Yes. I think the problem is that they think about it the wrong way round - trying to identify with the flag and flag alone instead of what positive things it might evoke. I can name a dillion things I like about this country - real ale, epic skies over Winter Hill, the Proms, Viz etc etc
All they have to do is talk about the England they know on a personal evocative level, which is the most human/intimate thing anyone can do. By just going 'We love the flag!!!! Yes! Look at our flag tablecloth! We sit in front of one!' they don't appeal to anyone - it is so sclerotic and inauthentic
Yes! That and avoiding sneering at people who are more into flags than they are, that's all they need to do.
Starmer has such an easy out here because he's a football fan and presumably has worn an England flag shirt a bunch of times in a highly relatable way - with extra recent progressive vibes from the Woman's team winning things.
I honestly can't explain it beyond 'the country is going down because he doesn't want ppl to know how much of a gooner he is' 🙃
But as Stephen said, as someone who likes classical music he could also be bigging up the BBC Proms big time. Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk last night was absolutely fucking stonking. He could say 'And unlike Shostakovich, we live in a free liberal democracy where we can celebrate his music as well' etc😐
Yeah, what's particularly perplexing is, one reason why some politicians struggle is they have literally no cultural hinterland whatsoever. He has bags of it and loads of it is directly relevant to this question.
The paradoxical gap of 'boring, unrelatable Starmer (the politician)', and 'interesting, affable Starmer (the man)' is genuinely such a mystery to me. Even 'my dad the toolmaker' ended up sounding like 'dad took a year gardening leave in his shed, away from a middle mgmt job'. Opposite to reality.
In fairness he therefore joins a long line and long tradition of Prime Ministers who can't seem to reconcile the strands of their character along with being a public performer - Heath, Major, Brown and May for starters. (The irony at this moment being that reticence is a very British thing!)