‘Britons are embarrassed to fly our national flag and when we do we are accused of racism,’ blasts Lance Foreman

We beat ourselves up in order to respect and protect the cultures of other nations and ethnic groups yet when it comes to our own British culture and patriotism, we are made to feel embarrassed or ashamed.

Drive through America and you will see the Stars & Striped proudly flying outside peoples’ homes and businesses. Here in the UK, not only are we embarrassed to fly our national flag but when we do we are accused of racism. Former Labour Minister Emily Thornberry was forced to resign when she tweeted her contempt for the St. George flag intimating that the flag owner must be racist for no other reason than he was proud of his English heritage.

My recently departed dad was a huge patriot and loved the Royal Family and he was not even born in the UK, so you don’t need to be British to fly the flag. He arrived here as a child after WW2 as a holocaust survivor and was always grateful that he found refuge and made a life for himself in our wonderful country. His views are typical of most British Jews. In every synagogue on the Saturday Sabbath service, we say a special prayer for the Royal Family every single week of the year. This is nothing new. Jewish people have been doing this since the 17th century, as documented by Samuel Pepys.

Since October 7, and the brutal massacre in Israel, protests have taken place in London almost every week. There are massive protests on Saturdays in favour of Palestine and far smaller pro-Israel rallies on Sundays. The number of attendees is reflective of the UK’s Jewish vs Muslim population ratio in the UK which is roughly 250,000 Jews to four million Muslims.

I have attended a number of these rallies and what stands out clearly is that at the pro-Israel rallies, you will invariably see the Union Flag flying alongside the Israeli flag and at the end of the rally or vigil the crowd sing both the Israeli and the British national anthem. At the pro-Palestinian marches, there is not a British flag to be seen and the only chants are typically for death to Israel; never any gratitude for freedom to march in Britain in the first place.

Ironically the protestors hate one of our greatest leaders Winston Churchill and have attempted to deface his statue in Parliament Square. The ignorance is astounding. Without Churchill, the freedom to protest in the UK and across Europe might have been lost for good.

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Or is it ignorant? Radical Islamists, many of whom live amongst us, have learned in recent years that there may be better ways to destroy our culture and way of life than by blowing up concert venues, Tube trains and buses.

The new approach is called “entryism” and it’s a political tactic of joining an organization with which you do not agree with the intention of changing it from the inside. The fear is that radical Islamists are using our democratic system to accumulate power with a view to removing democratic privileges once they have control. Whilst this may take years, already that power is being used to intimidate and bully, hence for example, the MP Mike Freer deciding to put his personal safety first and stand down as an MP.

How do we combat this anti-patriotic drift? First of all, there needs to be a desire to do so and feel pride in our nation again. I suspect most British people do have this desire or they would not have voted for Brexit; but they need to be encouraged.

So, if I was leader, I would make it law that every public building in the UK should be obligated to fly the Union Jack. It’s a beautiful flag so let’s see more of it. Let’s regain our patriotism and belief in ourselves. Let’s take pride in British culture, whether we were born here or emigrated to the UK; there is nothing inappropriate about that.