Operation Raise the Colours has left me uneasy. I have no objection to our national flag being flown when appropriate — on civic buildings, at Jubilees, Coronations, Royal Weddings, or great sporting moments. I am proud of our nation and happily wave the flag when the occasion calls for it. But to see flags hung from every other lamppost across Worcester, with no special event to mark, feels excessive. Like too many sweets, what begins as enjoyable is starting to feel a little sickly.
I have recently returned from visiting Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Kraków (including Auschwitz), and Berlin. Each city is filled with reminders of the horrors of the Second World War and the Holocaust. The memorial of shoes on the Danube in Budapest was profoundly moving. Auschwitz itself was almost beyond comprehension. On the walls of one hut I read two quotes that have stayed with me:
“We must free the German nation of Poles, Russians, Jews and Gypsies.”
George Santayana’s famous warning: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
The Holocaust did not begin in the gas chambers — it began with words, symbols, and the slow normalisation of hate. That is why I feel uneasy when I see a proliferation of flags with no occasion to justify them. It is not the flag itself I fear — it is what such saturation of symbolism has meant in darker chapters of history. In pre-war Germany, flags were not flown to celebrate, but to condition.
To me, true patriotism is not measured by how many flags line a street. It is shown in how we care for one another and our shared community. As a City Councillor, a magistrate, a special educational needs teacher, a Trustee of a community centre, the organiser of a volunteer litter-picking group, a campaigner against domestic abuse, and Worcester City Council’s Member Champion for Personal Safety and Civility in Public Office, I try to live that out daily. Serving others, supporting those in need, and working for fairness and safety is, in my view, a far more powerful statement of love for one’s country than a thousand banners on a lamppost.
I love my country. But I do not wish Worcester to start resembling something it should never be. Patriotism is best expressed not by the sheer number of flags, but by how we remember our history and uphold the values of freedom, tolerance and dignity for all.
