27
Keir Starmer faces discontent as Labour MPs reject union jack election flyers
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2024
27 points (96.6% liked)
UK Politics
3098 readers
78 users here now
General Discussion for politics in the UK.
Please don't post to both !uk_politics@feddit.uk and !unitedkingdom@feddit.uk .
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.
Posts should be related to UK-centric politics, and should be either a link to a reputable news source for news, or a text post on this community.
Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.
If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread. (These things should be publicly discussed)
Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.
Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.
!ukpolitics@lemm.ee appears to have vanished! We can still see cached content from this link, but goodbye I guess! :'(
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Using the flag of the UK.... on campaign material for a UK political party? Jaysus lads, what were they thinking?!
Unless it's used in a jingoistic way (think wrapped around a 19th century military figure that has their boots on the backs of the poor whilst proclaiming Britons never never shall be slaves type of thing) then I really don't get why Labour party members are in fighting about such a thing instead of concentrating on winning a thumping majority.
I think the electorate is smart enough to understand this.
I think maintaining your values is important. Especially when so many have been eroded in the name of winning a thinking majority. Labour hasn't been a flag waving party since World War 2. In fact that kinda stuff has been left to the likes of the Farage's.
Maybe waving the flag a bit more would have helped capture those people that don't think beyond it? Does no harm, surely?
Harm would potentially be. Huge number of people who associate it with nationalism.
Parties like BNP EDL etc have given the idea a bad taste. Add the negativity that the "Soverienty" crap during brexit caused. Means there is a sizable % of voters. Seeing its use in political ads as negative.
Given the tory party media seems to be selecting articles designed to reduce labour turn out. I imagine many labour MPs are thinking why the hell help them.
A huge (and arguably huger) number of people associate it with the UK.
The national flag, and any other symbol, only become the territory of extremists if we cede those symbols to them. The flag can equally represent any number of positive visions of the UK and it’s values, and Labour should be well placed to do that if they stake a claim to it.
But given the following.
Children of immigrants etc non in the UK. Have valid reasons to associate the flag with those extremists.
Those same immigrant decendents tend to vote left. Due to the right also being closer associated with those same extremists. Had the Conservative history of imperialism within the UK.
The fact is. We have already ceded the flag.
An election. That has nothing to do with the flag. Is in no way the time to fight for its reputation.
And losing power due to failed turn out from those who see the flag as ceded to extremists. In no way helps you win back the flag.
Not to mention. Sorry but you are not in a majority. The vast majority of non nationalist voters. We just do not care that much about the flag.
You will need to win love for the flag among non nationalists. Before claiming it is not a call to nationalism in an election.
"We don't care that much about the flag", he says, whilst making multiple comments explaining how he doesn't care about the flag and how they definitely shouldn't be using the flag.
If people want to associate the Union flag with extremists, then that's entirely on them. The flag hasn't changed. It's not like the Nazis changing everyone's perception of the Swastika.
This is a valid viewpoint, but arguing what should be the case versus what is the case has to be a measured risk in politics.
Yes, the flag can represent positive values however in the UK specifically, the fact is that there is already a strong connotation of jingoism, nationalism, and imperialism associated with waving it, for the left wing in particular.
Thefore Starmer should know that while this decision may succeed in attracting positive public attention from those in the centre/right, many on the left will have a strong, innate, negative reaction and you can't dismiss that reaction by saying simply telling people "you shouldn't feel that way."
The thing is, Labour has been the home traditionally of people of colour. Unfortunately the same people that wave flags often tell those people of colour to go home. Now you're saying they should be made to feel unwelcome in order to capture people that at the very least, align with racists?