posted 22nd September 2025
On July 29th this year, central London was awash with England flags. Tens of thousands of people thronged the Mall, proudly waving the cross of St George. The flagwaving crowds listened excitedly to speeches from a stage set up outside Buckingham Palace.
On September 13th this year, central London was once again awash with England flags. Tens of thousands of people thronged Whitehall, proudly waving the cross of St George. The flagwaving crowds listened excitedly to speeches from a stage set up in Trafalgar Square.
Same city; same flags. Two very different moments.
In July, the crowds had gathered to celebrate the victory of the England women’s football team in the 2025 Euros. The whole nation was united in rejoicing at the Lionesses’ amazing achievement. Even people who weren’t interested in football felt proud of being English. The speeches outside the palace were all about inclusion; about how this win was for everyone; about how it was especially for women and girls, who had for so long been excluded from football, and who were now, at last, being welcomed as equals.
In September, the crowds had gathered, not to bring English people together, but to divide them. They were part of a rally led by the racist demagogue Tommy Robinson. Not everyone who attended the rally was a racist, but many were. Many people at the rally were there not to celebrate an English achievement, but to express their hatred for people they considered not to be English: immigrants of all sorts, legal or otherwise; Muslims; people who weren’t white. They flew the flag not as a symbol of national unity, but as a symbol of division and exclusion, as a way of letting people who were not like them know that they were not welcome. The speeches in Trafalgar Square were filled with anger, and some of them incited people to violence. One speaker claimed that there was a plot to replace white people with Muslims. Elon Musk appeared via video to call for the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Britain, and told the crowd, ‘Violence is coming to you; you either fight back or die.’ Some of the crowd took Mr Musk at his word, and were arrested for attacking the police.
A flag is, at the end of the day, just a bit of cloth with some colours on. And yet, in the right context, it can have an enormous emotional power, and can inspire people to action, good or bad. Most English people seeing the flags flying in the Mall in July felt a sense of joy and pride, and hope for their country; many black and brown English people seeing the same flags flying in Trafalgar Square in September felt a sense of exclusion, and fear for their future. An England flag can inspire a young girl to dream of playing football for her country one day; or it can inspire a man to attack someone in the street for not being white. Flags need to be used responsibly.
So is it time to ban the use of flags, apart from on public buildings and at international sports fixtures?
For
Pragmatic
Flags are not neutral. Flying England flags can be an act of aggression, provoking division and anger, threatening public order. They threaten people who are, implicitly, not counted as ‘English’; Muslims; black and brown people.
Principled
The flag belongs to all of us, and we should not allow marginal groups to use it for political purposes. Therefore its use needs to be controlled. The England flag is a kind of national trademark. In the same way as you are not allowed to use a business’s trademark without its permission, so you should not be allowed to use the England flag except when you are representing the nation in a public building, or playing in or supporting a national sports team.
Against
Pragmatic
A ban would be impossible to police. It would play into the hands of people who want to use the flag to spread division and hatred, by turning them into martyrs, and making their cause even more popular. A much better solution would be to reclaim the flag by flying it everywhere, to show that it belongs to everyone. If the cross of St George flew from every mosque, it would be much harder for racists to claim that Muslims were not properly English.
Principled
A ban would be an appalling infringement on free speech. We may find the views of people who fly the flag in the name of racism repellent, but we should combat them through argument and reason. If the flag truly belongs to everyone, everyone should be able to fly it, whatever their views. Banning its use would be a divisive act.
Motion to go with this topic
This house would ban the use of national flags other than on public buildings and at international sports fixtures.
