At the height of the Raise The Colours campaign last year, Union and St. George flags were illegally put onto thousands of lampposts up and down the country, a show of ugly racial intimidation cloaked in the illusion of patriotism—a pretty typical far-right gesture with bags of history. I remember the National Front in the late seventies using exactly the same tactics.
My commute into work was not safe from this baggage. The slip road from the M4 onto junction 7 onto Bath Road was littered with flags. Clearly provocation as Bath Road leads into Slough, one of the most multi-ethnic towns in Berkshire. It saddened me, that the racists were so emboldened. It was hardly surprising, though. They were at play in a political landscape in which monsters like Trump and Farage had their grubby mitts on the narrative.
Driving onto the slip road this week, and those flags have faced the intense scrutiny of good old British weather. The cheap Chinese-produced fabric has faded and shredded, the colour gone. They are nothing now but sad rags and tatters, hanging limply.
If you didn’t know what you were looking for, you wouldn’t be able to see them at all.
Wherever you are, whenever you are, however you are, welcome to The Swipe.
Continue reading The Swipe Volume 4 Chapter 38
