Staffordshire to fly the flag
I put a personal motion before the full meeting of Staffordshire County Council today and I’m really pleased it was accepted cross Party. I wrote a post on this recently which resulted in quite a bit of interest, both public comment and via my contact facility.
The motion was to try and engender some patriotism by making a policy to fly the Union Flag over public buildings in Staffordshire 365 days a year instead of the traditional 18 special days. The County has all the schools and also hundreds of other public buildings and where there are flagpoles the Union Flag will now fly high and proud all the time.
I’ve also talked with the Leaders of most of the local councils in Staffordshire and they too have agreed to fly the Union Flag all the time in future. So hopefully we’ve started something and with luck it will spread.
Let’s be proud of our country…. let’s fly our national flag.
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20 comments
“Let’s be proud of our country…. let’s fly our national flag”.
Have they refused your request for England’s flag to be flown?.
Do you realise that the picture you posted on your previous post is highly offensive? Flying the union flag on the same pole above the English flag is a declaration of war.
It would have been more appropriate to put the Scottish flag on top of the English flag as it is Scotland that has finally gained mastery of England.
I’m glad I live in neighbouring Shropshire and won’t have to see the foreign British flag flying off public buildings. This is England, the English flag should be flown from public buildings. The SNP are looking at changing the rules in Scotland (they can do that, they have their own parliament) to have the Scottish flag flown on public buildings instead of the British flag.
Britain doesn’t exist any more, why try keeping it alive with all this talk of Britain and Britishness and flying the British flag? The only people who do this are Scottish politicians and die-hard unionists scared of losing their cushy British political jobs.
The national flag is the St George’s Cross, so let’s fly that year round and fly the Union Flag on special days.
BTW, why is St George’s Day a ’special day’ on which you have to fly the Union Flag?
“Fly the flag of our country”, well the country I live in is England, Britian and the Union flag are a contrived political and economic state, why is it that the polititians and the media refer to Britian as a country when it is infact a state of 4 nations. So for me I will carry on flying the flag of the nation I was born into, that nation being England
Part of the debate was around which to fly… the Union Flag or Flag of St. George. My view is that it’s quite possible to be patriotic towards England whilst also supporting the Union.
That said, several comments which won’t be published because of bad language or because they were inappropriate obviously disagree with me.
The point of trying to foster some patriotism is made in my previous flag post and was well supported.
People who live in the UK, no matter what the background should show some support and loyalty to all of us.
Patriotism is not on the agenda with this Government,I can remember Just a few years ago when the liberal lefty’s where appalled at the flying of the Union Jack,because,”of it’s nasty history”.Now they are so afraid that the English are going find themselves again that the St. Georges Flag the true flag of England would be banned by them ,if they thought they could do it,and the way things are going with Gordon Brown and his “Britishness”it just might happen
Have you asked anyone whether they want the English or British flag flown or have councillors just made the decision themselves? I’d be interested to know who was asked and how many asked for which flag.
Your article in the Tamworth news mentions the English Flag but this article does not.
Will England’s flag fly or not?.
Public buildings in England should fly the flag of St George throughout the year and the Union flag on the 18 special days.
Perhaps when it comes to a sense of loyalty then why is it that the people of England are encouraged to be loyal to the UK, yet other nations within the UK are encouraged to be loyal to thier nation. Mr Ellis you have been kind enough to reply to the previous messages, then perhaps you can reply to this one, why is it that when political types and the media refer to Britain as a country? when patently it is not, it is a state of four nations England being one of them something that politicians of all hues seem to forget or maybe want to forget save for the largess of English taxes that appears to find it’s way across the borders
People who live in the UK, no matter what the background should show some support and loyalty to all of us.
People who live in England should show loyalty to England. The Scots won’t be hauling down the Saltaire to fly the ‘Butcher’s Rag’ so why should we take down our English flag?
Don’t get me wrong Matthew, I support your patriotic stance, you’ve just picked the wrong flag; you’re doing the work of the Scottish Raj for them.
