U.S. Vice President JD Vance has lent his support to activists and patriots in the United Kingdom flagging British cities to assert patriotic feeling, saying the “crazies” who say all should be ashamed need to be resisted.
The United States of America and Europe, particularly the United Kingdom, share a strong bond of culture and events that impact one often come to the other, Vice President JD Vance told Fox News’ Will Cain on Thursday night as he signalled support for Operation Raise The Colours activists.
The nationwide push to see the British flag flown, as well as the English cross of St George in England, the saltire in Scotland, and the dragon in Wales, follows months of anti-migrant-crime protests. Activists have used their national colours as a symbol of resistance to the strongly pro-mass-migration and what are perceived as anti-English policies emanating from London by putting up many thousands of flags.
These actions have led to flag battles as local councils have rushed to tear down flags hanging from street lamps, only for the ‘flaggers’ to return the next night to raise them again.
Responding to the work of the flag activists and the debate surrounding it, VP Vance invoked a comparison with America’s ‘BLM’ era when some Americans feared showing the national colours at their homes could provoke vandalism by Black Lives Matter supporters. Speaking first generally about the stars and stripes and then specifically about what is happening in England, Vance told Fox:
“It’s not a controversial symbol. Nothing should be less controversial than the American flag, it’s the one thing that whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican should unite us all together. We should all love our country, be proud of our country.”
It’s “crazy” to allow radicals to pressure you out of showing patriotism he said, continuing: “it is in fact a good thing to be proud of your country and we should push back against the crazies who say we should be so ashamed of our culture and our heritage that we shouldn’t be willing to fly a flag. It’s craziness, we’ve got to call that craziness out, and encourage our European friends to follow suit.”
The U.S. and UK are intrinsically linked due to shared history and often face the same cultural issues, Vance said. In some cases Europe is on the “leading edge” of a cultural or political trend and America is in a position to learn from Europe’s mistakes before it crosses the Atlantic. Other times, Europe learns from America.
In this case, Vance said — perhaps because Europe has been so bullheadedly resistant to President Trump — Europe may have to learn its own lessons the hard way. He said: “The problems of Europe reflect the problems of America… we had a wide-open southern border under Joe Biden, I think the Europeans have got to learn the hard lessons. What happens is you get higher crime, you get less cultural cohesion, you get more problems that come from importing millions and millions of low-wage foreigners into your country. The Europeans have got to learn that lesson in the same way the United States had to learn that lesson”.
The Vice President said: “…fundamentally there’s so much cultural similarity between us and Europe, obviously the United States was born out of a European country, the United Kingdom, I think it’s important to recognise these cultural similarities and importantly what happens in Europe does effect the United States and vice-versa”.
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