Flagman’s world of flags

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Later this year there will be much flag-waving taking place across Great Britain; expect to see a sea of Union Jacks around Buckingham Palace and in the Olympic Stadium as Diamond Jubilee and Olympic fever grips the nation.

 

The world is full of flags; great ones and strange ones. This is a collection of twenty flags that just have to be shared!

 

 

Nepal

 

 

Nepal is literally the only country without a rectangular flag. Some people just have to be different!

 

Arkansas

 

For obvious reasons there is no way that you could confuse the Arkansas flag with any other flag.

 

Lombardy, Italy

 

 

This looks like a four-leaf clover, or a dog’s footprint, or a few splashes of rain merged together, or maybe it looks like nothing at all…

 

Fryslan, Netherlands

 

 

This is a nice, happy flag but you would have thought that the Fryslan flag designer would make a better effort at drawing the hearts!

 

The Great Socialist People’s flag of Libya

 

 

I managed to find a copy of the Libyan flag, but if that had proved to be difficult, I could simply have painted a big swathe of green in Microsoft Paint!

 

 

Mozambique

 

 

Strangely this flag has a rifle and a scythe placed on top of a book. Could they not have used a bookmark instead?

 

Northern Marianas Island

 

 

Drop us a line if you understand what this mysterious flag signifies. Is that a figure in a grey robe standing behind the star?

 

Kyrgyzstan

 

 

The pronunciation of the name of the country might be tricky, but the design of the flag is not. We think it’s a small baseball being thrown out of the sun.

 

Bhutan

 

 

It’s hard to understand why a country would want to represent itself in the 21st century with a made-up creature - especially one which looks like it has feet made from small logs.

 

Antwerp

 

 

This is so bad I can barely look at it! What was Antwerp thinking?!

 

America

 

 

A flag with a star to represent each state seems like a good idea. Unfortunately America regularly changes the number of states it has – meaning that the flag has to be re-designed each time.

 

 

Cyprus

 

 

Firstly, use the space you have on your flag! Secondly, it’s not as if Cyprus has a memorable shape. They surely could have come up with something better!

 

Antarctica

 

 

Antarctica might need to liven up their flag a little! Why not put a polar bear right in the middle? Or perhaps there’s already one there?

 

 

Poland

 

The Polish flag is a game of two halves – the top half is white and the bottom half is red. This makes it easy to spot when it’s being flown upside down.

 

New England

 

 

Here’s the flag of New England - a garish combination of the Australian, American, English and European flags, with a Christmas tree thrown in for good measure.

 

Nevada

 

 

Here’s the old American flag of Nevada. Did you know that they dug for gold and silver in Nevada? You do now!

 

Uganda

 

 

There’s not much you can say about the Ugandan flag except that it’s loud and there’s a strange bird in the middle of it! That’s it!

 

Dominica

 

 

Is an annoying squawky parrot really a suitable symbol for a country’s flag? At least it looks cheerful.

 

 

Tamil Eelam

 

 

This flag has an angry-looking tiger and two bayonets. Very scary.

 

Benin

 

 

This particular example of the Benin National Flag lasted until 1897. We can see why it was changed!

 

Written by James Christie who writes for craft supplies company Yellow Moon.

In an earlier post  we claimed that the European parliament sold badges for every nation except the UK.

Well we were contacted by a lady called Antonia at the EU commission who kindly sent us this badge.

Many thanks Antonia and we are happy to be corrected!

Yes we are now on facebook, you can follow us here

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Maybe…..

From the local Government news, possibly not usually the most riveting read comes this story..
A skull and crossbones flag flying over the

Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) building may be illegal.

The move by April’s Fooler and communities secretary Eric Pickles was clearly an act of defiance, but may turn out to be a step more radical than he first thought.

According to the The Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations 2007, it is only the national flags, European Union flag, county flags and certain patron saints which can be flown about government buildings without consent. This applies to both local authorities and Whitehall departments.

The document, on the DCLG website, stated: ‘The European Union flag, the flag of the Commonwealth, the United Nations flag and English county and saints’ flags (where these are associated with a particular county) may be flown without express consent (Schedule 1, Class H).’

But, importantly, it is believed the department requires planning consent to fly alternate flags or advertisements.The pirate flag will only be flying legitimately if Mr Pickles has sought such consent.

Otherwise, it is claimed, Mr Pickles could be considered a genuine pirate

Unfortunately the Hertfordshire Mercury  does not say which flag was raised.

