The Liberal Democrats, who control Oxfordshire County Council, have once again shown their illiberal credentials and dire lack of political judgement.
The Liberal Democrats on Oxfordshire County Council should have been hoist by their own petard
They decided to spend what could be tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money in legal costs persuading a High Court judge this week to impose an injunction not only on a handful of individuals said to be associated with a group called “Raise the Colours”, but also on any “persons unknown” who may seek to place Union flags on public property in the streets in the future.
Firstly, what sort of politician bans the England flag during the football World Cup when people are flying it proudly from every vantage point?
Why would any politician seek to send an aggressive political message that they dislike the flag of the very nation whose people they have been elected to serve?
Conservative Party chairman, Kevin Hollinrake MP, said last week that the injunction was “shameful” and urged the Lib Dems to “get off their virtue-signalling high horse and get behind our flag”.
Why do the Left and the woke see the Union Flag and St George’s Flag as uniquely “intimidating?”
It is this weak political attitude which has allowed British flags to be co-opted by far-right groups. The Scottish Saltire and Welsh Y Ddraig Goch flags seem to hold pride of place amongst the vast majority of people in Scotland and Wales without this problem. The British and English flags should also be enjoyed and accepted by all in the same way, not just be seen as a badge by the far-right few.
But clearly there are a depressing number of politicians who give the impression of disliking this country, its history, its traditions, its monarchy, and a large percentage of its population. Making the decision to spend local taxpayers’ money on expensive legal action shows an absurd lack of political judgement because it fosters the message that those flags are racist.
Then there are the usual double standards. The British flag is a proud symbol of a nation that has fought against evil and furthered justice and enlightenment around the world for centuries. But where are the efforts to impose such sanctions on those who display the Palestinian flag? That flag was adopted by terrorist leader Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, in 1964. And since Hamas’s murderous attack on Jewish civilians on 7 October we have seen the Palestinian flag flown with near impunity, particularly in London boroughs which only started to act when they were threatened with legal action for their own failings.
The delicious irony is that the far-left “anti-imperialists” who relish wrapping themselves in the Palestinian flag probably don’t realise it has British colonial origins. Foreign Office diplomat Sir Mark Sykes invented it in 1916, using Arab dynastic colours to push back against the Ottoman Empire, who were enemies of Britain and her allies in World War One. Arafat tweaked it in the 1960s when he invented the Palestinian concept of their own state.
But it’s not just the lack of judgement and the double standards. From a legal standpoint too, Oxfordshire County Council’s vainglorious attempt to impose an injunction should have failed in court, particularly when the judge in this case ordered that the injunction applies not to “persons unknown.”
It is one thing to apply an injunction to named individuals who have rejected previous attempts to stop them trespassing on highway structures; it’s another thing to apply contempt of court restrictions “against the world” (an injunction contra mundum as it’s called).
The High Court should have seen this as a transparent attempt to circumvent Parliament. It is after all using the civil courts to impose higher penalties than Parliament laid down in the Highways Act 1980 for the offence of displaying flags and other signs without permission.
Parliament legislated that the penalty for that should be a maximum fine of £2,500. Now an injunction has been imposed, the use of contempt of court powers means a person could be imprisoned for up to two years, despite there apparently having been no successful attempt to see if the statutory financial penalty would actually work.
People who break the law should of course be stopped from doing so, and affixing signs and flags to lampposts and the like is dangerous and a longstanding offence under the Highways Act. Legal moves to stop nationalist groups and the group in this case, calling itself “Raise the Colours”, may well be sound, after all we don’t want the flag to be usurped by anyone. But legal actions, especially injunctive relief, must be proportionate and appropriate. Was Oxfordshire Council obliged by the court to disclose how many complaints they had received? Have they revealed how much this legal action has cost – likely to be higher than the £15,000 they have apparently spent removing the flags that have been displayed in the county?
Taking this legal action was inept, certainly from a political standpoint. If it only applies to the flag of St George, it feeds into the two-tier narrative that is causing such damage to our legal system.
It applied double standards disproportionate to the mischief it purported to address. It also should have failed on weak legal grounds because it usurped Parliament’s wishes in fixing the appropriate financial penalty in law.
When it comes to this injunction, the Liberal Democrats on Oxfordshire County Council should have been hoist by their own petard.
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