Wit & Attitude Quote by George Galloway

Flag-waving, in George Galloway's telling, is less a civic ritual than a con: a costume and a cheap soundtrack deployed to pickpocket the public. The phrase "wrap themselves in flags" lands because it paints patriotism as literal camouflage. These people don't hold values; they drape themselves in symbols, using the nation as wardrobe. Then comes the "tinny trumpet" - a deliberately ungenerous sound, metallic and hollow, the kind of noise that travels far without carrying substance. Galloway isn't merely criticizing nationalism; he's attacking its performance culture, the way political legitimacy can be manufactured through spectacle.

The intent is accusatory and tactical. By framing patriotic rhetoric as a "means of fooling the people", he flips a common hierarchy: the patriot isn't the virtuous protector of the public; he's the hustler exploiting public trust. "Those who" keeps it pointed but deniable - a familiar parliamentary move that lets listeners supply their own villains (hawks, tabloid demagogues, war-salesmen) without naming names. That's the subtext: if you're hearing this and thinking of someone specific, you're already halfway recruited.

Context matters because Galloway's brand has long been anti-war, anti-establishment, and allergic to the moral blackmail of "support the troops" politics. Read against the post-9/11 and Iraq-era media ecosystem, the line is a warning about how dissent gets pathologized as disloyalty while elites launder ambition through the flag. He isn't rejecting love of country; he's indicting the people who monetize it.