There ain't no black in the Union Jack...

If you live in London then its unlikely that you have missed the Cross of St George that has been hanging out of about 5% of the Cars on the Roads since the beginning of the week (my estimate based on a sample of made up of all the cars going down Streatham High Road last night in a fifteen minute period, yep I'm officially crazy!). By Saturday evening some of these cars will have an accompanying soundtrack (the Eng-er-land, Eng-er-land, Eng-er-land chant of the football supporter) hopefully celebrating a win over Paraguay in that tournament that will shortly be starting in Germany (my girlfriend says I should try to reduce the amount of times I mention its name) .

There has been a lot of writing about the ubiquitous nature of the flag in the last few weeks, Asda alone expect to sell a quarter of a million flags by the end of the tournament and Tesco recently had to do a U-Turn after previously banning their delivery drivers from displaying England Flags in their Cabs. Meanwhile in a recent survey of adults in England aged 18+, a whopping 80% did not know when St Georges Day is (April 23). Imagine this happening in Nigeria, this many people not knowing when independence day is? Uncle Sege would personally take out all the failed respondents and flog them himself. What Nonsense. However perhaps a more useful test for me should be to stop all the white van men and ask them when St Georges Day is. Will the percentage increase I ask myself?

Anyway I raised the issue of buying a flag to put on my car (as a sign of solidarity of the efforts of the English lads in Germany) with my girlfriend and she was dead set against it. Her feeling is that the flag has been too closely associated with the BNP for her to ever feel comfortable with flying it. I however pointed out that this was the Union Jack (the UK flag) and not the St George's Cross (the English flag) but she refused to accept the distinction. Now in 2002, I purchased a Nigerian flag (Bedsheet size) and draped it in my living room during the world cup -oops sorry darling it just slipped out - I only stopped short of putting it in my window as I feared getting my windows smashed (if you remember England played Nigeria that year). So I definitely consider myself patriotic. Unfortunately the Super Green Eagles are not in the tournament this year so I am having to realign my affiliations.

During my sojourn on Streatham High Road yesterday I only saw one black man with the England Flag and even he had his white girlfriend sitting next to him. So I guess it got me thinking how many Nigerians will be flying the England Flag over the next few weeks?

Oh and yes I know I've cheated with my title. The article is predominantly about the St Georges Cross and I've stuck up a title that refers to the Union Jack but I just couldn't resist it. "There ain't no black in the Union Jack" is the title of a Paul Gilroy book into race relations in the UK in the eighties, but before that it was used in a racist chant of the National Front in the 1970's.

Timothy Garton Ash of the Guardian in an article titled In our search for Britishness, we should put out more flags - or none argues that the Union Jack left him feeling cold and he discusses his resentment of what it represents to him but then goes on to argue for increased use of flags in the UK. So what is it like for Nigerians living in the UK? Should we feel unpatriotic for wanting to support England or if we are choosing to stay here for a long while should we be playing a part in reclaiming the flag from those that resent our very presence on these shores?

PS: I've just heard on Radio 4 that even Tessa Jowell (British Minister for Sport) has just put out a flag on her official car.