Another dead cat

The ‘culture wars’ are hotting up and could partly explain why the Tories are riding high in the opinion polls. Their latest ruse is to declare that all government buildings must fly the Union Jack all the time and not just on Royal birthdays, etc (I hope they consulted the Queen on this implicit downgrading of Her Maj and Co.). Even some journo on the BBC was prompted to ask whether this new era of flag waving was designed to wrong foot the Labour Party. Of course that is one of the intentions, but it cannot be pure coincidence that this flag fervour comes in the same week as the British Army’s establishment is to be slashed from 82,000 to 72,000. It is another aspect of the government’s deflection strategy, or I suppose these days it’s called the dead cat ploy. Poor old Keir Starmer’s flag hugging will look even more insincere (even if it isn’t) since he will be the one called upon to defend his sincerity. We can expect to see a lot more of this crap as time goes by, and I wonder if we will see as a consequence an increasingly partisan politics, as we have witnessed in the US. There—demonstrating a clear cultural difference—flag waving is not a partisan issue, they all do it. But here it signifies something else altogether, with the Tories always using it to mark their peculiar brand of patriotism, e.g. incorporating the Union flag into their brand logos. That’s one reason why many people will find this latest initiative repellent, me included, and probably most of Scotland too.