Do you, as Keir Starmer once averred, “keep a flag at home?” For many Brits, the thought of garbing oneself in national symbols, other than during football tournaments or royal jubilees, feels like overdoing it.

Patriotism for many of us is a twist in the complex cocktail of identity, not the main measure of it. We will need to get used to stronger brews however, as Reform’s whopping poll lead produces a Labour fightback on the grounds of who really represents the nation’s best interests and Starmer seeks a language to reconnect his government to many dissatisfied voters.

“Reclaiming the flag,” and how that will work in an unsettled and reactive national mood, is the subject which would once have felt peripheral – but has swung into the heart of Labour politics. New Feature

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