Billy Bragg: ‘My Old Man Used to Say to Me “It’s Not the Skinheads You Want to Worry About, It’s the Skinheads in Suits You Want to Worry About”. That’s Who Reform Are’

The musician, known for his political activism, speaks to Josiah Mortimer about why progressive patriotism isn’t about flags and how the absence of Brexit in political debate worries him

JM: In recent weeks, a campaign to display the St George’s flag of England has been launched across the country, known as ‘Operation Raise the Colours’. What do you make of it?

I didn’t want to jump to conclusions about the appearance of the flags, and thought one way of addressing it would be a tongue-in-cheek Instagram post about how the flags were going up in the same weekend that the Women’s Rugby World Cup was being hosted in England.

It’s really important that we don’t start by saying ‘all flags are bad and they’re all fascist’. That’s not true. Flags are always about context.

If you see the England flag flying from a church tower, it’s just part of the scenery. In August, thousands of people crammed into the Mall [in Westminster] waving England flags to celebrate the English women’s football team coming home with the European [trophy] – they didn’t have to say ‘I’m not being racist doing this’ because everybody knew it was a celebration of, not just the women’s victory, but how the country felt about it. In that case, the flag was bringing people together. It was a sign of unity.

The problem is that the people putting up England flags on lampposts have not been forthcoming about why they are doing it. All those I’ve seen interviewed, or who have posted about it, have really only said ‘I’m not being racist’ – and so they are almost putting a question mark over their motivations, recognising that putting up flags can be seen as provocative.