The Haunting of the Union Jack

After this week’s victory for Sinn Fein in the Northern Ireland Assembly elections, a caucus of leftist memetists are rejoicing at the prophecy as told by Star Trek: The Next Generation.

This news, whilst quietly celebrated by myself and others, naturally
gives many Brits the willies. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has been
floating a potential amendment of the Northern Ireland Protocol for a
while now and since the Sinn Fein win, things have kicked up a gear.
We are currently in territory of trying not to break the Good Friday
Agreement, so an amendment is understandable but not one that seeks to
further divide Ireland.

To some this may seem insignificant whilst there is conflict still
unfolding in Ukraine but I can assure you, just because it is not
armed conflict (although very arguable), this does not make it any
less serious. Truss’s legislation change teamed with the Queen’s
speech, the newfangled British Bill of Rights and the Platinum Jubilee
will see June arrive with a wave of carefully concocted British
Nationalism.

My first meaningful memory of realising that we (the British) were the
baddies was in year 8 history class, as we watched Zulu (1964). A
genuine effort had been made by my history teacher to teach us about
colonisation, but I am ashamed to say a lot of it flew over my head. I
grew up in a low-income household, and my parents worked shifts in a
casino. A lot of my childhood was spent on my own at home and the only
things to keep me company were the TV, early internet and copies of
The Daily Mail. The only political thought I had mustered by then was
that I was not keen on invading Iraq, which developed into the
vociferous anti-war view I still hold today.

It was only as I became older that I realised the full extent of what
we had done as a nation. I want to blame my lack of giving-a-shit on
my undiagnosed ADHD and neurodivergency, but my very white privilege
also plays a huge part. We were classed as piss-poor but I was still
white and I still had a roof over my head and food to eat. It is no
excuse really. If I do not want to know about something, it simply
does not exist to me. My brain blocks it out. It is only when I choose
to learn that I really do take information in. To make matters worse,
The Daily Heil was a huge part of my formative education (I really
enjoy reading a paper and it was the only one there), and it has taken
years to erase that “education”.

When I finally completed my degree in my early thirties, the last
piece of work I submitted was on the Good Friday Agreement. I am no
expert in the area but I am certainly no lay-person either. I was 10
years old when the Good Friday Agreement was signed, so why was I only
learning the true extent of The Troubles as an adult? Why was I only
just learning about the crimes committed by the British Army? Why was
I only learning about Irish history when their land is so close to
mine?

Like many others now, I feel uneasy when I see the Union Jack. A flag
which I feel should be consigned to the bin. Such as the statue of
Edward Colston in Bristol, and maybe more controversially so, our
idolisation of Winston Churchill. All of these are a constant reminder
of my cultural identity tied up with colonisation. We absolutely
should be reminded about what we did as a nation (and still continue
to do), but there are reasons why we are haunted by these figures and
it is not to make us feel bad, their haunting exists to keep us in
line.

A lot of people want to be haunted, whether they think so or not. A
distant memory which may be our own or passed down through
generations, in this case a positive signifier of better times. A
haunting in this context is when we take our positive memories and
associate them with cultural artefacts. Those artefacts are usually
common with other peoples also. For instance, when I was younger the
Union Jack signified the end of WWII, and stirs up memories of
triangular bunting (and the street parties in my hometown), as well
the opening credits of a beloved television favourite, Dad’s Army. It
then became a bastion of feminism, as 9 year old me watched Ginger
Spice in that dress at the BRIT Awards. All positive associations,
which we are entitled to have. But. As we enter an age of very late
capitalism and a new generational enlightenment (the woke Zoomers), we
should be approaching the more offensive artefacts with critical
thought, and not hostility when we question the past. This is
ultimately how the culture wars were borne, with the right leaning
governments (and dominant economic ideology) hoping you will defend
the things that you associate with your happier times, so you do not
think of the future.

With our world in a state of economic decay, it is incredibly hard to
imagine the future. Not a dreamed up fantasy, an actual future. A
future where our children are not drowning in the rising ocean, a
future where we are not threatened by the threat of total
annihilation, a future where we can afford basic utilities. Why do we
struggle to think of this future? Why do some struggle to fight for
it? We acknowledge things are bad and will carry on being bad, but our
defence mechanism wants us to yearn for the past. When we do not think
of a post-capitalist and perhaps Utopian future (which is not as hard
as it sounds), then people are free to carry on doing what they do in
the name of capitalism. This is ultimately why we accept our haunting,
and associate our memories with cultural artefacts to reinforce our
views, and remember happier times. This is why this kind of haunting
links directly into the Culture Wars. That is why occasionally we are
bombarded with signifiers to make us forget about what is happening,
and reinforce a dominant view.

The bombardment of the Union Jack was always going to happen in June,
like a battle ready to commence. It is for the majority, a time for
celebration for Queen Elizabeth, and we are able to reminisce about
the better times, maybe some will recount the street parties during
1977, telling us how it was a better time then and reinforcing our
cultural memory. It is also a time when the government can raise
national pride just enough for no one to care that people are faced
with a very real decision to heat or eat this winter. That there is a
major risk that The Troubles are back. That the government is planning
to scrap the Human Rights Act. It is okay though, The Queen celebrates
her anniversary and we get our carnival to stop us revolting, all the
time waving our little flags.