Chameleon Magazine

 Now flags are the new frontline. On Good Morning Britain, we’re told that seeing a Union Jack or St George’s Cross in your neighbourhood is “scary.” The cameras roll, migrants are interviewed, and we’re warned this is a sign of division. Cue the bogeyman name-drop — Tommy Robinson, invoked like the wicked witch of the West — not because of what he’s doing today, but because he dared, years ago, to shout about grooming gangs when the authorities were too scared to act.

Meanwhile, Palestinian flags flood our streets in their thousands during protests. No one’s wheeled onto breakfast TV to say, “actually, that makes me feel intimidated.” No one asks if that symbolism might frighten people who see violence on their screens and worry about it spilling into their towns.

Add to this the fact that hundreds of migrants are being dropped into small towns with no say from the locals — entire hotels filled overnight — and you start to understand why people want to reclaim a sense of place, of identity, even if it’s just by flying a flag from their window. A small gesture that says: “We’re still here. This is still our country.”

And suddenly? That becomes “dangerous.” That becomes “racist.” That becomes the kind of thing the media rushes to scold, while the same media shrugs at every other political flag waved in the streets.

It’s not complicated:

• If one group’s flags are “expression,” then everyone’s flags are expression.
• If one group’s protests are “free speech,” then everyone’s protests are free speech.
• You can’t cherry-pick who gets to feel afraid and who doesn’t.

Let the people fly their flags. That’s freedom. Anything else is just bias dressed up as moral outrage.