The United Kingdom is a place of curious tradition. Beyond the formalities of queens, dukes, and baby princes, they also have a parliamentary flags and heraldry committee which has been very busy lately. Since Scotland may be leaving the United Kingdom this Thursday, Lord West, the deputy chairman of the committee, has said it would be “nonsense” to keep Scotland’s color (blue) in the Union Jack flag. West told The Daily Mail , “
In the event of a ‘Yes’ vote I cannot see how you can save the flag of the United Kingdom.”
The Union Jack is a combination of some other very historical flags . It started off as St. George’s red cross flag in 1270. In 1606, it was combined with the cross saltire of St. Andrew, the Patron Saint of Scotland. That’s the white cross on the blue background Lord West is not fond of right now. After that, St. Patrick, the Patron Saint of Ireland, had his cross saltire incorporated into the flag. T hat’s the red diagonal. On the first day of 1801, the Union Jack flag as we know it today was created.
St Patrick:
The Welsh flag was never incorporated into the Union Jack:
So, simple then: Remove the St. Andrews cross of Scotland and add in a dragon? Here are some ideas people around the net have come-up with:
It does seem a shame not to use the Welsh dragon though:
Apparently St. David, the patron saint of Wales has a flag and that’s a yellow cross on a black background - so maybe that could spice things up a little:
Or perhaps include each of the major regions flags in one giant United Kingdom mash-up flag?
But what I think the Internet is really waiting for, is to see what the King of flags has to say about the subject (he is issuing no comment at this time).