Flagging for England?

“Fly the flag” they say! Straightforward enough in most countries, but not Britain, where the vast and confusing choice of what flag to fly is only outnumbered by the interpretation of what the flag says, as highlighted by an interesting piece by BBC Scotland’s Ken Macdonald – covering a study by the boffins at Strathclyde University on National Pride and the relation of that to Flags.

Indeed, with the jubilee themed orgy of red, white and blue that has recently assaulted our sensibilities, you would think that we had all going Cool Britannia (the Sequel) crazy as we marked the 60 year reign of a monarch who can trace her family line all the way back to both Scotland’s Robert the Bruce and Ireland’s Brian Boru, but neither Henrys IV to VIII nor Richard I, II or III! But in reality, the gushing of enthusiasm and tea-parties petered out north of Berwick, with Scottish street parties are as difficult to find as genuine feeling of tartan goodwill to our southern neighbour’s first XI as they kick off their Euro 2012 campaign against les autre demi of the Auld Alliance.

(I’ve decided to break with tradition and will be supporting England (but not Clive Tylsey!). After all, they are our neighbours, and due some support. After all, won’t Liverpool fans be cheering on Fergie’s Man United in next season’s Champions League? But that’s another matter).

Back to the flags, and what the study proposed and what can be extrapolated from the Jubilee is that there is still a sense that the Union Flag is England’s. The study posits that Englishmen (and women) have merged their sense of identity into both the Union Flag and the Cross of St George. Work is being done to try to separate the two concepts, however, and the English FA surely must be lauded for launching the new England kit in a pure red and white colour scheme. Furthermore, the relatively small pocket of England fans that have ventured to the Ukraine will be probably waving the Cross of St George predominately and the Union Flag occasionally, as reverse of how things were in the glory days of 1966 when a sea of Union Flags greeted… sorry, remind me, what happened then?

Meanwhile, Scotland will continue to fly the Saltire (even at Hampden during the Olympics) and occasionally the Royal Standard of Scotland, while the Scottish version of the Royal Standard of the United Kingdom will fly over Holyrood.  Northern Ireland will fly a yet more contentious mix of flags – ranging from the Plough and the Stars to the Red Hand of Ulster, from the Erin go Bragh Harp to the Ulster Scots’ Saltire, plus of course the Irish Tricolour and the Union Flag, while hardly any will promote the diagonal Cross of St Patrick that did make it into the 1801 resin. As for Wales, well sorry guys, you’re Dragon didn’t make it onto the design.

But all of this is set against the current discussions of possible Scottish Independence in 2016, and the questions of identity that the preceding referendum is focussing on. Can we be Scottish and British? Can we be Scottish Nationalist and Monarchist? Can we be Unionist yet Republican. Interestingly, the SNP have gone for the middle ground on this one – ironically keen to emphasise “Britishness” as part of the pro-royal, “Social Union” while their opponents are keen to polarise identity and values. I doubt anyone in the 1970s would have seen the day when the SNP were pushing Britishness and Labour were suggesting that a more extreme form of separation was on the agenda. Scare tactics, perhaps?

But flag folly goes to Lord Forsyth who insisted that the potential establishment of and independent Scottish Government (even he will have to stop calling it Executive then!) will lead to the blue being pulled out of the Union Flag. Comments which ignored the fact the Union Flag came into being in 1606 after the ascension of James VI of Scotland to the English crown, a good 101 years before the formation of the now “at risk” Westminster Government of the UK.

In the meantime, let’s all get behind our team and start supporting them and flying the flag. I’m just not saying what team and what flag!

Vexing Vexillology

More half-baked journalism, bent perspectives and Politicians (who should know better) diving towards party lines, courtesy of the scandalous sanction on Saltires at the National Library of Scotland.

You would have thought that Tartan was being re-banned and the bagpipes were about to be outlawed once again, if you took some of the headlines at face value in their coverage of a story where an office worker decides to turn his desk into a mini Brigadoon bedecked in 2x Saltires, 1x Royal Standard and a Tartan covering of his chair that would put the Bay City Rollers to shame.

To compound the situation, the Library issues a memo in typically vague 21^st Century “office-speak” that suggests that the problem was the presence of the Saltire itself as potentially “racist” and “intimidating to non-Scottish colleagues.” In fact, the issue was more to do with a desk looking unprofessional due to excessive adornments – the nature of which was irrelevant.

But these are the times we live in, when saying what you mean in the workplace (or should I say the office is avoided. No-one is ever “fired” they “decide to move on”, people aren’t lying they are “inaccurate” and desks aren’t “a messy discgrace” but a potentially racist offence. Cue tiptoe from straight-talking cold water being poured on the issue, to barrel-loads of media-frenzied “Hot water”.

The SNP rush to the defence of the Saltire, which other parties rush to condemning the SNP for politicising Saint Andrew’s Cross and the PC brigade in the general public then wade-in with a barrel-load of moans about Union Flags and their alleged connotation with groups as diverse as Ulster Unionists and the BNP.

The sorry state of affairs reflects our appalling lack of national pride and the disjointed nature of Scotland and/or Britain. We see flags as potentially “offensive” and threatening. If we were only to look elsewhere: France, Italy, Canada, America etc., we see nations that treasure their national identity (regardless of the complexities) and value their national flag. A colleague tells me that he was virtually stared down for daring to photograph an American flag/oath moment at the start of a small-town event. His lack of respect was offensive, and he was showing no decorum, and the locals let him know about it through their dirty looks.

Maybe the USA can be a bit extreme on this, but we could do with a large chunk of their idealism to counter the cynicism and negativity that pervades our society and for a moment stop fighting over our flag, and instead, owe some respect to it.