Patriotism, the love that dare not speak its name

'Patriotism...is a superstition artificially created and maintained through a network of lies and falsehoods; a superstition that robs man of his self-respect and dignity and increases his arrogance and conceit.' Emma Goldman. 

She was a Communist but I wonder how many British people nowadays who are not Communists (so excluding Jeremy Corbyn) also think patriotism a bad thing.

It shows you how the Communists have succeeded to a very large extent. Many, perhaps most, of their ideas have triumphed. Sexual equality; free love, including for homosexuals; contraception; abortion; internationalism; the end of colonialism; racial equality; confiscation of property from the rich; atheism; materialism; the general idea that tradition is oppressive. 

The fascists, by contrast, lost the battle of ideas comprehensively. 

De Gaulle would have opposed immigration and the modern EU

I have always been a Gaullist. The General wanted a "Europe des nations" and knew England would not be suitable to join the Common Market (E.E.C.) He strongly opposed Arab immigration into metropolitan France. I imagine if he were alive and politically active today his political causes would be dismantling the modern EU and opposing further immigration.

I wonder had he come to power a year or two sooner whether the EEC would ever have come into existence. Had it not this might have saved Europe a vast amount of pain and wasted energy.

De Gaulle, of course, began his memoirs with the very stirring words

Labour since 1900 has achieved nothing really

The British Labour Party is essentially a 20th century (wrong) answer to a 19th century problem.

Labour was always a mistake. The Liberals were much more radical, much more intelligent and would have fought the 1915 general election on land nationalisation. Labour, at least for a long time, didn't have many ideas, till the Webbs taught them nationalisation. They existed originally to get working class trade unionists into the House.

The first Labour government's one memorable achievement was adding the words 'patriotism is not enough' to the statue of Nurse Cavell. The second Labour government's big achievement was the Lido in Hyde Park. At least the latter was useful. Later Labour governments had only one important positive achievement. They raised the perception and self-perception of the working class.

But this would have happened anyway, without Labour.