Flag of Freedom
March 20th, 1997
A letter to the Daily Telegraph which was published on 20th March 1997.
The proposal by two Liberal Democrat MPs that the Union flag should be replaced as our national flag (report, March 19th) is typical of the many denaturalised, metro-people who gravitate to the Liberal Democrats.
With the Stars and Stripes, the Union flag is the most instantly recognised flag in the whole world.
It is universally accepted as a symbol of Britishness and as such is part of the flags of four Canadian provinces, six Australian states, the national flags of New Zealand and Australia, the Red and White Ensigns and innumerable regimental flags in all four Old Commononwealth countries.
The Union flag is above all the flag of freedom which desperate people have sheltered under and men have died for. But Lib Dems – their heads buzzing with millennial chatter – wouldn’t understand that.