Your say / Patriotism
‘I see patriotism as about welcoming places and welcoming people’
We’ve had concerted and widespread campaigns during this year to fly the Union flag and the St George flag to indicate our patriotism.
Sadly, Operation Raise the Colours raised flags as if in battle, indicating territory and acting as a rallying point.
Far from uniting the Kingdom as Tommy Robinson would put it, this is divisive, dangerous and unnecessary.
Flag display, flag waving and literally wrapping ourselves in a flag, is not needed to be patriotic.
“Flag display… is not needed to be patriotic” – photo: John Wimperis
Like many Bristolians I see patriotism as about welcoming places and welcoming people.
I’m patriotic because of deep connections I have to my place, all the diversity of: my neighbourhood, my city, my country (Knowle, Bristol, England).
My family, friends, all people, all visitors, experiences, where I’ve lived and where I’ve regularly stayed, such as Bristol, Wiltshire, Cornwall and Dorset, have shaped me and given meaning to my life.
I’m attached because of bonds of emotion, thought and experiences, like belonging, identity, connection, comfort, security, memories of good times and bad times.
These developed over time and are not about being born here or having family roots that go back many generations, since for many of my formative years, through much of my schooldays, I wasn’t even aware of these (and of course I could choose or be forced to move elsewhere and my sense of place would adjust and evolve, as it does for all who migrate).
Anti-immigration demonstrators have been protesting across Bristol – photo: Rob Browne
I know the people around me, from corner shop to, local takeaway, to shopping centres.
I know the streets especially in Knowle, where I was brought up and went to school.
I know the parks, especially Redcatch, Victoria, Perret’s, The Jungle, where I spend hours playing football and cricket.
I remember the Northern Slopes when it was much wilder and overgrown than now, in the 1970s, because I ran wild there on the Bombie.
I mourn the loss of green spaces and wildlife in my place.
I know the rivers and especially Brislington Brook, that feeds the river, because I swung across it on a rope with my friends many times (including when one fell off and broke his arm when all four of us got onto the rope together).
I know the hills and valleys to the south of Bristol because I cycled there many times on my first bike to Compton Dando and Chew Valley.
I know the central city area I regularly walked through on my way to university.
These are just a tiny fraction of my experiences.
All these places – and more – have no inherent boundary, name or flag.
They continue to the coasts, to other places I connect with and love.
They continue beyond that to other places with no inherent name, some that I have never visited or lived in.
They are all in the same chain, they are interdependent. The same sun rises and sets everywhere.
It doesn’t make sense to define my love of my place in the negative – by hating or regarding as inferior what is ‘not my place’.
Glen Vowles believes patriotism should be more tied to experiences than symbols – photo: Rob Browne
I don’t draw or need hard and fast and fixed boundaries or flags to have my patriotism and sense of place – certainly not in an exclusive, superior or hateful way.
Our island has been a melting pot of many types of people for millennia, not least because of our ports, seafaring, exploration and, sadly, our colonialism.
We are all related to early human migrants who travelled from Africa tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of years ago.
All our blood is red.
Immigrants add to our cultural diversity, enrich communities and contrary to what some say they make a net positive contribution socially and economically.
We became and we are successful as a human species when/because we are social – this is human nature.
Use of the flag of England or the flag of the UK in an exclusive, abusive, hateful way, is anti-social and anti-patriotic.
The number of race, religious and other hate crimes is high, they have risen and there is evidence that they are under-reported.
It is scary and irrational.
Patriotism as loving ourselves as the varied blend that is ‘the English’ is great, as long as we don’t make a virtue or a business out of it.
I love Knowle, Bristol, England – my place – as I love life, but it is diverse and all the better for it.
Glenn Vowles is a long-time Bristol green campaigner, blogs at Conserver Living and is an environment tutor at the Open University.
Main photo: Susie Long
Read next:
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