Presumably the Olympic one, but we will have to guess.
A FLAG was raised at the council offices in Cheshunt to officially mark Broxbourne as a Host Borough of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Deputy Chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Games, Sir Keith Mills, Broxbourne Council leader Paul Mason (Con, Broxbourne), chairman of the council’s Olympic sub-committee and mayor-elect Cllr Eddy Rowland (Con, Hoddesdon North) and other members of the sub-committee attended the ceremony at the Broxbourne Council offices in Churchgate.

School children from St Mary’s School and Cheshunt School also attended the event on Monday.

Sir Keith said: “The Lee Valley White Water Centre is an exciting new Olympic venue that will see world class athletes competing there during the Games, but also deliver many benefits to the local community and the wider region beyond 2012. 

“It is exciting to see the Host Borough flag flying in Broxbourne, a sign of exciting times to come next summer and beyond.”

Cllr Mason added: “I am tremendously proud that we now have the authority to fly the Host Borough flag from our Borough Offices. 

“We are now able to openly promote ourselves as a host borough for the London 2012 Games.

Here is an interesting idea from an American Anglophile from California. A Union Jack coffee table.

Unfortunately we dont sell it yet but it is a very stylish idea!

She writes:

Ok so far I have written a few articles about products, but this one, oh this one really gets my juices flowing. If you know me, you know I am completely obsessed with everything England and here is just one more thing to get me going. In my bedroom I have the Union Jack flag and the St. George flag hanging proudly over my bed. Why is that so interesting you ask, a lot of Brits have those flags. Well I am not British I am American and I live in California, although both flags did come directly from England and if I had the $1,799 (or 2,515.00 USD) to buy this I would. So let me tell you about it.

This coffee table, as you can see, has the union jack flag on it, but it also has two independent fluorescent lights which light it up simultaneously or separately, one light pointing up at the flag and one down on the floor. It is manufactured from stainless steel and glass and yes you can even put your drinks and other things on it. It has a built-in power connection. Fluorescent tubes: 2′ T8 18W. Max power consumption: 144W. Size: H: 40.5 W: 114 D: 77 cm

Link

Intersting story from the cricket World cup by the Times of India on the similarity between the two nations flags.

BANGALORE: The loyalty of an Irish cricket fan at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday could have been easily mistaken — the T-shirt, pointed cap and shorts all in green with a tricolour flag draped around the neck. Interestingly, both the Indian and the Republic of Ireland national flags are tricolours and look-alikes.

The white and green look the same while the saffron in the India flag is replaced by a slightly different orange in the Ireland one. Also, the colours are partitioned in a vertical pattern in the Republic of Ireland flag, unlike in the Indian tricolour, which also has the Ashoka Chakra in the centre.

ut the ICC is displaying an all-green flag, with the Cricket Ireland emblem embellished on it, for the Irish team. And for a valid reason too. Ireland comprises two geographical areas: the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland, which comes under the United Kingdom, uses Union Jack as its national flag. So the cricket board flag is used by

Rest of the story

This may seem strange to UK readers, for whom the Confederate flag is a fashion accessory rather than any meaningful statement, but having visited the Southern United States I know that emotions are still quite raw down there.

The flag is seen by some as a racist symbol.

Anyway this bus driver is fighting for his right to fly the flag

From US news channel KTVL

MEDFORD, Ore. - School bus driver Ken Webber is a self-described redneck. He proudly hangs a confederate flag from his pick-up truck.

Now that flag has cost him his job.

“I considered everyone I worked with to be family,” Webber said. “And I feel like my family is being ripped apart.”

He was fired Wednesday, after he was suspended last week, for refusing to take down his flag. Webber was a school bus driver in the Phoenix - Talent School District.

“I miss the people I worked with,” he said. “I miss the kids on my route, so I would really like to get my job back.”

Webber is taking legal action. The Rutherford Institute, a non-profit conservative group, is defending him. The organization’s mission is to defend the people’s constitutional rights.

John W. Whitehead, the institute’s president and founder, said they fought and won a similar case.

“A city of Topeka, Kansas fellow had a vanity license plate with a confederate flag on it,” Whitehead said. “He was told he couldn’t park it in the employee parking lot. We fought a First Amendment case and won it.”

Whitehead said he sent the district superintendent Ben Bergreen, and the company Webber worked for First Student Transportation Services, a letter on Wednesday.

In the letter the institute said, “Your action constitutes a clear violation of Mr. Webber’s First Amendment for free expression and must be immediately rescinded.”

