Why I don’t feel need to wrap up in a flag

MY shared sense of place and belonging, national identity and social solidarity are as firmly established as correspondent Lee Knowles (“Idea of shared sense of place lost on Labour,” April 12). It is just that mine take a different form.

I am delighted to be British and love the British way of life. I love most of our long-held institutions, adore our pubs, react with joy to British medals at the Olympic Games and experience euphoria or dismay depending on the results of the England football and cricket teams.

I bear no animosity to the royal family and consider visits from members of it to be legitimate reasons for waving the Union Jack.

However, I do not feel that I have to wrap myself in the said flag or shout out to the nations of the world how brilliant we are and how useless they are in order to display my patriotism.

Lee states that “the modern left is firmly wedded to the cause of silencing dissent” – paradoxically something that Boris Johnson’s Government has done regularly since taking power.

An illegal attempt to close down Parliament followed the expulsion of “refuseniks” from the party. Not content with the support of 80% of the national press two Tory allies were inserted into the top jobs at the BBC in response to perceived left-wing bias and, at this moment, a Bill is passing through parliament giving the police more power to break up and diffuse peaceful protest.

Lee only cares to acknowledge opinion polls, the result of which he approves, but he will be in for a nasty shock when Boris achieves what Napoleon and Hitler both failed to do – break up the United Kingdom. And anyone who thinks this is an exaggeration needs to put away their national daily and do a bit of unbiased research. The possibility is very real indeed.

Phil Garner, Littleover