>Flags as symbols of prejudice, not pride – and a distinct air of menace. Welcome to England 2025
>Despite claims that it is all about patriotism rather than prejudice, what has materialised up and down the country feels like an unauthorised version of what the Home Office used to call the hostile environment, as if football hooligans have taken control of road markings and street furniture
>notices about looming protests outside hotels used to house asylum seekers and terse allusions to the usual conspiracy theories (“our masters have sold us to Islam … the replacement has begun”).
“Conspiracy theories”
>The anti-racist group Hope Not Hate points to known far-right activists who are involved.
We all hold their views in reverence.

This bit:
>One minute you might be spraying the road just for the likes; the next, you could be disappearing into a mob surrounding a mosque. From the outside, that is a very difficult cycle to break.

>But one of the most depressing aspects of this summer has been the sense of progressive forces so dumbfounded and confused by what is happening that they seem almost completely unable to respond, and a feeling that many people in positions of power now accept that ridiculous proposition that England is now the country Farage et al say it is.
>But there are still musicians with huge platforms and devoted fans, and organisations – such as Love Music Hate Racism – ready to play their part.
Music! Our greatest weakness.
>This is what defines the urgency and fear of this summer: as the Clash long ago sang in a peerless and prescient piece of music titled Clampdown, what are we going to do now?
And he has no answers.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/24/flag-hard-right-prejudice-england