‘Very, very, often, patriotism is a disguise, a lie, and a mistake’

• I THANK Theo Morgan for his October 22 response (Many other countries had empires too), but I can’t agree with it.

To be savagely frank, I don’t like any national flags as suggested in my letter, (Shadows of the Empire in Soho, October 15).

What have they all been but ugly tribal symbols of competition and carnage?

Very, very, often, patriotism is a disguise, a lie, and a mistake.

Imperial banners, slave-trader statues, the whole bloody bric-a-brac of traditional, “straight”, respectable history… let’s throw the lot in the incinerator.

As for Soho’s radical, gay, rainbow emblem, this manifestly intends to unify rather than divide people. And speaks to outsiders everywhere.

ZEKRIA IBRAHIMI
Mackenzie Close, W12