Clive Lewis is right to be alarmed by Keir Starmer’s alleged fondness for the union flag (Phoney flag-waving is not the way for Labour to win back the red wall, 3 February) but the question “Whose flag is this?” might powerfully form the core of Labour’s next manifesto. I am no football fan, but I happily joined the cheers for the England team at the last World Cup because its multicultural, aspirant image was of a country I celebrated, and wished to be a member of.
On the other hand, the unrepentant scoundrels who engineered the catastrophe of Brexit, to whom the refuge of patriotism is second nature, will never represent, for me, the country I live in. The victims of zero-hours contracts, of punitive rents, and an impossible trading landscape for small and large businesses might also provoke a national discussion on who benefits from being British, and who does not.
Starmer may be on to something, but only if the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg get seriously cross at the prospect of the true multi-ethnic community we all inhabit claiming equal ownership of the country’s flag.
Tony Rowlands
Bristol
• Clive Lewis requests a pencil-sketch of a set of policies to act as the basis for a unifying strategy and branding for the Labour party. A useful starting point for this is the sensitive and constructive analysis by Sally Gimson in a recent Fabian Society pamphlet, Building Bridges: Lessons from Bassetlaw for the Country.
Her discussion of immigration and discrimination, as one component in a wide-ranging exploration of potential policies, references ideas of patriotism and pride in military service within a context of international cooperation and security, democracy, equality and fairness for all.
Gill Francis
Wollaton, Nottinghamshire
• It is a sad reflection on the opposition that the head of the Confederation of British Industry can propose a new 1945 settlement appealing to the whole country (UK should respond to economic crisis with 1945-style reboot, says CBI chief, 3 February), while all the Labour leadership seems able to offer is flag-waving to appeal to a declining segment of voters in the so-called “red wall” constituencies.
David Beetham
Manchester
