richard Wilson @w2aps.bsky.social

    At the moment anytime you see the St George Cross painted on a crossing or roundabout simply add #RWC2025 and #RedRoses to own that space for everyone betterment. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

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