Flags At The Proms

I am fan of classical music and follow the Proms season every year.  When I lived near London I used to go to up to a dozen events each season.  I still try to get up there a few times, though sadly life got in the way this year.  I've never done the Last Night, but I always watch it on the telly.  I am not a flag waving in your face patriot, but I am patriotic enough to enjoy the atmosphere.  I even have the Sea Songs on one of my regular playlists - though the Pomp and Circumstance and Rule Britannia bits  are strictly for the night only in my book.  But it is all good fun and it is good to have a real live tradition.  It is something that brings us together.


So I was a bit surprised to discover that this year the Last Night has got caught up with the Brexit controversy.  I didn't see that coming.  Some pro-EU campaigners had got some cash together to dish out EU flags.  I wish they hadn't.  There are always a few EU flags in the audience, along with many others from around the world.   I always like seeing them alongside the Union Jacks.  It is part of the atmosphere.  I didn't really like it being made into a big deal.  Even more unfortunately one of the millionaire backers of the anti-EU campaign got in on the act and funded Union Jacks.

I don't think either side in this tiffette had really got the idea of what the event was about.  It really really isn't about politics.

It got worse on Twitter with the gracelessness that the Brexiters so often display being deployed to denounce people carrying EU flags.  UKIP MEP Roger Helm called them traitor flags.  I have often thought that there is nothing remotely patriotic about UKIP and here as if to confirm my fear they were trashing a national tradition.

Luckily the prommers themselves came up with the perfect solution to the problem.  Watching the footage I saw quite a lot of people carrying both EU and Union flags. Music is a great uniting force, and waving two flags at the same time is a great metaphor.  I loved it.  I also loved the Vaughan Williams that was on the programme this year.  In fact, I'd suggest putting some of his folk song arrangements on next year.  You can't get more patriotic and less jingoistic than that.