Reclaim our flag': saltire becomes cultural battleground in Scotland as tensions rise over asylum housing

"After Friday prayers last week, Mahmooda Syedain and her husband went shopping for flags, specifically the national flag of Scotland, the blue and white cross of St Andrew. The community activist lives in Falkirk, a former iron and steel town midway between Glasgow and Edinburgh where unemployment is rising, and where an anonymous two-floor building tucked behind the local Lidl store has become the focus of the largest asylum hotel protests in Scotland."

"In recent weeks the blue and white Saltire has appeared flying high on lamp-posts around Falkirk and elsewhere across Scotland, from Maryhill and Tollcross in Glasgow to Peterhead and Aberdeen in the north-east. Demonstrators hold union jack and scottish flags at anti-immigration protests in Falkirk In a direct parallel with the Operation Raise the Colours movement which has co-opted the St George's cross in England, ownership of the saltire has become a new cultural and political battleground in Scotland."

Anti-immigration activists in Scotland have started flying the Saltire on lamp-posts and at protests, echoing England's Operation Raise the Colours which used the St George's cross. Demonstrations have centered on asylum hotels such as the Cladhan in Falkirk, which houses about 90 asylum seekers, and have spread from Glasgow neighborhoods to Peterhead and Aberdeen. The appropriation of the national flag has surprised and alarmed politicians, particularly Scottish nationalists, because the Saltire was traditionally associated with pro-independence rallies and national sports. Local counter-protesters have draped saltires over barriers to reclaim the flag and prompt community conversations about motivations.

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