Tuchel may scorn politics, but his England team cannot escape their symbolism | Jonathan Liew

"The crosses of St George are retailing for about 2.36 on Temu, depending on whether you want them car-window sized, or big enough to write the words GET OFF MY LAND in the white spaces. Keir Starmer has declared that he is a supporter of flags. Alas, at the time of writing the prime minister's position on other items of tactile fabric remains unclear."

"Not to be outdone, the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, disclosed that she has St George's bunting on display at home. I would put them up anywhere, she confirmed, which anatomically speaking is not an image any of us needed right now. Naturally it barely requires saying at this point that the recent wave of flag onanism is a thinly disguised trap laid by the resurgent far-right, a way of sneaking its toxic politics into our shared public spaces under the guise of broad-church patriotism."

"How can any right-thinking citizen possibly object to this most simple expression of collective pride? Albeit an expression largely being expressed by a few lone individuals in the dead of night, which is when all great expressions of collective pride traditionally occur. Into this stinking cheese dream of contested symbolisms, amateur semiotics and flag enemas step Thomas Tuchel's England: refreshed and rebooted after their summer slump, facing games against Andorra this Saturday and Serbia next Tuesday."

St George's flags have proliferated across England, appearing on buildings, businesses and people and sometimes used to deface property, including an Islamic centre in Basildon and a Chinese takeaway in York. Flags are being sold cheaply online and used in public displays and confrontations, with politicians declaring support or showing bunting at home. The flag surge has been characterized as a wave of performative patriotism exploited by the resurgent far-right to smuggle toxic politics into public spaces under the guise of broad-church patriotism. The phenomenon overlaps with national sporting occasions, prompting scrutiny of symbolism, ownership of public space and everyday nationalist displays.

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