I Removed one of those England Flags!

Yes, I admit it! Today, while I was on a cycle ride, I pulled down one of those flags people have been putting up.

Now before anyone misunderstands me, let me say that I love the way Union Flags have been appearing round the country the last few months. The Union Flag is the symbol of my country, which I feel intensely loyal to and proud of. Cycling round SE London and Kent, I see loads of them hanging from lampposts etc. and I feel a warm fuzzy feeling of patriotism every time I see one. That’s only the Union flags. I have to admit the England flag doesn’t really do anything for me, maybe in part because I feel attached to the UK more than to England. But in general I don’t mind seeing them, and I can understand why people would want to put them up.

But look at this one – the one I removed: It was totally blocking the foot/cycle path! I mean, how does anyone, no matter how much they’d like to see a flag up, think it’s OK to block paths and stop other people going about their business just so you can have a flag! Sorry, whoever put it up, but that was really not an appropriate place.

But setting aside my few minutes of annoyance, let’s look at the wider principles here. Because that flag blocking the footpath perfectly illustrates the underlying issue. How can you reconcile people’s desire to put flags (or other stuff) up with the problem that public spaces are for everyone, not for any one individual to modify as they wish

More precisely, there are two reasons why many liberals have objected to the flags:

• Firstly, some people don’t like them in principle, or feel uneasy that maybe the flags are being put up to make political points against immigration.
• Secondly, even if you like the flags in principle, should we be condoning individuals hanging stuff on public property that is usually managed by local councils?

I’m not going to say much about the first objection. Personally, I think it’s nice to see the flag of my country flying and to feel proud of my country. I don’t see any incompatibility between liberalism and that kind of patriotism. And even if it turns out I don’t agree with some of the views of whoever put the flag up, that shouldn’t be a barrier to me or anyone enjoying seeing the flag. But the 2nd objection is more interesting, and I can see good arguments on both sides of the debate.

Against the Flags…

The prime objection I’ve seen on social media is that things such as lampposts are managed by the local authorities, and its up to the local authorities to make sure any changes to the public realm are safe (for example, they don’t block traffic signals). If people start taking it on themselves to attach flags or other things to public property, something might theoretically end up unsafe or inconvenient to other people. Well, maybe not just theoretically: The flag I removed should definitely not have been put where it was. As for flags attached to lampposts: At first sight, it seems hard to imagine what harm they could do, but thinking more carefully: Are they sufficiently secure that they aren’t going to blow away or get detached and fall down? Has the person who put them up planned to take them down again once they become weather-worn or damaged? Those are things that you do need to think about, and which give a good reason for not allowing just anyone to go attaching things to lampposts.

Also, let’s say we decide it’s OK for people to take it upon themselves to put up things like the Union Flag in public places: Where does it stop? Would it be OK for me to, say, hang a banner calling for people to vote LibDem from a lamppost? Clearly not! The lamppost is part of a public space that’s for everyone, and not for me to take over to impose my views on everyone else. The right place for a LibDem banner is somewhere that’s visible from the street, but located in my own property (such as, in my window). You could make a good argument that the Union Flag is fine because (unlike a LibDem banner) it’s relatively uncontroversial: Few people are going to disagree with it. But, in that case, where do you draw the line? Who gets to decide what things are and aren’t acceptable to hang from a lamppost?

For the Flags…

What are the arguments on the other side?

Firstly, if we are saying that only local authorities should be allowed to put things up, isn’t that erring towards authoritarianism? Part of the whole ethos of liberalism is, empowering individuals to be in control of their lives. And surely, allowing people to influence or change their own immediate environment is an important part of that. If we don’t allow people to do things like putting up flags, then you’re basically telling people that they have to accept the locality they live in just how the authorities arranged it, whether they like it or not. That doesn’t seem either liberal or empowering.

And that shows in the politics too. I recall a recent conversation in which a friend, somewhat inclined to vote Reform, mentioned frustration at the feeling they aren’t even allowed to put British flags up. It’s not hard to understand where that sentiment comes from. It’s not a good look for progressive politics if people start to see liberalism something that stops them doing things they want to do and which are harmless.

Towards a ‘Liberal’ Solution

Is there a way out of this conundrum? Actually I think there is: What seems to be lacking here is a way for people to get very quick approval for putting stuff up in public places. Imagine if, say, you could call up your local council or fill in a form on their website and say, I want to put something (maybe a Union Flag, maybe a banner advertising a local fete, or whatever) on this fence/lamppost/whatever. You supply your details, acknowledge responsibility for whatever it is, go through a check-list of any safety or other relevant concerns, agree the date when the thing should be removed, and so on. And within a day or so, the council comes back to you with a ‘yes’ or (if there’s a good reason) ‘no’. Wouldn’t that give a much better balance between the two conflicting concerns of letting people put up what they want in their communities, and ensuring that the public spaces are run in the interests of the community as a whole? It would also provide a good framework to allow people to put up flags if they wish to, while also putting us on much firmer ground when we object to individuals putting them up on the fly without checking with anyone else. I’m not sure how easy that would be to do, or what changes in the law it might require, but that seems to me to be how a liberal approach to public spaces would work.