Ruling class are ashamed to f ly the f lag for England, says Tory

A FORMER government minister hit out yesterday at the lack of patriotism shown in Westminster on St George’s Day.

Leading Tory MP Nick Boles said it was ‘bonkers’ that so few flags of St George were flown on April 23 and accused the Establishment of being ashamed to be English.

He called for a new rule that in future all public buildings should fly England’s national flag on the saint’s day. ‘I drove through Parliament Square on a bus on St George’s Day this year and the only place where I could see a St Patriotic: Flag of St George George’s flag was on Westminster Abbey,’ Mr Boles told a Daily Telegraph podcast. ‘There I was surrounded by Parliament, the Supreme Court, the Treasury, the Foreign Office – all the great offices of state – there wasn’t a St George’s flag to be seen.’

Mr Boles added: ‘It is completely bonkers and it is not surprising that people feel that the governing class is somehow a bit ashamed of English identity if we make such little effort.’ He said that, while he did not want to see ‘state-directed patriotism’, town halls, courts and police and fire stations should be required to fly the flag of St George on April 23.

Drivers should also be able to have English, Scottish, Welsh or Ulster emblems on their number plates, he added. An English anthem might be used by national sports teams, and MPs should vote to decide on which to use, he said. Candidates might include Jerusalem, I Vow To Thee My Country or Land Of Hope And Glory. His call comes at a time when celebration of the national day and the flag have become increasingly respectable among politicians who once shied away from them because of their misappropriation by far-Right groups.

And Mr Boles’ condemnation of the contempt for England among the governing class reflects the views of writer George Orwell, who said during the Second World War that Left-wing intellectuals were ashamed of their country.

He added that ‘it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during God Save the King than of stealing from a poor box’.

However the new acceptance of national display on the Left has led Jeremy Corbyn to adopt the idea of promoting St George’s Day. He said last month that there are too few public holidays and a Labour government would establish national holidays on St David’s Day (March 1), St Patrick’s Day (March 17), St George’s Day and St Andrew’s Day (November 30).

The Labour leader said: ‘If we win the next election, St George’s Day will become a national holiday … where we can all show our pride and celebrate our country’s tradition of fairness, inclusivity and social justice.’

In 2014, then Labour leader Ed Miliband sacked Emily Thornberry from the shadow cabinet for a tweet of a picture of a house decked out in St George’s flags. Her actions were labelled ‘condescending and disrespectful’ by Rachel Reeves, then shadow work and pensions secretary.