Skip to main content
Politicians and the union jack: a recent tradition
Historian KEITH FLETT charts how the flag-waving habit has ebbed and flowed over the years
Cat and flag

THE union flag has long been a symbol of the British empire, imperialism and so on.

However it has been mostly, at least in official terms, a ceremonial one — raised or lowered as Britain claimed or exited territory around the world, saluted on formal occasions, often royal ones.

In the last 50 years the flag has been used by fascists and the far right. 

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Features / 18 April 2025
18 April 2025
From bemoaning London’s ‘cockneys’ invading seaside towns to negotiating holiday rents, the founders of scientific socialism maintained a wry detachment from Victorian Easter customs while using the break for health and politics, writes KEITH FLETT
Karl Marx 1
Features / 14 April 2025
14 April 2025
From bemoaning London’s ‘cockneys’ invading seaside towns to negotiating holiday rents, the founders of scientific socialism maintained a wry detachment from Victorian Easter customs while using the break for health and politics, writes KEITH FLETT
TURNING POINT: The anti-cuts plan put forward by Tony Benn (
Features / 31 March 2025
31 March 2025
Facing economic turmoil, Jim Callaghan’s government rejected Tony Benn’s alternative economic strategy in favour of cuts that paved the way for Thatcherism — and the cuts-loving Labour of the present era, writes KEITH FLETT
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Chancellor of the Excheq
Features / 17 March 2025
17 March 2025
Starmer’s slash-and-burn approach to disability benefits represents a fundamental break with Labour’s founding mission to challenge the idle rich rather than punish the vulnerable poor, argues KEITH FLETT
Similar stories
NF
Features / 26 October 2024
26 October 2024
Farage's party is a political machine deeply tied to the interests of US big business, writes PHIL KATZ in the first of a series of features on this growing force in British politics
Male and female black slaves cut sugar canes in Jamaica. In
Features / 21 August 2024
21 August 2024
Despite being a proud Black Country boy, ROGER McKENZIE has mixed feelings about Englishness and its all too common petty nationalism, following a lifetime of being considered inferior because of the colour of his skin
11 - CS mural
Features / 14 August 2024
14 August 2024
From Lee Anderson's sad parliamentary antics to Tommy Robinson's lager-soaked rallies, STEPHEN ARNELL skewers the hollow bravado of Britain's resurgent right and looks at how mass mobilisation can counter its influence
march 1
Features / 8 August 2024
8 August 2024
ROGER McKENZIE warns against accepting the lip service offered by politicians to the struggle against racism