On the train to meet Sunder Katwala in Dartford, Kent, you pass streets with bright new Saint George’s flags on every lamp-post. There are more of them, plus union jacks, visible everywhere: in gardens, on bridges, on rooftops. It’s the week after hundreds of thousands of people attended a flag-waving rally in central London led by the far-right activist Tommy Robinson, rounding off a summer of protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers, and portentous warnings that Britain is a “tinderbox” or even a “powder keg” about to ignite. This is England in 2025.
In Dartford’s pedestrianised town centre, though, it’s a different picture. People of all skin colours peacefully go about their business on a sunny afternoon. A busker is strumming next to the sculpture of local heroes Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. And crisscrossing the streets overhead are miles of Saint George’s flag bunting. This is also England in 2025.
