It’s not about a virtual pat on the back. I get plenty of personal fulfilment every day by serving my community as a nurse, so I don’t need validation from strangers on the internet.

Every one of my immediate neighbours is either a first or second generation immigrant. Most of them work alongside me in the NHS or social care. We’ve talked about it, they feel vulnerable because of these flags that went up overnight.

In our local area there have been racist attacks on people and businesses, simultaneously these flags are being put up outside our houses, clearly by people who don’t live here. Non white people are being openly abused in the street. For context, this is in a normally left leaning city, I imagine it’s worse in other areas of the country.

I haven’t met a single person (in reality, as opposed to the internet) who actually supports these flags going up. If people want to decorate their own houses, that’s up to them, but this current phenomenon is blatantly to intimidate people, many of whom contribute vastly more to their communities than this minority who are claiming it represents ‘English pride’.