JD Vance’s fiery remarks on the English flag controversy have sparked a transatlantic debate on freedom of expression. Discover the unexpected twists.
JD Vance has urged people to (Image: Getty)
America’s new vice-president has delivered a blistering attack on critics of the English flag, telling Britons they must “push back against the crazies” who try to shame people out of displaying their national symbol.
JD Vance launched the explosive intervention when quizzed about the summer’s Operation Raise the Colours campaign – which saw councils in Birmingham and Tower Hamlets rip down patriotic flags from lampposts and bridges, reports The Times.
The 41-year-old Republican, who spent time holidaying in Britain this summer, has repeatedly waded into UK freedom of speech rows since taking office. The intervention comes as residents joke that painting Union flags will get fridges ‘collected quicker’.
Fox News host Will Cain asked Vance about reports that “the English flag has simultaneously become controversial and patriotic” – prompting the vice-president to recall how his own friend was too scared to fly the Stars and Stripes during the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots.
Vance did not hold back when asked to comment on the campaign Operation Raise the Colours (Image: Getty)
‘We got to call that craziness out’
“You see the same things happening in Europe, and I think we just have to be on guard against this stuff,” Vance fired back. “It’s OK to be proud of your country. It’s in fact a good thing to be proud of your country.
“We should push back against the crazies who say we should be so ashamed of our culture and of our heritage that we shouldn’t be willing to fly a flag. It’s craziness. We got to call that craziness out. I’d encourage our European friends to follow suit.”
The broadside marks the latest in a series of transatlantic interventions by Vance over what he sees as Britain’s assault on free expression.
Earlier this month, he warned Foreign Secretary David Lammy that the UK was following the Biden administration down a “very dark path” of “censoring rather than engaging with a diverse array of opinions”.
At February’s Munich security conference, Vance singled out Britain – despite calling them “very dear friends” – for suffering a “backslide in conscience rights”.
Free speech fears
He highlighted the shocking case of Army veteran Adam Smith-Connor, telling the international audience: “A little over two years ago, the British government charged Adam Smith-Connor, a 51-year-old physiotherapist and an Army veteran, with the heinous crime of standing 50 metres from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes, not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own.”
During Sir Keir Starmer‘s first White House meeting with President Trump, Vance escalated his criticism further – claiming that British “infringements on free speech” were now hurting American tech firms “and by extension American citizens”.
Starmer hit back defiantly, insisting: “We’ve had free speech for a very long time, it will last a long time, and we are very proud of that.”
