Like many others I have been made aware of our English national flag In recent weeks. Personally I have felt for a long time that we would be better off with the flag of Edward the Confessor, who was our patron saint up till the time of the crusades, when he was felt not to be martial enough for us. So instead we went for a Turkish dragon-slayer with no known connection with this country.

I had to drive though Essex recently and there were flags St George’s flags everywhere, and the same was the case in the wilds of Leicestershire and Derbyshire. We even had some in Weybridge before the LibDem council had them swiftly removed.

It seems that flag-waving is not only back in fashion but comes with a divisive political threat. It is not being waved in celebration but in an assertion of a narrow intolerant patriotism – the last refuge of the scoundrel according to Dr Johnson. And it’s all got muddled up with Christianity with the release of Tommy Robinson from prison in his new born-again guise. It has put our more open inclusive church hierarchy on the spot as we are now at odds with other Christians on the very essence of faith and its implications.

In fact, however, the answer is simple and clear, and one that is shared not only by Christians from all persuasions but for those of other faiths too and it lies in the so-called golden rule: Do unto others what you would have them do unto you. This undergirds all morality, and with it all political, legal, and economic policies, on a clear and very personal foundation. Admittedly, in its generality it conforms to what William Temple, Michael Ramsey and others championed as a middle axiom, but its universal implications are clear. So for instance, an asylum seeker is to be treated as I would wish to be in their circumstances, as is everyone regardless of background, gender or race.

If our new plethora of flag-wavers can justify their actions by the golden rule, then let’s rejoice. But if underlying it is intolerance, hatred and violence, then perhaps the time has come to get rid of the flag of the Turkish dragon-slayer and replace it with that of the saintly (and English) Edward the Confessor.


Richard Truss