I just came across something which I frankly found rather unsettling. It had been quite a successful morning up to that point: I bent my specs on my way to bed last night, so I popped to my optician in Charlton to get them sorted. That went well, so, glasses once again sitting straight on my face, I decided to come back home for another cup of coffee. Taking a different slightly more convoluted route back, I was heading through a housing estate near Kidbrooke when I saw a bungalow with the Confederate flag flying outside. To be honest I was astonished: I’m not sure if people realise what that flag means, but as far as I’m concerned it is a symbol of slavery, racism and oppression. It was a disgusting, despicable sight, and to see it here in London makes it even worse.

Needless to say, I came to a halt outside the bungalow. There was an old man sat there in his garden, so naturally I began to make my feelings known to him. He obviously didn’t understand, and said something about being a rebel. That frankly sickened me even further: the flag he was flying was not a marker of courage or rebelliousness, but the will to oppress and enslave; it is a symbol of support for the idea that one ‘race’ has the right to dominate another. It was ultimately tantamount to flying the nazi swastika*, and to see it here in London really was perverse.

I wanted to explain this to the guy but couldn’t be arsed, so I just trundled on. He would not have understood anyway, obviously being one of the growing number of people becoming increasingly political, outspoken and reactionary, yet lacking any real understanding of what they are saying. The sight of such a flag so close to home really was sickening though. I just wish the fool flying it so proudly understood what it represents.

*I make that allusion including all the hideous undertones that flying such a flag in an area decimated by the Luftwaffe eighty years ago would have.