Laws against flags on lamp posts are mere gestures unless the unionist parties start championing local people’s interests with the UVF and UDA

Each marching season begins with familiar tensions and flashpoints old and new. They combine in the modest environment of Cantrell Close, back for a third year with the added twist of the Soldier F campaign.

Legal action is the knee jerk reaction, superficially attractive until it comes to examining where the law stands and how to enforce it. The civil servants opposed  to it needn’t  worry; they cannot exercise powers they haven’t got. But is legal action  the right response anyway? The last major examination of the flags issue concluded: “for every complex problem there exists a solution that is clear, simple, and wrong.” This was conducted three years ago by the academic Paul Nolan and the co-chair of the FLICT (flags, legacy identity and tradition) Commission Dominic Bryan, the body set up three years ago to review all the issues and report in late 2017.

On BBCNI’s The View last week, Dr Bryan admitted defeat for FLICT. Bryan complained that the brief may have been too wide, ranging  from our problems with political identity to diagnosing their causes and recommending the most detailed solutions for one of the most pervasive and contentious, flags on lamp posts.   Thirteen working parties had prepared reports at a cost of 750k including expenses. With its mixed membership of politicians and great and good they couldn’t agree on recommendations. In the absence of the Assembly there was no pressure to agree and no one to report to anyway. It’s the familiar story, another example of dysfunction in politics and society.  At the very least FLICT should publish so we all can make some judgement about its value.

Fortunately we have Bryan and Nolan’s earlier report called Flags: Towards a New Understanding which is bristling with relevant background, research and analysis, from overview and historical background to recommendations. FLICT if they could agree, could hardly do better.

It is a salutary read. In plain sight is paramilitary activity.  “Flags on lamp posts” and other forms of territorial marking are now the main theatre of political operations for the UVF and UDA. They can make their presence felt with ease because the law against flags on lamp posts is unclear unless there is an actual breach of the peace. That gives everybody the excuse to do little or nothing. The paramilitaries  can even gain status by negotiating to bring down what they’ve put up. All state agencies from the PSNI to district councils duck responsibility. Politicians of both main unionist parties are sparing in their interventions, recalling the “flegs” protests which exposed their impotence and tacit acceptance. With exceptions most of them are as fearful as ever of  challenging the paramilitaries proactively.

Other parties may make sensible points but calls for legal action are essentially virtue signalling. The real action is about  getting down and dirty on the ground. But who represents the aggrieved people? Taking action is a risky and lonely business. Where are the paid MLAs, the councillors and the clergy in what is still”Protestant Ulster” to represent them? Alliance and Greens are vocal, sensing an opportunity here. But unionists tend to keep the heads down.

Nolan and Brown return the problem to its origins.

“While we look at the problems created by flags in both the unionist and the nationalist communities, the heavier emphasis falls on unionist flags. This is simply because flags are much more central to unionist sensibilities. .. In the five years from 2006 to 2010 the ratio of unionist flags to nationalist flags was approximately 13 to 1 in that period.

Demographic change and the explosion

The first post-partition census, conducted in 1926, showed that Northern Ireland has a Protestant/Catholic ratio of 66% to 34%. The 2011 census shows a changed picture with the two population groups moving towards a near equivalence: 48% come from a Protestant background and 45% from a Catholic background. the new, enlarged city of Belfast the population breakdown is as follows: Catholics 49%, Protestants 42% and Others 9%. This was a seismic shift and long before the official figures were known the unionist populations of the city sensed the movement of the tectonic plates beneath their feet.

The crunch moment came on 3 December 2012 when Belfast City Council voted to take down the Union flag and, instead of adhering to the tradition of flying it 365 days a year, it opted to fly it only on 18 designated days. The protests which followed were a howl of rage. from the loyalist community. From the start of the protest in December 2012 through to the end of March 2013 there were 2,980 incidents, and 55,521 ‘acts of participation’

But if that one flag stayed down at Belfast City Hall thousands more went up elsewhere. The summers of 2013, 2014 and 2015 have seen a sharp increase controversies relating to flags. There have been rows over paramilitary flags, over the spread of flags into neutral areas or into arterial routes that run through Catholic areas, over the use of the Israeli and Palestinian flags, and in July 2015, over the brief appearance of swastikas in Carrickfergus and, in Craigavon, the flag of apartheid –era South Africa. The problem is not going away. If anything, it appears to have become more intractable.

 Flags on lamp posts

The widespread flying of flags on lamp posts (and other public spaces) could give the impression there are no laws that can be brought to bear on the situation. In one sense this is correct. There is no one single piece of legislation that permits, forbids or governs the display of flags and emblems in public places – or, for that matter in private property.

Following the lead of A Shared Future the Protocol set a bold agenda:

• The removal of all flags and emblems from arterial routes and town centres;
• The removal of all paramilitary flags and displays;
• The control of displays of flags and emblems in particular areas e.g. mixed and interface areas and near buildings such as schools, hospitals, places of worship and community halls;

• Flag flying should be limited to particular times and particular dates and: – where flags are displayed for a festive or other occasion that the display is reasonably time bounded. – Flags, including plastic ties, tape and poles, should be removed by the community after the agreed period.