Both the superintendent and the bus company declined to comment.

“It’s about freedom of speech,” Webber said. “You know I have the right of free speech. And no one can take that away from anybody.”

With a job or now, he will let his flag fly.

Buy Confederate flags

From the BBC

There’s a gift shop for visitors to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, selling tea towels and cufflinks with the gold stars and blue background of the EU. Pride of place is given to the rack of lapel pins with intertwined European and national flags.

Today you could choose the flags of Spain, or Italy - or France, of course - but they didn’t have one for the UK.

“Would you like a pin with the Irish flag?” the assistant asks, in perfect English.

I don’t think they’d sold out. To be honest I didn’t want to buy one at all, given the Euro exchange rate. I was really just confirming the feeling around here that it is often simply not worth bothering to include Britain in things.

There are visitors to the Parliament from Spain, and Poland and places much further away than the South of England. There are groups of Rotarians, and young mums and a huge herd of farmers from Italy laughing loudly and taking photographs of themselves in front of the magnificent parliament buildings.

But the only people I came across from England were the nine MEPs we elected 18 months ago.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. The majority of votes we cast in the South were for candidates sceptical about the whole European project. From the European constituency of South East England we send five Conservatives, two UKIP, two Lib Dems, one Green, and one Labour MEP.

It’s a larger group than many of the small countries, and they have quite a bit of influence.

The Liberal Democrat MEP Sharon Bowles has fast made her name as a financial expert. Labour’s Peter Skinner and the Green’s Keith Taylor are pursuing their particular interests as is the new girl from Oxford, Catherine Bearder.

This week they’ve been involved in persuading the new fisheries commissioner to stop the throwing back of dead fish, and find other ways to conserve supplies.

They’ve complained about French treatment of the Roma peoples who are Europe’s largest minority. And they’ve got a motion through calling for a nifty £50 device to be fitted to all European lorries warning them when a cyclist is alongside.

But the main point of contention is the 2012 budget. Despite the financial problems of Greece, Ireland and Portugal the European Parliament continues to increase spending.

As one of our Conservative MEP’s Dan Hannan points out, the exchange rate is against us because we pay our bill in Euros. We’ve also lost the rebate of £7bn a year we used to get against the Common Agriculture and Fishery Policies, without the reform of the system we were promised.

Estimates for how much we pay to Europe range from the EU’s £200 each to the Taxpayers’ Alliance of £1,000 plus. It depends whether you include things like the additional cost of European regulation on British business.

And how do you quantify the extra trade? The think tank Civitas reckon about half of our exports go to the European Union, but Switzerland does well with a Free Trade Association rather than full harmonisation.

They’re all things we could debate, if we ever got a referendum on Europe - something Dan Hannan suggests will be much more likely once we’ve held the vote on changing the voting system in May.

As David Miliband pointed out this week, for the first time since the First World War most major European governments come from the centre-right of politics. And yet it struck me just how much the EU institutions continue to expand, and charge us more for our membership.

My first report for the television will be on this Sunday’s Politics Show. I talked to UKIP’s Marta Andreasen, a former Chief Accountant of the EU, and Lib Dem Catherine Bearder - not just about EU money but that decision in the European Court that men and women must be treated equally for car insurance and pensions.

What does that tell us about the direction that we are travelling? Have we given up too much control, or is it right to be part of a joint quest for the better things in life?

It’s not just about the money. This week at the European Court of Human Rights (the ones who want us to allow prisoners to get the vote) there was a moving case of a 31 year old mother from Slovakia who’d been sterilised - she says against her will.

She comes from a Roma background, and under communism in her country there was a policy to use sterilisation to reduce the Roma population. One survey showed 60% of all such operations were carried out on Roma people. This woman was put in a “gypsy-only” ward, forbidden to use toilets available to other women.

It beggars belief that such a policy could be continuing in the modern EU, yet strong criticism of France’s immigration policy towards the Roma people was another hot topic in the Strasbourg parliament this week.

Hungary’s President Pal Schmitt was visiting today. On the Politics Show this week we will be reporting the next stage of Michael Turner’s fight for justice after he was extradited to Hungary under the European Arrest Warrant and held in prison for four months because his business owed money.

Our rights have been won at some cost, and should not be regarded lightly.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity to you all. We certainly should be paying attention to what they’re doing in Brussels and Strasbourg in our names.

Perhaps a few more visitors to the Parliament from Britain might persuade them to take more notice of British arguments, and then we could have our own pin badge.