I spent Saturday night travelling through West London to Sloane Square to watch the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain . On the way we passed families returning to Slough draped in English flags.
We didn’t want to cross central London to the City, we knew there was still two protests, the one on behalf of England and the other protesting against them. We went home after our concert, with other jolly Great British people joining us.
This was the prom of Brian May and Roger Taylor, 20th century patriotism touted as the Final Night’s upgrade!
We all went back on tubes and trains – we went back to lower Slough – Eton (in practice and in spirit).
There was jolliness about the prommers, making their way from the Albert Hall, promoting a different vision of England and other home countries. It is the preserve of a vision of nationality that has nothing in common with that of Tommy Robinson, supported by Elon Musk. Maybe 1,500 prommers, 1,000 of us jolly geriatrics in Cadogan and a couple of miles to Trafalgar Square the last remains of Tommy Robinson’s rally.
What do the ever so nice prommers and ukulele fans do about the militant patriots? It’s not their kind of patriotism, England is not a notion or a flag we want (still want an EU flag for the most part).
And yet it is the reality of London. I have these thoughts about Reform. It sticks in my throat to say it but while we may not agree with it, we cannot ignore it.
The Cadogan and Royal Albert Hall are vey jolly , but they are irrelevant to the 150,000 with Tommy and Elon. Reform is unfamiliar to LGPS and to the institutions of pension. But there are more people who support Reform than support anyone else and if pensions are for the people who get paid them, how can their views be ignored?
Now on the river
As I write, I see wooden boats returning from St Katherine’s dock up river. These boats were for the most part 50 years or more old , some parading the flags they might have flown to Dunkirk. Their festival was last weekend, they sit upstream of us in Eton
They represent a memory of Britain which is owned by a few wealthy people. They own a different England flag which flies on every boat. Not the thin nylon flags bought by the Tommy Robinson crew but made from thick material that might last another 50 years.
The Tommy Robinson patriots were not part of the Katherine’s Dock event
I’d like to say I can see an easy way out of this patriotic diversity but I can’t.