‘The true meaning of our flag? Unity, decency and determination’

There’s been a lot of talk about flags recently. For me, our flags – the Union Jack, the St George’s Cross – represent our national spirit. They symbolise our decency, our unity, and our determination that has always defined Britain at its best. Our nation that has so often made the impossible seem only remarkable.

When we look at our flag, we don’t just see fabric stitched in red, white and blue. We see a reminder of what it means to be British: stronger when we stand together, when each of us does our part and where we treat one another well.

Our flag represents us, our values, and the greatest traditions of our nation. Our history is one where, through our unity, decency, and determination we have achieved what seemed impossible. We are the nation that protected democracy in Europe and helped spread it across the globe.

As Churchill once put it, “if all do their duty, we shall prove ourselves once more able to defend our home… we shall never surrender.” And we didn’t. We came together, people of all backgrounds, classes and skin colours, to do something extraordinary. More than two million British soldiers came from India alone to fight alongside us.

That is the British flag in action: stronger when we stand together and never giving up. The same spirit saw us get through the pandemic together. We made intolerable sacrifices to protect perfect strangers we would never meet. That is who we are. That is what is means to be British and that is what our flag represents.

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But our flag, and the sense of Britishness that it represents also lives in the everyday moments, the things that make Britain, well, British. Queuing politely. A cup of tea in hard times, and a pint in all times. The joy and heartbreak of penalty shootouts, watching England down the pub followed by a curry.

A nation defined not by where we come from, but how we live together. Our common culture is forged from our different backgrounds, and that is our strength. Our flag represents all of that, whether people choose to wave it or not.

Of course, not every idea involving our flag represents this unique sense of Britishness. Some people want to take this proud national symbol and turn it into something divisive. To take one British people and split us into “us” and “them.”

But that is not what it means to be British. Being British is to live up to the greatest traditions of our nation, where we stand side by side, regardless of where our families came from, or what our stories are. That was Churchill’s spirit. And it is mine.

Our flag is not the property of any one group or one party. It belongs to all of us. As Keir Starmer said last week, ‘I’m proud of our flag, [it’s] patriotic and a great symbol of our nation.’ When we fly our flag, we do so proudly, as a symbol of our unity, decency, and determination.

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