Letters: In the north of Ireland, we are all too familiar with your flags

Union Jacks on the Shankill Road, Belfast

Watching from Northern Ireland as Britain gets covered in English flags involves an extra layer of fear.

The landscape in the north of Ireland shows us this flag campaign is not simply “patriotic”—and is definitely not harmless. British flags here are most common in working class and deprived areas.

They are a sign of how politicians and the ruling class have channelled working class Protestants’ disillusionment with the system into right wing and racist views.

This “loyalism” represents a siege mentality which justifies brutalising the other to protect itself.

Recently in East Belfast, an area covered in British flags, armed groups of men have been patrolling the streets at night to “protect women from foreign men”.

All they have really done is attack homeless people in tents.

The Shankill is one of the most deprived areas in Belfast. But a mural of Queen Elizabeth II, surrounded by British flags, tells the people that “Britishness” is worth being poor for.

It is glorification of imperialism and the brutality that goes with it.

The Union and Ulster flags are symbols of British nationalism, but more seriously they are a reminder that loyalists and their paramilitaries are in control in that area.

They use violence to keep their power, and their flags are not about pride, they are a display of supremacy.

I grew up in a village in County Down that’s plastered with such flags all year round, despite around one third of the village being Catholic.

Anti-Catholic and explicitly racist sentiments are common.

These displays of “Britishness” always seem to come along with attacking people from other communities. That’s why we cannot separate loyalism and Ulster flag-shagging from racism.

I think that’s also true for the spate of English flag flying in Britain.

Rebecca, County Down, Northern Ireland

Two-sided tale from Midlands

I was part of the contingent of Stand Up To Racism supporters that recently went to Cannock, West Midlands, to support refugees who are housed in a hotel there.

We were faced by a baying mob of racists and organised Nazis, though I must admit that some members of the community supported them.

It was not a very pleasant experience, but it was important, and we held our own.

Last week I had a much more positive experience.

As part of Wolverhampton City of Sanctuary, where I teach English to refugees, we took 50 refugees, men, women and children in 2 minibuses and 4 cars for a day out in rural Shropshire.

We had been invited by a group of local people who wanted to help refugees.

They provided food and activities for all of us and were eager to hear the stories from the refugees about their lives. They made everyone welcome.

Many of the Shropshire people were very concerned about the chaos happening at the moment. But we concluded that we are many and the Nazis are few.

Chris Atherton, Wolverhampton

I wish flooding would wash away this system

Climate change is leading to more deadly floods, yet those in charge often divert money intended for defences to fund their lavish lifestyles.

Anger over this spread after Tropical Storm Wipha forced thousands of people to evacuate in the Philippines.

People are outraged that while their lives are being washed away, their leaders’ families show off designer bags.

That anger has spread across Southeast Asia, where flooding is treated as something people must simply endure. Here in Vietnam it floods frequently. And many people consider it an unavoidable “fact of life”.

Yet as I make my way to work through knee‑deep water that burns the skin, I can’t help but think that it doesn’t have to be this way.

If governments carry on delaying their response to climate change, it will be the poor who suffer the most.

But as workers in Indonesia have recently shown, everyone has their limits.

Name Withheld, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

No to deals with Greens

I don’t want the new left party to form a pact with the Green Party because on many issues it will be a move to the right.

Yes, the new Green leader is left wing on some issues, and is good on migrants. But his party is stuffed with conservatives.

Around here, I wish they’d spend half as much time organising for Palestine as they do on boosting ‘green’ local businesses.

We need a new, socialist left that hates the rich and fights for class struggle.

Samir Hussein, Diss, Norfolk