WHEN I voted Labour in 1997 it was not in the expectation that social inequality would increase at home or that oil-fired military intervention would be pursued abroad.
For these, or for a variety of other reasons, most British people might have reservations about flying the flag.
If you read certain versions of history you will be told "the British people did this" or "the British people thought that". We can be sure that there were as many variations of thought and action as there were people.
Official history-making has little time for doubt and dissent, but our forebears weren't sheep. If we cringe at the ostentatious gesture of planting flagpoles in our front gardens, we won't do it!
Thankfully, I don't have this problem. Living in a terraced house with no garden, and where I'm denied even the privilege of a wheelie bin, I shall probably be exempt.
However, in this case the use of a black bin bag could be an appropriate response to Gordon Brown's new initiative.
Viv Wellburn,
Milner Street,
York.
Updated: 10:13 Tuesday, January 17, 2006
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