Every time I see a social media profile with a Union flag, I prepare myself for foaming right-wing racist bile – usually from some narrow-minded, hard-Brexiter UKIP or EDL supporter.

It makes me angry that our national flag – my flag – has been appropriated by these intolerant, ignorant people who think they are representative of our country.

Because they’re not.

You don’t have to be racist, pro-UKIP or a raving loony right-winger to care about our country. We – who are tolerant and open to the rest of the world and other cultures – are just as patriotic as they are.

In fact, we’re MORE patriotic.

Because we’re not trying to destroy our country’s economy for the sake of “taking back control” or other mindless, meaningless slogans.

And we’re not trying to make a quick buck by selling off our NHS to foreign owners.

And we’re not pushing our National Health Service to the point of collapse by chasing away the thousands of highly-qualified migrant nurses and doctors our National Health Service relies on.

And we’re not trying to destroy the livelihoods of our country’s farmers and manufacturers whose businesses rely on trade with other EU countries.

And we’re not bankrupting our small businesses by chasing away our other valuable migrant workers.

And we’re not trying to decimate our armed forces and then leave service personnel homeless to rot on the streets after we’ve finished with them.

And we’re not putting millions of innocent people’s lives at risk by scrapping health and safety rules to give tax breaks to millionaires living in tax havens abroad.

And we’re not so unpatriotic that we kowtow to a handful of multi-billionaires who don’t even live in this country.

And we aren’t handing over control of our essential services such as gas and water to dodgy foreign governments and handing over control of our dangerous nuclear power plants to foreign dictatorships with a woeful history of industrial health and safety.

And we’re not condemning thousands of families in our cities to live in fire traps.

And we’re not putting our children in schools which are also potential death traps.

And we’re not selling off our children’s playing fields and slashing essential funding to schools.

And we’re not allowing foreign states to rip off billions from British taxpayers in subsidies so they can charge British commuters FIVE times as much to travel to work than in their own countries.

And we’re not making it harder for British young people to compete in the global jobs market by making education and training so expensive it’s now out of reach for all the richest families.

And we’re not cutting our country’s emergency services to the bone so we can hand out tax cuts to our wealthy mates resident abroad.

And we’re not killing off our beautiful national wildlife, including robins, eagles, badgers and of course foxes.

And we haven’t willingly created a country in which 40% of cancer patients cannot afford to heat their home properly because of cuts to sickness payments.

And we don’t think it’s OK that 1 in 4 British families are now struggling to feed their children during the school holidays while foreign-based multi-billionaires get yet more tax breaks.

And we’re not smugly sitting back while our once great country is more and more sidelined on the international stage in defence, trade, the environment and foreign affairs.

It’s time to take back our flag.

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If you agree, please feel free to copy and paste the union flag above or make your own and share it under the hashtag #takebacktheflag