October 31, 2005
Next, it will be The Muppets
So Britian wants to ban piggy banks because they might offend Muslims? This is beyond parody and paints a good portrait of where an appeasement culture leads.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 01:15 PM
How do you say ignorant in French?
Simply astonishing. A French foreign minister, visiting Israel, wonders how many Jews were deported from the United Kingdom to Nazi concentration camps. The Israeli author’s tongue-in-cheek defense of the minister makes a good read.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 10:35 AM
August 05, 2005
The U.K, Flags, and Patriotism, Part Two
In the wake of the July 7 bombings, I noticed that there were few flags put out by the English—as compared to the number of flags Americans flew following 9-11 attacks. I received an interesting response from a longtime friend (who also happens to be the webmaster of this site, Skip Keats. As he points, there are traditionalist reasons for not flying the union jack. A (slightly) edited version of his response follows.
"Your item reminds me of something about which I asked my English godmother once, namely why the Union Jack was not flown much. (She only flew it on the Queen's Birthday and the anniversary of VE Day, which commerates the victory of the allies in the European theatre of World War II.) The goodly Hertfordshire lady she was stated that one simply did not show the flag except on military parade, the anniversaries of great military victories, and royal births, marriages or, most importantly, deaths. One did not show it to mark defeats for that would be dishonourable.If one wanted a flag used at other times, it was a national flag — the Cross of St. George in England, the Saltire of St. Andrew in Scotland, the Harp (on St. Patrick's blue, nor green) or Saltire of St. Patrick in Ireland (red-on-white), the dragon in Wales (incidentally the dragon of Wales does include a wee bit of black, mainly to outline the parts of the dragon), the Fleur-de-Lys in the Channel Isles, the Black Griffin of the Lord of the Isles or the three legs in Man. Use of the Union Jack, except at sea, was unseemly for it indicated either great victory, celebration, or the death of the monarch. The Union Jack to the British was as the Royal Standard to the Queen (as opposed to her personal standard) -- it was used only on great or austere occasions.
At my godfather's funeral in the mid-eighties, his casket was draped in the Cross of St. George and the Saltire of St. Andrew, not the Union Jack. (He was an Anglo-Scot.) He received full military honours for his burial as he had been an officer of the RAF, and, more importantly, one of Doctor Snow's "bright young men"" who invented radar and broke the Enigma code.
Aunt Jean (may she rest in peace) would be horrified that you think the Union Jack should be used to mark the remembrances of the terrorist actions. It is not a matter of patriotism. To her, it would have meant honouring the terrorists and bowing to them. The British usage of the flag is a bit different than the American. It does not represent the nation in the same way. The Queen represents the nation, hence it is her standard which has more resemblance to our uses of our flag, but it is only used by Queen Elizabeth herself as the reigning monarch."
Posted by Richard Miniter at 07:45 AM
July 31, 2005
The Missing Flags in Londonistan
I was in London a few days after the July 7 bombings and witnessed the moving two-minutes of silence in Central London. Yet something nagged at me, something was missing, was off. There were no flags. Sure, the Union Jack was on display near Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square for the commemoration of the allied victory in World War II. But those flags quickly came down. After the terror bombings, there were no displays of flags to symbolize national unity in the face of terror. Even the unity demonstration following the 7-7 bombings, which featured fine speeches from Muslim leaders, included no British flags. (Contrast this with 9-11, when Americans hung flags and signs depicting flags have available surface. Many even bought plastic little flags to attach to their cars.)
I asked a number of British journalists, a Member of Parliament and other longtime London residents about the missing flags. Some missed the point, contending that Brits were not "jingoistic"—"We don't want anyone to think that we are going to war." (Aren't you already at war? Nevermind.) Others patiently reminded me that patriotism is a bad word in Britain. "Why do Americans always call the U.K. Great Britain? What's great about it?" one asked. Even in soccer matches, English fans hold up the white-and-red flag of St. George, not the Union Jack. I can't help but thinking that this aversion to patriotism is part of the problem; it is a concession to those who think that arresting terror suspects is "racist" and "anti-Muslim" and those activists who chant "There ain't no black in the Union Jack." (Quick, name a country whose flag was designed before 1945 that includes the color black. I can think only of Nazi Germany... The choice of flag colors tells us nothing about a country's virtue. But, tellingly, legions of Britons let this cheap shot stand.) Or as the great French anti-communist intellectual, Jean-Francois Revel observes: "Democratic civilization is the first in history to blame itself because another power is trying to destroy it."
Prime Minister Blair missed an important opportunity when he spoke to his nation following the attacks. He could have called on his citizens to hang flags in solidarity with the 55 victims of terror. But he did not, probably knowing the negative reaction he would have experienced. And that says it all.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 03:32 PM