WHAT did our 65 Olympic medallists reach for in Paris after the best moment of their young lives?
Their loved ones — and then the Union Jack.
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And how does Sir Keir Starmer distance himself from the Brit-hating, lefty lunacy of Jeremy Corbyn?
By standing next to the Union Jack at every possible opportunity.
That flag is Starmer’s red, white and blue shadow. For Team GB and Starmer, the flag is a symbol of pride, belonging and unapologetic patriotism.
After the Paris Olympics and Labour’s landslide, the Union Jack is hotter, cooler and more totally on trend than it has been since the glory days of Britpop, when Liam Gallagher and Patsy Kensit reclined under a Union Jack on the cover of Vanity Fair.
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Yet we still hear voices saying the flag is offensive to foreigners, intrinsically racist, and all those other knackered old left-wing banalities.
In the village of Claxton, Norfolk, the committee that runs the local village hall were given permission by the parish council to fly the Union flag during major holidays.
But in a plot twist worthy of an Ealing comedy, some locals objected to flying the flag. What are we meant to be ashamed of?
This is the flag that flew when the Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron suppressed the Atlantic slave trade, freeing some 150,000 Africans half a century before the US abolished slavery.
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The flag that flew when our country fought fascism.
“The flag is often used as a symbol against immigration, and it would worry me if it was being used in the wrong way,” whined one local, words of cringing self-loathing you would not hear in any other country on Earth.
Homeowner divides opinion with Union Jack driveway as some praise 'patriot' but others say it'll 'knock £20k off house'
Ben Goldsborough, newly elected Labour MP for South Norfolk, says he was contacted by a villager opposed to the flag who has urged him to intervene, but believes that the villagers should resolve the issue among themselves.
The most important thing is making sure that all residents feel listened to,” he said.
The most important thing is that our country should feel nothing but pride in the Union Jack
Tony Parsons
No, Ben. The most important thing is that our country should feel nothing but pride in the Union Jack.
That’s the important thing. And if you dream of rising through the Labour ranks to the Cabinet, you are going to have to show the love for our country that your leader has shown.
Starmer was elected by a landslide a few years after many of us believed Labour would never win another General Election.
He did it as a Labour leader who was comfortable with the Union Flag — and the quiet, unapologetic patriotism that it represents.
Beautiful flag
This is not nationalism. Most immigrants see the Union Flag as a symbol of democracy, opportunity, and the rule of law. To the world, the Union Jack represents freedom.
Only the masoch*stic comrades on the wilder shores of the liberal left perceive it as something akin to a swastika.
But look at all those young Olympic athletes who were celebrated by the nation yesterday. This beautiful flag does not divide us, it brings us together.
It expresses our shared values. It represents a pride in our past, a belief in our present and all our hopes for the future.
The young athletes of Team GB get it.
And to his eternal credit, so does this Labour Prime Minister.
CHARLIE KING, celebrity PT and former Towie star, writes in The Sun that we should all get more of the vitamin D that sunshine provides.
I agree with Charlie but don’t agree this means men should be taking their shirts off in public.
“I spent a couple of days down on Southend high street this week when it was over 30C,” Charlie says, “and there was a hell of a lot of men, of all walks of life, walking down the street with their shirts off.”
Sounds like a vision of hell, Charlie.
Some blame Simon “Pecs Factor” Cowell for the trend. But it really began with Vladimir Putin flashing his man boobs while sitting on a horse, his hairy nipples gleaming in the sunshine of the Russian steppes (Putin not the horse)
From Southend to Vladivostok, Putin with his top off casts a dark shadow over every other man who is thinking about removing his shirt.
Simon Cowell is in good nick for a man of his age. But when Simon is strolling through Miami or Venice Beach with his top off, even he looks like he is about to invade Ukraine.
Here weird go, folks
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DONALD TRUMP said that a magazine front cover made his presidential rival Kamala Harris look like, “the most beautiful actress ever to live”.
It was not meant to be a compliment. Trump is implying the US media is doing all they can to make the Democratic candidate look good.
It’s a fair point. But a weird way to express it.
Trump’s “weirdness” is becoming a huge factor in this White House race.
A Harris spokesperson said a recent typically rambling Trump speech made him sound “like someone you wouldn’t want to sit near in a restaurant”.
“They’re the weird ones,” Trump said defensively in an interview with conservative radio host Clay Travis.
“Nobody’s ever called me weird. I’m a lot of things, but weird I’m not. I think we’re the opposite of weird. They’re weird.”
Weird or what?
A word to the Wise on movie star George
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AS George Clooney and Brad Pitt pose in bed in their jim-jams for GQ magazine, George complains that director Quentin Tarantino says he is not a real movie star because nobody can name a film Clooney has been in since the millennium.
Top of my head, Quentin – Clooney’s career-defining masterpiece Up In The Air (2009), where he plays a self-obsessed businessman who falls for the mysterious Vera Farmiga.
And Clooney – more than any man alive, even Brad Pitt – always looks like a movie star should look.
Even when he is part of a Morecambe and Wise tribute act.
Left's funny turn
“IT’S not funny,” Liz Truss said when pranksters lowered a banner behind her showing a lettuce with the words “I crashed the economy”.
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Well, it is a bit funny, Liz. These stunts always are.
The banner is lowered so slowly, and the audience clocks it long before the person on stage does.
Led By Donkeys, the organisation that pranked Liz, pulled the same stunt on Nigel Farage, with Mad Vlad Putin giving a thumbs-up with the words “I love Nigel”.
How can it not be a bit funny? But it is also cowardly, cruel, and pointless. And SAFE.
The Tories are gone now. Reform UK has five MPs. Labour will rule the roost for the next five years.
Shouldn’t cutting-edge comedians and savage satirists now be going after Labour figures?
There’s plenty of material. Did you ever catch David Lammy on Mastermind?
“Who succeeded Henry VIII?”
“Er – Henry VII?”
Leftish comedians have had the Tories to kick around for 14 years.
Now it should be Labour’s turn for mockery.
And if left-wing comedians do not have the nerve to go after Labour – well, what a bunch of pranksters.
Kissing dogs a no-no
NICOLA PELTZ BECKHAM – wife of Brooklyn, daughter-in-law to David and Victoria – divided the Internet by sharing an image where she was kissing her late chihuahua Nala on the mouth.
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Some argued that dogs carry dangerous diseases. Others claimed that because humans and dogs evolved together, kissing canines is a good way to get healthy bacteria.
But is it ever really OK to kiss your dog?
My late, beloved Stan did not think so.
Stan would not have kissed me any more than he would have picked up my dry cleaning.
Kissing was an alien act to Stan.
Kissing is not the way any dog alive expresses affection. Humans don’t sniff another human’s butt when we meet in the street, do we?
Nicola loved her little Nala.
Anyone who has ever loved and lost a dog will understand the depth of her feelings.
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But that doesn’t mean we should kiss our mutts on the mouth. Kissing simply does not come naturally to dogs.
And I suspect that while Nala undoubtedly loved Nicola, Nala loved the taste of Nicola’s lipstick even more.
Regal snoop
WHEN he was a controversial rapper who many wanted banned from the UK, Snoop Dogg claimed a personal intervention by the Queen allowed him to enter.
“The Queen said, “This man has done nothing in our country – he can come,” Snoop revealed.
Now the tribute to Team GB headlined by Prince William and Kate was surprisingly introduced by . . . Snoop.
The D-O-double-G always claimed to have a special relationship with the British Royal Family.
Turns out he was right.
