The Ukrainian flag conundrum

If you walk down Whitehall, you will see numerous Ukrainian flags on government buildings. I approve the sentiments. Like many all over the country, we fly the Ukrainian flag in our garden. But is it right that the flag should be flown by HMG? On what basis, and by whom, is such a decision made? Just now, of course, the interests of the United Kingdom and of Ukraine are closely allied; but it is a basic principle of foreign policy that British interests may sometimes clash even with those of close allies. Suppose we fall out with Ukraine while the war continues. Would we keep the flags flying, thus looking hypocritical, or take them down, thus looking disloyal? If the state wishes to make a public gesture of support, surely it is better as a one-off, as when they played ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at the Queen’s request, when changing the guard just after 11 September 2001. The propaganda use of flags by officialdom is generally bad news. Until Gordon Brown decided to wear his patriotism on the nation’s sleeve by insisting on festooning our public buildings, even the Union flag was not regularly flying from most of them. Some of us took quiet pride in that restraint. Since then, public flaggery has spread further. The rainbow colours are just as likely to fly from a building like the Treasury or the MI6 HQ as are our national colours. This is objectionable because the rainbow, in that context, is not politically neutral. It represents a political idea which many do not share – that a successful polity should be a coalition of identity groups (usually arrayed on the left) rather than the common property of all citizens, regardless of race, religion, sexuality etc. If public officials can, as some do, wear rainbow lanyards, why can they not wear ones that say, for example, ‘Get Brexit done’? Let the lanyards, and the flags, bear no message whatever, except, if need be, that they are British.