England faces a ‘never-ending fight’ for its flag and values, Starmer warns
England faces a “never-ending fight” for the country’s flag “and what it represents”, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
The Prime Minister shared his worries about the far-right claiming ownership of St George’s Cross at a Downing Street reception held to mark the day of England’s patron saint.
At the Tuesday night gathering, Sir Keir praised England for its diversity, pointing to the difference between his “working class” background and his predecessor Rishi Sunak, “an English Hindu”, who had both been able to become prime minister.
“That for me is something I think we should always be proud of and never take for granted,” Sir Keir said.
But the Prime Minister added: “Because, while this is a day for celebration, we cannot be under any illusions that there is a never-ending fight for our flag and what it represents.
“I’ll put it this way, when I was standing in the old Wembley in 1996 – not many people sat down that day, it felt like that whole tournament embodied the best of our country. Yet now – there are people trying to sow division in our communities, people taking the red and white of our flag, like the bunting downstairs, with them, as they throw bricks at businesses.”
“What it means to be English”
The Prime Minister pointed to the riots sparked by the Southport stabbings, which were fuelled by online misinformation and which Sir Keir has previously blamed the far-right for.
Sir Keir said he had seen “people throwing bricks at the very same police officers I was shaking hands with” when he visited the scene of the stabbings, adding: “And that’s why the battle for our flag is really important because that is what happened and that was only last year.
“So, we have to fight for our flag and for our values.”
The aftermath of the riots “showed what it means to be English”, he added.
“English decency”
Sir Keir continued: “It marked the coming together of a country. People who got together the morning after, all across Britain with shovels, brooms and brushes, to clean up their communities.
“Rebuilding walls, repairing damage, and it’s in that spirit that we reclaim our flag and that was incredibly uplifting to go from rioting to people coming out to do what they could for our country. So that’s what we must do for our country, for English decency, honour and fairness. Wrench it out of the hands of those who want to divide this nation and reclaim it for good.”
Among the celebrities who joined Sir Keir at the No 10 reception were outgoing Match Of The Day host Gary Lineker, and comedian Rob Beckett.
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Far too late. 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 all claimed George as their patron saint.
And now – despite him being a foreigner… so have the far right.
At least Dewi Sant is a native of Wales
And yet you decided to publish prison ethnicities. The riots started because people like farage used tate and stoked up people that don’t like foreigner’s and there is no follow up to hold the social media platforms to account and to show reforms leader what he is. Take down the far right, dismantle them with policies, but the process at the moment seems to be appease them.
This would have to be Europe wide.
Most of the social media platforms are based in the USA which is now ruled by fascism.
We will need to set up our own technology and social media sites in Europe.
Wales, Scotland, England and Ireland must be independent nations with liberal democracy as their guiding principles in the confederated Europe.
Brexit has been an expensive failure.
England’s horrible history is coming back to bite them.
‘Identity in the UK’ Hats off to the Sex Pistols…
What are ‘England’s values’?
From where I’m looking ir isn’t afternoon tea & cricket on the village green, for most PPL it never was, ‘dark Satanic mills’ is probably closer…
After consulting with GB News and the Conservative Party, Keith has decided that trans people aren’t really human beings at all, but a type of shape-shifting alien species hellbent on destroying the cishet privilege he enjoys.
Wasn’t demeaning people a policy of the Nazis ?
All nations must demand never again.
Far far far too late, the England flag was captured along with the poppy emblem by the extreme right. They’ve turned both of these into symbols of hate and division, which is odd as they’ve slashed donations to the RBL by millions over the past decade.
The reason England struggles with its identity is it’s not a real nation. It was only supposed to be a temporary coalition of the willing to defeat the Danes. Even the national anthem is borrowed from the union. It’s time to reinstate the Heptarchy.
England must be a federation of states such as Wessex, Mercia, Anglia etc.
With a Bundesrat Deutschland type of system.
Notice that ‘England’ and ‘Britain’ seem to be synonymous!
This is the fundamental problem with the Union that Westminster politicians fail to address: England is treated anonymously with the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is also be default the First Minister of England. Not only does this deny England a distinct voice but also wearing two hats that resulting in a conflict of interest. If you want to stand up for England then I would suggest the following… Establish a national anthem for England Make St Georges Day a Bank Holiday in England, give the Senedd the power to do the same for St Davids… Read more »
England has a National Anthem, it’s called God Save the King. They sing it at us before International Rugby matches
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_anthem_of_England
De facto it’s the English national anthem; they’re the only ones who sing it.
De facto, not de jure.
You can keep your flag and your right wing values, we in Cymru don’t want them.
It doesn’t matter that Keir Starmer is English, when he pulls stunts like this he further alienates the rest of us. This sort of bilge makes me nauseous
They should make reading Beyond Enkription mandatory.