Your say / nationalism
‘Seeing a sudden far-right presence in my town scares me’
In recent days, the politics of flags have played out on British streets. With painted roundabouts and flags adorning lampposts and motorway bridges, an air of menace has spread around the country.
As non-British and ethnically ambiguous, like many others, this makes me feel rather unwelcome. This is in the knowledge that Swedish-Peruvian atheists are not their main target. So many others will of course feel much worse about it.
After participating in the anti-racist counter-demonstration in Bristol on Saturday, I travelled back home to Clevedon, only to find lampposts and roundabouts in the town where I have lived for 14 years covered in Union Jacks and St George’s crosses.
Because of my suspicious mind, I wanted to find out who was putting them up and why. The fact that there is the Women’s Rugby World Cup currently taking place didn’t seem to explain it. Nor did the fact that there had been a flower show in town, a mile away. These were both suggested reasons by innocent onlookers.
I first kept a close eye on the local Facebook page, always a go-to for local gossip. There I found a number of posts about the flags that quickly attracted various xenophobic and racist statements before being swiftly removed by the ever vigilant admin.
But there were also seemingly reasonable posts about the British and English flags not being inherently, or at all, racist symbols.
To investigate the matter further, I then carried out a simple Facebook search of ‘Clevedon flags’ which immediately brought me to the relevant people. It quickly emerged that a Liam Rich was the main organiser so I started to look through his public Facebook to see what I would find.
I also reached out to Liam to check that he was okay with me naming him in whatever I ended up writing. He is proud of his actions and has agreed to me mentioning him by name in this article.
Liam Rich is one of the chief instigators of putting the flags up in Clevedon – photo: Facebook
I proceeded to take screenshots of the posts that I thought spoke to Liam’s political perspective, to get an understanding of his motivations. As you get a flavour for in these screenshots, Liam’s Facebook page is full of far-right talking points. Most notable is the post where Liam is organising transport to London for people to partake in Tommy Robinson’s march. I think if you don’t believe that Tommy Robinson is far-right, then you’re probably pretty far-right yourself.
We can also see common far-right tropes about Sadiq Khan, ‘two-tier policing’ and a deeply racist mocking of Disney’s more diverse casting decisions from recent years. There are also more violent ‘jokes’ about blowing up refugees crossing the Channel and the Houses of Parliament.
Based on this evidence, I can confidently say that the sudden appearance of these flags in Clevedon is the doing of a far-right activist.
Just one of Liam’s public social media posts – photo: Facebook
Liam is organising a coach to London to attend a march with Tommy Robinson – photo: Facebook
As a foreigner, seeing this sudden far-right presence in the town scares me. It makes me feel unwelcome. It makes me feel like there are a lot of people here who would rather not see me living here.
This is not how flags from gardens and cars during sporting events or national holidays make me feel. The context matters. The same flag can mean one thing in one context and something very different in another context.
The sad thing is of course that the far-right, of which Liam is a part, manage to get many people who are not far-right to support his actions. People who don’t follow the news as closely as I do. People who perhaps don’t reflect very much on the different meanings of flags. That much was clear from relatively innocent comments from acquaintances who don’t share racist views but saw no harm in flags.
A crucial point in all this is that his actions misrepresent Clevedon and its residents as a whole. Clevedon may not be as diverse as Bristol, but is far from homogenous, and many of us are proud of that. To paraphrase another equally angry Clevedon resident: “He has absolutely no right to make a political statement on behalf of a whole town, especially one so disgusting.”
I hope that the council will take the flags down but that they were delayed by the Bank Holiday. Like Liam though, I am not adverse to a bit of direct action. So if anybody has a tall ladder, I can bring scissors. We can even hand them back to Liam so that he can decorate his own house in them. Get in touch!
This is an opinion piece by Dr Oscar Berglund, a senior lecturer in international public and social policy at the University of Bristol
Main photo: Oscar Berglund
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