Matthew,
Well done for getting the flags flying. I have always been impressed by the way Americans fly their national flag so commonly, even on private homes. I have been tempted over the years to fly the Union flag at my home but have worried about being viewed as a racist. If public bodies take up the practice this concern would diminish. Have you thought of writing to parish councils suggesting that they erect a flagpole and fly the flag?
Sincerely, Bob
Matthew, was there any public consultation on which flag should be flown?
The original idea behind this is a sheer frustration of the lack of pride and patriotism of any type we have in UK/England. The US have their faults but at least most seem to have a common purpose and identity.
Consultation would suggest to me a mass Countywide exercise and no, that was not undertaken. I did have over 100 public comments and private contacts from weblog readers and the vast majority were in favour of the Union Flag. That is also my view. I believe there is little chance of Scotland being able to punch its weight on the world stage, economically or otherwise, without the support of, certainly, England.
With, I think, just over 8% (smaller than the West Midlands region) of the UK population, Scotland would take a step back. The Mid Lothian question is my biggest concern. That is a real and growing problem which was set off by the Devolution moves. I don’t have enormous problems with flexibility in Scotland to do there own thing…. with the money coming from Westminster the Scottish Parliament are able to decide how they spend locally but like Local Government in the UK, Westminster still has the money to dish out. I do believe, however, that the Scottish Parliament model was a mistake in that it went too far.
Scotland and the Union itself was not meant to be the principal here. It was meant to be about pride and a common identity. There are many dangers now in the world and I don’t think we are open enough about our common bond and identity. It strikes me every time I go to the US.
My original motion to County was aimed at being flexible as to which flag to fly or flying both flags. That was changed by the controlling Labour Party to clarity for the Union Flag…. to be honest I don’t have a real problem either way and accepted the change in motion so that, at least, the principal went through. What I really want to do is to have young people feel they belong to a common cause and in our very multicultural society now, it is even more important to strengthen the whole island’s identity in my view.
Local consultation is what I meant – the council must have a community panel of some description that it bounces ideas off. If not, why not?
It’s all very well trying to foster a sense of identity but No Mandate Brown’s declaration that we should all fly the flag only applies to England so what it’s actually all about is replacing the English identity with a British identity despite the fact that in the real world it’s actually going in reverse. The English identity is increasing whilst the British identity is decreasing. Rather than trying to artificially keep the British identity alive, the government needs to accept that what they want and what the electorate wants are two different things and that what the electorate wants is more important. If the electorate wants an Engilsh identity to be promoted instead of a British identity, who are you or any other politician to say that they shouldn’t?
An English Parliament is another story and its only relevance to this flags debate is that the Scots and Welsh and Northern Irish get to decide which flag flies there because they have their own government.
My experience is somewhat different to the previous poster’s from most people I meet and hear from.
I find much support for the Union Flag, not least at this weekend’s Shugborough Proms where thousands and thousands of flags were waved in a ratio I estimate as at least 5 to 1 in favour of the Union Flag.
Let’s agree to disagree on which flag although it seems we both broadly agree patriotism is what there needs to be more of.
YES I AGREE LETS FLY THE FLAG,I THINK IT WOULD GIVE US ALL SOMETHING TO BE PROUD OF,5TH BARRON OF WISHAWS BEST REGARDS.
Telford & Wrekin Council have just announced (following me asking several times) that they are taking the EU rag down and replacing it with the ENGLISH flag.
I’m pleased about Telford and Wrekin.
We can certainly agree that either the Union Flag or Flag of St George are entirely preferable to the Euro one.
hello mat; iam still sudding at school and find i quite worrying that of all the flags we can fly in my school we have a german and a french one no were in the whole school is the a BRITISH UNION flag or England flag. i personly consider myself BRITISH and so does every other student i know, i just hope that the goverment can sor something out because its all to confusing my farther sas hes british my mother says shes english the news says we are ritish yet my teacher says we are english i am proud of ritians history even if we had dark periods and now with the world being such a hostile place i can see no greater need for us all o unite as one unite as british
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