Patriot

From the author of Muslims Don't Matter comes a powerful manifesto for a more inclusive British patriotism, and how to reclaim the flag from the far-right. Sayeeda Warsi loves village cricket and grumbling about the weather. She loves green and pleasant landscapes with castles and ruined abbeys.Listening to "God Save the King" gives her goosebumps. She also loves that we uphold the rule of law and can still disagree respectfully with our fellow citizens. She is proud to be British.But in recent years, the extreme right has tried to deny her Britishness - and that of people like her with roots in other countries. A new xenophobic nationalism ties being British to one skin colour, one ancestry and one religion. It raises the flag as a symbol of division rather than unity. At the same time, the extreme left has disdained patriotic feeling of any kind - dismissing it as inherently divisive, even racist.In this passionate manifesto, Warsi makes the case for a progressive patriotism. Detailing the lessons she has learnt from a career spent fighting extremists, she argues patriotism is about pride, not prejudice. She calls out the political grifters, funded by foreign money, who preach division back home in Britain, and argues for the responsibility of bringing ourselves together as one nation, when too many are still being left behind.The Patriot is a call for all of us to learn to love our country again.