For a Brit in America, flag-flying feels so overdone, almost cultish. Why do Americans fly their flag on houses, lawns, even on their lapels? An American friend once gave me a running vest – the garment that over there they call a wifebeater – emblazoned with ‘US Army’. A British veteran I ran with raised an eyebrow. ‘Only Americans,’ he said, ‘need clothes to remind them which army they’re in.’

The recent sudden spread of English flags has caused alarm. They are ‘symbols of prejudice, not pride,’ says the Guardian , and good news for ‘the hard right’. The BBC suggested to Andy Burnham that flying the English flag was ‘contentious’. ‘You can obviously display a flag if that’s your choice,’ he replied, ‘but I don’t know, I do wonder about the times we’re living in, it’s like people are

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