Leftists enjoy quoting Johnson, that “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel,” especially because the “scoundrel” is so rarely them. But here we have one, and a Guardianista, no less, wrapping herself in the flag, a fashion British leftists last felt socially obligated to adopt during World War II.
Speaking of which, Hyde also bashes those who, in the wake of these attacks, “trade in fake Churchill quotes.” Surely she can’t be referring to this very real one, but in any case, yes, every terrorist attack in England stirs up talk of the Blitz, just as Princess Diana’s funeral, going on twenty years ago, is still contrasted with Churchill’s, to considerable rhetorical, if not practical, effect.
(Admit it, guys: We’ve lost the war on teddy bears and the other dollar-store accoutrements of “makeshift memorials.” All we’ve done is condemn them, in often bracingly beautiful prose, but we’ve never offered the unchurched an attractive alternative, and so a generation later, trash is “tradition.”)
![‘[A]ll manner of innocuous words, from ‘skinny’ to ‘professor’ – even ‘European’! – are also racial slurs’](https://fivefeetoffury.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/apple-touch-icon-150x150.png){kind=icon}