• To encourage communities to accept that flags displayed which are tattered,torn or discoloured do not enhance the environment and should be removed.

The strength of the initiative was that it brought all the key agencies together; the weakness was that in a situation of collective responsibility no-one took responsibility.

Public  opinion

Evidence from a number of areas of Northern Ireland clearly shows that the widespread flying of flags, over significant periods of time, remains an issue for many people, a policy problem for government agencies and district councils, and often has a detrimental economic impact on many places. Above all it continues to be a significant irritant to good community relations.

 Taken in the round, how important is the issue of flags in the NI political situation?’

The responses show that almost 7 people in 10 (68.6%) regard the

issue of flags as being either Important or Very Important. At the other end of the spectrum, 2 in 10 people (19.9%) see flags as either Unimportant or Totally Unimportant

That verdict was published in 2010. Since then, while not formally abandoned, the Flags Protocol has become moribund”.

Nolan and Bryan remorselessly reveal the extent of evasion and buck passing.

“The relevant legislation for district councils is the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Northern Ireland Order, 1985. Under article 18(1) a district council may remove or obliterate:(a) any graffiti which, in the opinion of the council, is detrimental to the amenity of any land in its district. No mention is made of flags.

The Road service supplied with a list, suggesting that flags are removed two or three times a year on average – but only where they are creating a traffic hazard by obscuring road signs.

 A statement of PSNI policy to the Policing Board makes it clear that the police do not feel there is sufficient legal clarity to allow then to intervene when paramilitary flags are displayed: Previous experience shows that the only sustainable way to ensure that paramilitary flags are removed is for communities and police to work together.

 New legislation?

“Our poll showed that 7 out of 10 people in Northern Ireland want to see more regulation of flags: 55.3% considered it a Very Good idea and 15.4% considered it a Fairly Good idea.

While we were conducting our research we discovered that the idea of legislation was under serious consideration by the SDLP, the Alliance Party and NI21.

In short, an assessment of the pros and cons would have to conclude that while the idea of legislation might find considerable support, the practical difficulties that attach to it would be very difficult to overcome.

Solutions?

Nolan and Bryan would apply “nudge”  technique from behavioural science. Both sides should have input in order to achieve an agreed outcome.This should happen within a legal framework that recognises the rights on both sides, the right of free expression in flags display and the rights of residents not to feel intimidated.

The right to cultural expression is a hallmark of democracy.

The flying of flags falls within this right of cultural expression.

A key part of the guidance offered by the Flags Institute concerns the principle of respect, and in particular the respect that must be shown to the Union flag and the flags of other nations. This means among other things that:

• National flags should never be flown in a worn or damaged condition, or when  soiled. To do so is to show disrespect for the nations, organisations or cultural bodies they represent.

• The principle of respect also means that the national flag, or any other flag,should never be used for the purposes of provocation, to threaten people or to mark territory.

• The flags of other nations should also be granted respect and no national flags should ever be defiled or burnt.

The legislative approach would run alongside a support package which could include:

•  Changes in the Roads ( Northern Ireland) Order so that it would no longer be an offence for participating organisations to put flags on lamp posts;
•  The licensing authority making available grants for those who sign up to participate in its schemes, and practical support in the form of the use of lorries, ladders and cherry pickers for the erection and removal of flags;
•  Training and workshops for young people to make them more aware of the significance of flags and the need to avoid provocative behaviour.

In time, perhaps the parallel lines of the flags scheme and the bonfires scheme could be made to converge, and the district councils could provide licensing, support and control for an integrated programme of activity.”

It is not clear however what would happen if  agreement failed or was violated and what sanctions would apply. The not altogether comfortable assumption seems to be that the paramilitaries have limited objectives and are able to police them themselves.

On Voluntary controls

More effort is expended by both nationalist and loyalist communities than is generally understood. In a nutshell it is local effort that will make a difference. But “voluntary” needs volunteers.  Who will take down flags put up by paramilitaries where “peace” is maintained? If masked council workmen do so, who will prevent the flags going up again, or more kerbs painted and bonfires lit which are not covered by legislation?

“We have seen evidence of local initiatives that actually address some of the problems described in this report. They should be encouraged, but they need to go beyond the local arrangements that have been trialled to date.

The approach needs to be standard across Northern Ireland, and must ultimately work to broad societal norms. If the police and other agencies find it difficult to manage and control flags on lamp posts, the answer is not to surrender the situation to a jumble of local arrangements. A set of guidelines needs to be produced which can act the template for communities across Northern Ireland, and which can form the reference point for discussion between those who wish to put up flags, the local community where the flags are to be erected, representatives of neighbouring communities, the PSNI and other interested parties – this should be a totally open and transparent process. It could be that local Policing and Community Safety Partnerships are the most appropriate vehicle for delivering these local agreements”.

So what’s keeping them?  Lack of political leadership.

Enough said.