This summer, as anti-migrant demonstrations multiplied across the Channel, the Union Jack and Saint George's Cross, the flags of the United Kingdom and England, appeared throughout the country. Hung from lampposts, painted on roundabouts or planted at the back of gardens, almost always near hotels housing asylum seekers.

The situation in some neighborhoods has started to resemble that of Northern Ireland, previously the only part of the UK where, after decades of conflict, flags still mark the divide between pro-British loyalist communities and nationalists supporting Irish reunification. While the phenomenon might seem anecdotal, it says much about the radicalization of sections of public opinion, heightened by social media and reactionary media outlets such as the GB News channel.

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