Is The English Flag Racist? | Good Morning Britain

be honest the English flag isn't just a symbol of racism it may be the primary symbol of racism in this country because of how it's been adopted and co-opted by the far-right and my mom's generation and it was Keep Britain white and being chased down the street being called a monkey in my generation it was a National Front telling me to go home and now you've got the EDL BMP and all these other groups right and to be fair if the same people who are hurling out all this abuse having a waving this flag have it tattooed on their chest then what else could it possibly be well let me throw something back to you when I grew up I remember massive street parties for the Queen's you know anniversaries for example silver jubilee and so on what everyone would bring out this and George's flag with great pride about their country so it's had a double meaning it may have been misappropriated by people who have you have nefarious reasons to do so but it's so fundamentally it remains the flag of this country I see that flag on a pub but I'm going it's not the football time that means no go that means no go today is it same way it did ten years ago all right anyway I just like the Confederate flag was an interesting comparison except that Nigel Farage the problem with this is Georgia's our patron saint I mean he is the English patron saint we've been through all this before back in the 1970s you remember that the National Front adopted the Union Jack as their symbol and everybody said we must imply the Union Jack it's a symbol of racism and actually collectively people said two fingers up to that we are going to fly the flag we will take it back for ourselves and you know what the Union Jack is now a global symbol you see kids at American wearing t-shirts were Union Jack's on it it's exactly the same with this flag if there is a feeling in some communities and I know and you say that you know I'm not disbelieving here but if there is that feeling well let's claim it back I mean look I'm wearing those today nothing wrong with that is that the fact that son George isn't even English Nigel yes I though he was born in Greece he never even it's a great question for you why would you want a foreigner who's never been I didn't Jews never boarded the binary why is it George your hero he is assemble isn't he of standing up he's Turkish bending right no well there are good people from all over the English and I still get a church all right you warned us about people coming from Turkey George baby just one I think that's the problem is over this flag has been used by the right and also by people like Nigel to push of image of Englishness which is exclusive there's a reason why the vast majority of ethnic minorities country would never call themselves change Scotland that but I don't slag zan appropriation and extremism just think what's been done in the name of Irish nationalism some pretty awful things over the course of a long but 30 years of troubles and yet that doesn't stop people on some Patrick's Day using the Irish flag and we got it we've got AB adopt exactly the same oh you might do exactly the same because we're talking about literally hundreds of years of history of Englishness even go back to the Crusades howdy sir lag is no B's there will be English people watching this in their droves and I've already seen the comments who feel very angry about this they believe this is the flag of England and it should be celebrated if a few idiots are misusing it and I don't doubt by the way at all what you're saying I've seen it and I know you're right but that doesn't mean that most people actually don't use it for the right reason why should they have to surrender can it be flag crazy why should they have to give up their flag I think they see well we have to look for a few idiots it's not you're a it's not just a few idiots this is far more widespread than just a few idiots and it doesn't impact an eye a daily basis display - I think you have to understand what Englishness is and we have to have a proper comfort what do you think it is oh there's there's some good parts but it's also some very bad parts right you look at colonialism look at slavery look at these things are you kind to say well it's wrap up the flag and say all great if there's a reason why the far-right this plague yeah and it's not what do you think I get for discussions because actually for a lot of people in England being English is being white and that's why someone like me would never say I mean if you feel we had the same words over the Union Jack forty years ago when we were told not to remember at school being told you know don't display that flag it's awful and actually we've won that battle this raises another interesting point let's turn to the Windrush scandal okay here you have a lot of black people from the Caribbean who were brought here in the 50s 60s 70s now being told they're now being told actually they're not English it's a ministry matter how many flags they wave but part of the huge admin got millions of people have settled in this country we've got a few thousand we don't know yet but a few thousand cases here this is a pure admission of error and frankly when it was it happen but it was driven by a philosophy of crazy well what was it but illegally no cards were destroyed in 2009 a labor dispute all right I'm not saying it's a story problem but there's no doubt that when Theresa May became Home Secretary she doubled trebled quadrupled down on this and ran a very very tough hard line with the ban saying go home no I was actually said at the time I think this is over-the-top and wrong of course we want to stop illegal immigration and we need to do a lot more there's roughly 150 people a day still getting in in lorries you know through the Channel Tunnel but the wind rattling the idea that this is some deliberate policy that there's been against black people frankly okay this is the point it's not an admin area when you create this hostile environment this is what happens and I guarantee a lot of those people who've been deported or lost their jobs they're probably the most feel the most English everybody but right I didn't do many good deeds because they got they've been you know how many painted horses you don't know the number for you this has been going you

Channel: Good Morning Britain

Views: 873,390

Keywords: good morning britain, breakfast show, news, morning news, gmb, good morning britain interview, itv, piers morgan, susanna reid, Talk Shows - Topic, nigel farage brexit, nigel farage european parliament, nigel farage, dr kehinde andrews, england flag, far right europe, far right vs far left, far right documentary, english defence league, ukip nigel farage, ukip leader, ukip

Id: RyEiDf582sU

Length: 6min 35sec (395 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 23 2018