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Behold the growing backlash after US sportswear giant Nike changed the color of the St George’s Cross on England’s new football shirt: one by one, senior figures from the Labor and Conservative parties are wading into the fray, disdainful Nike’s decision to remove the conflict. traditional red cross in favor of some purple and blue stripes. (Slow news day, I know).
Launching the Conservative Party’s local election campaign in Derbyshire — six weeks out from polling day on May 2, prime minister Rishi Sunak warned against “playing with” national flags “because they are a matter of pride, identity, identity us and they are perfect as we are”.
Culture (war) secretary Lucy Frazer has also intervened, declaring on social media: “Our national heritage — including St George’s Cross — brings us together. Playing with it is pointless and unnecessary”. Frazer’s post on X/Twitter came with a link Telegraph article accusing Nike of “[devaluing] 1,000 years of English history with St George’s Cross stunt”.
Eat Game Awards raise more money for charities than ever before
BASC members quiz Defra Secretary of State at the North North Keepers’ Conference
Elsewhere, Keir Starmer has called on Nike to “reconsider” its decision, as the symbol is a “unifier”.
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The Labor leader delivered his verdict on flag-gate as part of a wide interview on The sun‘s new politics show, Never Mind the Ballots, last night. Harassed by the paper’s political editor, Harry Cole, Starmer also refused to deny that he had taken drugs seven times. There have been some more significant changes, having said that — such as the Labor leader’s apparent criticism of London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ plan.
Starmer told Cole that “we have to deal with dirty polluted air” in London, but that “we can’t just cannibalize motorists” and that “we have to find a better way of doing this”. (However, that won’t trouble Khan much, who has a 24-point lead over her Conservative challenger Susan Hall in the upcoming London mayoral election. Via Savanta.)
The sun headlined with Starmer’s comments on St George’s Cross on its front page today — this is the latest sign, you could argue, of the Labor leadership and the Murdoch press sympathizing with each other. It comes amid speculation that Murdoch’s News UK could support the party in the next election, à la Tony Blair in 1997. Keir Starmer was the first politician to appear on The suna major new politics show strikes me as potentially significant.
But, returning to the story of the day, opposition attorney general Emily Thornberry pointed out that the Nike flag decision was “strange” on the morning media round, arguing that people would not expect the heraldic Welsh dragon to be exchange “to pussycat” or the French tricolor to change it. Thornberry resigned in disgrace from then Labor leader Ed Miliband’s frontbench in 2014 after appearing to mock a block of flats that had St George flags flying from the window.
Concluding a quiet news day, former attorney general Sir Geoffrey Cox said GB News that a significant landslide by Labor would be “bad for democracy”, suggesting that the Conservative Party could struggle to fill its shadow frontbench after the next general election. Full story here.
Have a great rest of your day.
Briefing at lunchtime
Geoffrey Cox warns that ‘destroying’ the Conservative Party would be ‘bad for democracy’
A lunchtime idea
‘He arrogantly takes the British people for granted, assuming he can walk into No 10 without saying what he would do’
— Rishi Sunak is urging voters to “send Keir Starmer a message” in the May 2 local elections as he launches the Conservative Party campaign.
Now try this
‘Officers raise concerns about Steve Barclay’s role in local waste project’
BBC News reports.
‘People say they like Fiona Wilson, Labor MP — but she doesn’t exist’
Matt Chorley new Radio Times polling which reveals that many voters are unfamiliar with the MPs who could soon form the next government.
‘What Do We Deserve Better, the group that Owen Jones has left Labor for?’
Labor List reports.
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