'Our flags represent hope'
Brexiteers have been left furious after hundreds of people were seeing waving European Union flags at the Last Night of the Proms, prompting outrage and calls for the BBC to investigate.
The campaign to hand out EU flags at the Last Night of the Proms was spearheaded by the Thank EU for the Music group, which said that ‘tens of thousands of music lovers have taken our free European flags into the Royal Albert Hall for each Last Night of the Proms in solidarity with musicians who feel (like countless others) the destructive impact of Britain’s recent isolation from Europe.”
The group also posted a letter it had sent to the BBC’s Director General Tim Davie on its Facebook Page, where it added: “Our flags represent hope that the Last Night of the Proms musically celebrate “Britannia ruling the airwaves”, hopefully transforming the problematic post colonial anthems into something more, shall we say, enlightened and collaborative?”
The display of EU flags had left Brexiteers like Isabel Oakeshott fuming. She wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “The Last Night of the Proms appears to be a seething mass of Remainers. Can’t wait for Rule Britannia.”
Harvey Proctor, a former Conservative MP, said it was a “disgraceful” display and also posted on X: “BBC must investigate how so many EU flags were waved & on display at The Last Night of the Proms. Disgraceful & misguided BBC messing up a British tradition.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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