Voices: There’s no need to ‘cancel’ Laurence Fox – despite his swastika Pride flag stunt

Now before I get going here, I do recognise that there is a deep irony in saying we should just ignore Lawrence Fox because he’s a bit of an idiot, and then writing a whole article drawing attention to him. But I suppose somebody has to say one key thing: “calm down”.

What are we talking about here? Someone on Twitter thought it would be clever to rotate four LGBT flags through 90 degrees and arrange them such that the new trans element of the rainbow design comprised a kind of candy-coloured swastika. This was then retweeted by “Lozza”, who liked it so much he turned into his profile picture.

I can’t say what lies behind such actions by Fox and co, but I’m going to have a guess: I am assuming they don’t like the way the trans rights movement are campaigning for equal rights, and they want to poke fun at them as an act of spite – denigrating a symbol of hope for trans people and their allies.

As we see in all parts of the world and across every culture, flags are potent things, and their denigration often causes riots and is sometimes prohibited by law. In any case, my opinion is that Fox’s alteration of the Pride flag was designed to be offensive – and set up to create a reaction and attract attention (hence his subsequent “quote tweet” accompanied by an image of the Union Jack flag made into a sort-of swastika: “Waiting for the wokies to have a meltdown about this”).

Shamefully, if inevitably, Fox actually used the Holocaust to defend his trivialisation of what the swastika stood for, I think because he knew that would attract even more outrage:

“Let’s not forget the six million jews they also killed, and the hundred million murdered in the name of Diversity, equity and inclusion (current incarnation of communism) since 191,7” he said. “Also, please take off the “T” from LGB… Homosexuals fought hard for their civil rights.”

Note the pointed use of the dated and freighted word “homosexual” there. The man is a walking insult machine.

Story continues

I may be giving Fox and his Twitter friends more credit than they deserve in thinking that he has any rational point to make. From what I have seen, Fox likes making trouble and provoking upset – perhaps for the purposes of generating publicity for his wider political agenda, which might be summarised as “anti-woke”.

The best thing that could happen in such a circumstance to escalate his fame is that he gets blocked by Twitter and drags Elon Musk into the argument. Which is what happened.

I didn’t report Fox’s Tweet because I just thought it was a childish prank – nasty and hateful simply for the sake of it. He might not even be as hate-filled as he appears. It all feels quite performative.

He is (or was) after all an actor; and now he is a politician leading an extremely small political party that needs to raise its profile (Fox’s Reclaim party didn’t even stand in the recent by-elections, and scored just under 1 per cent of the vote in the North Shropshire poll last year). Not many people have heard of him, and even fewer have heard of his party – fewer still know what it stands for. Which is how it should stay.

More than that, is it even worth reporting this clownish figure? If, say, someone walked out of their front door with a punk-style T-shirt with a swastika motif, would they get reported to the police in Britain? And would anything happen even if they did?

I seem to remember the shock and offence caused – especially to Jewish people – when the swastika became a fashion item in about 1977. There were, then, people still alive who’d been terrified by it during their own lifetimes, and had lost family to it, but I still don’t think anyone got prosecuted for it. The people who did wear it to ape Sid Vicious eventually stopped – they grew up and got jobs.

To keep up to speed with all the latest opinions and comment sign up to our free weekly Voices Dispatches newsletter by clicking here

Perhaps, like in Germany, the swastika should be outlawed – but it isn’t in Britain because few people are mad enough (or juvenile enough) to make it much of an issue. Nor do we arrest people for waving those confected not-quite red white and black swastika flags you see on white power/nationalist rallies, often in the US, accompanied by the still-lawful Confederate banner (which has only just disappeared from official southern state flags).

Look at the poor old cross of St George. Once rarely glimpsed (the flags at the ‘66 World Cup were all Union Jacks), it got hijacked by the far-right sometime in the 1990s, but no one would wish it banned. With rare exceptions, when reinforced by social conventions and pressure, banning any sort of symbol by law – especially in the internet age – is not practical.

I have no doubt that what Fox did was a form of hate speech, and there’s a case for banning him from Twitter or even prosecuting him under the law. Just because he wishes to become a martyr isn’t actually a reason to let him do whatever he wants.

However, he’s entitled to play around with flag designs on Twitter – even if the context is a stupid stunt. We should pay him no heed at all – he’s a crank who enjoys being cruel to his fellow human beings, and I’m sorry to say he’s got a right to do so.

There’s no reason to “cancel” him, and we’ve paid far too much attention to him over the years already. I do hope you don’t mind me saying that.