Ian writes about the other event that took place on Saturday.
I had a conversation with a friend recently in which we discussed the way that the Union flag and the Cross of St George had been reclaimed from extremists and ultra-nationalists as a result of the Jubilee celebrations and the support for the England soccer team. For a while it seemed as if, simply waving a St George flag, you would be branded a xenophobic extremist, when of course this isn’t the case for 99.9% of people who wave such pennants. Thanks to the flag-waving of the last few months, proclaiming your English or British nationality is now a socially acceptable thing to do, which in my view is a Good Thing.
"How is this linked to Mardi Gras?" I hear you ask. Well, reading Ian’s account of the day set me thinking to the way that so many people use their heterosexuality as a badge, in the same way that xenophobes and racists have used the flag of St George as a badge (in fact, I think they are often the same individuals). That can’t be a good thing, can it?
separating the wanted from the unwanted