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FPT

@Sunil_Prasannan! Good morning. Trust you are well

I’ve got a couple of questions. You’re of Indian descent, and British, how do the Union Jack and Cross of St George make you feel, if I may rudely inquire?

You’re under no obligation to answer but my interest is sincere

Do you feel patriotic? Neutral? Sad? Angry about the empire?

And does it matter where you see them? Is it intimidating if you see them outside a pub or a shop or simply meaningless?

And, finally, do you have different emotional reactions to the two flags? There are suggestions on X that the England flag is now seen as the more “provocative”

Good evening, @Leon. Good thanks, hope you are too.

Apologies for the late reply. Was out with my Mum on a photo-walk (er, she's a member of not one but two of the local east London/Essex borders camera clubs), starting on Oxford St, Regent St, Carnaby St, Chinatown and Trafalgar. Let's just say the West End was rather busy, to put it mildly!

Anyway, in answer to your questions, and I feel I must apologise for writing an essay, but anyway: Nope, don't think your rude at all for asking about the flags! As for the Union Jack and St George's Cross, I do feel patriotic for both really. Certainly don't have a problem with with either of them. As you in this morning's thread, I saw a row of five flags (one row of many, in fact) hung across Oxford Street, and was eager to show all of you a picture on PB. And it's always nice to see pubs with the flags too (yes, we still have half a dozen or so in da North Ilford Ghetto!).

I think I have stated a couple of times on here that the most egregious, cruellest, pernicious aspect of the Empire was that the Powers That Be taught Indians how to play boring Cricket instead of Football. Imagine - India could now be the sporting Brazil of Asia! And I suppose Pakistan could be Argentina!

For me, England is my home, I've lived here ever since I was 4 months old. I do go back to India every couple of years, but I don't have any real attachment to the place. My language is English, and I have oft stated on here that I regard English as the best language in the world. One of the most disappointing things I find about India is the lack of civic sense in most parts of the country. Most obviously, the huge piles of litter beside train tracks and roads. No real neatness, as if tidiness isn't part of the culture. I could go on, but I digress!

Anyway, to conclude, perhaps very controversially, and this will probably upset a few PBers, I think that being English is a question of attitude, and not just a question of birth. Hope you find the above scrawlings interesting!

Loving the contortions of people who used to hate John Bolton as a neocon warmonger in the Bush regime, who helped deliver the current state of the middle,east, now trying to go into bat for him as he’s against Trump.

https://x.com/nypost/status/1958850232843731054?s=61

I'm reminded of the people who paused their damning of D. Cummings as a complete liar, to declare him the Sword of Truth, when he turned on Boris Johnson.

No contortion necessary.
Bolton's a dickhead, but that's really no justification for turning the FBI on him.

Even Bernie realises that.

John Bolton and I have nothing in common politically.

But last time I heard, in America, people are allowed to criticize the President of the United States without the FBI showing up on their doorstep.

Just another step in Trump’s march toward authoritarianism.
https://x.com/BernieSanders/status/1958913008505086132

…

Has this been covered: https://slate.com/culture/2025/08/royal-family-harry-meghan-william-andrew-entitled-book.html

Her takeaway that the British would demand the end of the monarchy if the whole story about him and Epstein was revealed is bollocks though - everyone knows he’s a bad un and clearly people like the POW and Mrs POW and generally know there is no love lost between Andrew and William.

P Andrew is a gigantic arsehole though and his sense of entitlement seems to similarly inhabit the pea sized brain of Harry too.

Indeed: the allegations in the book are really ... not good ...

He had 40 women brought to his hotel room in Thailand over a five-day visit. Aged 26, he had dozens of stuffed animals on his bed, one of which wore a vest that read “It’s tough being a prince.” He missed his daughter’s 12th birthday party to hang out with Epstein at his Miami beach house. He ran up a bill of £325,000 on helicopters and planes in 2005 alone. He let a Libyan gun smuggler pay for a holiday he took to Tunisia and accepted a present of a bugged MacBook Pro from an attractive woman who turned out to be a Russian spy; he later tried to get himself a free Fabergé egg on an official Kremlin tour. In his role as a special representative for the United Kingdom, he earned, in the diplomatic community, the nickname “His Buffoon Highness” by refusing to follow his briefs and perhaps even read them in the first place. Once, driving his £80,000 Range Rover to Royal Lodge in Great Windsor Park, he found that the gates’ sensor was broken, so, rather than taking a 1-mile detour, he rammed them open, causing thousands of pounds’ worth of damage.

The KGB are so overrated. Who on earth thought that Prince Andrew would know anything that was worth bugging his computer for?

Probably the same team at the KGB who were laughed at by colleagues for getting Kompromat on a crap real estate mogul from New York many years ago.

Pretty shocking opening to the World at One. The UN statement of famine in GAZA uninterrupted. First time ever outside Africa. I hope the Jails in the Hague have enough room.....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002hbkh

The World at One was remarkably well edited today. Simon Jack was excellent. The focus was very much on the famine in Gaza.

If Sarah Montague or Jonny Dimond had been presenting it would have been thirty minutes of wall to wall Lucy Connolly and asylum hotels, followed by fifteen minutes of some gurning interviews with Rupert Lowe, Robert Jenrick and Lee Anderson.

There was a young woman called Lucy
Whose thoughts upon migrants were juicy
One day she did spout
She let it all out
And suddenly needed a QC

Lucy on X clearly stated
Ethnics should be incinerated.
Though admitting her crime
Many thought her sublime,
And now by JD Vance she is feted.

Pretty shocking opening to the World at One. The UN statement of famine in GAZA uninterrupted. First time ever outside Africa. I hope the Jails in the Hague have enough room.....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002hbkh

The World at One was remarkably well edited today. Simon Jack was excellent. The focus was very much on the famine in Gaza.

If Sarah Montague or Jonny Dimond had been presenting it would have been thirty minutes of wall to wall Lucy Connolly and asylum hotels, followed by fifteen minutes of some gurning interviews with Rupert Lowe, Robert Jenrick and Lee Anderson.

There was a young woman called Lucy
Whose thoughts upon migrants were juicy
One day she did spout
She let it all out
And suddenly needed a QC

Good morning, everyone.

With the Conservatives exhausted & lacking credibility after years in government, and Labour apparently much the same after one year in government & years in Opposition, it's very likely indeed that vast numbers of voters will be looking towards parties on the fringe.


The next GE may be a spoiled ballot for me.

In which case, polling like this will become depressingly relevant;

Some people on the left have argued politics is destined to become 'blame the migrants vs blame the rich'.

Fair or not, this binary turns out to be a surprisingly useful question for dividing the country right down the middle!

Look at the generational splits, madness.



https://bsky.app/profile/steveakehurst.bsky.social/post/3lwwgjpn54c2t

Still, easier to do that than take responsibility ourselves.

Blaming people in this way is a stupid way to do politics.

I quite agree. It's simplistic, and a vindictive lens through which to view the world.

But it also has a great redeeming feature. When you blame The Other you exculpate yourself of any responsibility for the ills of the world while simultaneously attributing them to someone else. And then you can focus pointlessly attacking The Other and feeling morally superior about doing it, while the actual problems (and any solutions) remain unattended.