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People who use the union jack or St George’s cross as a form of aggressive nationalism do not love their country, a senior Liberal Democrat has said, as he hit back at a wave of hard-right activism based around the flags.
In a strongly worded speech to a rally opening the party’s annual conference in Bournemouth, Tim Farron, a former leader who now speaks for the party on the environment and rural affairs, said national flags should never be “used to intimidate”.
Farron argued that those who hijacked the flags to try to insist on a narrow definition of Britishness or patriotism, or who used the emblems to “intimidate and terrify people”, did not truly love their country.
“How dare the nationalists steal our flags? How dare they steal what it is to be British, English, Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish?” he said.
Farron argued that he was “a proud patriot” but not a nationalist, saying: “And you can tell the difference easily. You see patriots love their country. Nationalists hate their neighbours. I love my country.”
Speaking in the wake of a mass far-right rally in London a week ago in which many protesters draped themselves in the British or English flags, and a recent spate of people hanging flags on lamp-posts or spraying a red cross on to streets, Farron said such symbols should never be excluding.
“Our flag does not belong to Liberals, or to Conservatives, Reform, or to Labour. It does not belong to one creed or to one race. It belongs to one people, the British people. We will not let our flag be used to intimidate. We will not let our flag become the property of a minority,” he said.
“So my message to the nationalists is this: I’m afraid that you do not really love your country.
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“You cannot love your country if – as its seems – you hate everything about it and claim allegiance only to a Britain of some fantasy golden age that never existed. You do not love your country if you seek to intimidate and terrify people who are British through and through. You do not love your country if you lie about it at home and abroad, actively plan to do it harm, and suck up to our enemies.
“So let us reclaim our flags for those who would reunite and rebuild. Let us be proud of our flag, be proud of our country. The British flag and the flags of our four nations are ours, they belong to all of us. Let’s take them back. Let’s wave them with pride.”
The Lib Dems were notably stronger than Labour or the Conservatives in criticising last week’s rally, with Ed Davey, the party leader, particularly condemning Elon Musk after the X owner used a video address to the event to tell the crowd that “violence is coming” and “you either fight back or you die”.
The best way to show love for a country, Farron said, “involves sacrifice and service”, with a community-based approach to politics.
This was, he said, “not just the antidote to nationalism, it is the opposite of it. Less talk, more action. We love our country and our people, but more than that maybe … in stark contrast to the nationalists, we also rather like our country and its people.”
