Why shouldn’t we display our national pride?
IT is naive to believe that flags are easily used by politicians to brainwash people (“Flags are a tool of national brainwashing”, April 12).
Flags do not bring about jingoistic nationalism. The abuse of power to close down opinion and cancel information from sources that question you is how rulers in repressive Marxist or fascist states control people.
This nation, like all other nations around the world has a flag that represents us. What’s wrong with flying the flag of a country you are proud of?
In Switzerland, the country I grew up in, you see an abundance of flags in every village and town. They are flown from the tops of mountains, a multitude of private, public and commercial buildings, railway stations, in gardens and on lake steamers.
They are flown not only to provide lovely, colourful displays, but because to the proud Swiss their flag denotes neutrality, democracy, peace and prosperity.
Other countries, such as Sweden, Denmark and Canada, also see no problem in proudly having their national flags on display everywhere. One notable exception, of course, being Britain – due to the influence of a minority of far-left radicals, who revile patriotism.
George Orwell observed: “England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality. In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to sneer at every English institution, from horse racing to suet pudding.”
Peter Lindahl, Long Eaton