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Vice President JD Vance has told the people of Britain to “push back against the crazies” and keep putting up flags, as protests spread across the country.
The protests, dubbed “Operation Raise the Colours,” have grown with the backlash against the British government’s migration policies, and in particular its policy of housing migrants in hotels in local communities.
Patriotic British citizens are putting up flags across the nation, but facing significant resistance from the government, local councils, the police, leftists and immigrants.
Speaking to Fox News’s Will Cain on Thursday night, Vice President Vance said the backlash against the raising of the England and Union flags reminded him of the Black Lives Matter era, when some Americans faced abuse and damage to their property for flying the Stars and Stripes.
“It’s not a controversial symbol,” Vance said.
“Nothing should be less controversial than the American flag, it’s the one thing that whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican should unite us all together. We should all love our country, be proud of our country.”
Vance continued: “It is in fact a good thing to be proud of your country and we should push back against the crazies who say we should be so ashamed of our culture and our heritage that we shouldn’t be willing to fly a flag. It’s craziness, we’ve got to call that craziness out, and encourage our European friends to follow suit.”
Vance went on to draw parallels between the situation in the US and Europe, explaining that both face similar cultural and political issues, with the US leading the way in some, and Europe in others.
“The problems of Europe reflect the problems of America… we had a wide-open southern border under Joe Biden, I think the Europeans have got to learn the hard lessons. What happens is you get higher crime, you get less cultural cohesion, you get more problems that come from importing millions and millions of low-wage foreigners into your country. The Europeans have got to learn that lesson in the same way the United States had to learn that lesson.”
Protests spread across the UK at the beginning of the month as anger at the government’s migrant policies boiled over, following the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl by an Ethiopian man.
Demonstrations have now spread to London and to other major cities like Newcastle and Manchester, and are ongoing.
In London, protests took place outside the upmarket Thistle City Barbican hotel, with hundreds gathering and police charging the crowd to make arrests.
In response to the ongoing protests, the UK government has created a new taskforce to monitor anti-migration sentiment online, as official fears grow of another summer of unrest like last year’s.
At the Court of Appeal on Friday, Lord Justice Bean, Lady Justice Nicola Davies and Lord Justice Cobb ruled in favour of the government and Somani Hotels Ltd., which runs the Bell Hotel in Epping, where protests against the government’s policy of housing migrants in hotels began.
Epping Council leaders had won a temporary injunction to close the hotel, but the Court of Appeal overturned it.
Home Office lawyers argued that migrants’ rights to be housed in the hotels were more important than the rights of local residents.
A huge social-media backlash followed the announcement of the decision, and Twitter owner Musk, who has voiced sharp criticisms of the UK government in the past, went on a tear of his own, taking the UK government to task and accusing it of betraying the British people.
In one Tweet he wrote, “A nation with a government against its people shall perish from the earth!”
In another, he said, “The government is committing treason against the people.”
