Scotland votes NO but UK cannot stand still
Citizens of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland woke up this morning in a UK unchanged and never to be the same again.
The Westminster government (and many in what so nearly became ‘the rest of the UK’) will breathe a collective sigh of relief.
Yet politicians of all shades will be aware that their work is just beginning.
The Flag Institute is delighted the Union Flag will continue to proudly serve the UK as it has done for over 200 years.
The inclination may now be to drop the subject, given the enormous list of constitutional holes in need of plugging.
However, the column inches devoted to it in recent days show that Westminster has had a very lucky escape.
The UK flies a national flag which has never been formally adopted.
No one in the machinery of our democratic government is responsible for it.
Scotland’s NO vote has bought us time, but not much.
For generations we have neglected the care of our national flag.
Successive governments have feted this crucial national symbol whenever it suited them.
Yet they have repeatedly failed to take basic measures to respect, protect and care for it.
This mistreatment has often stemmed from poor advice from establishment reactionaries, but this is no excuse.
We have left our flag without any constitutional governance or protection.
Many claim that a dusty British constitutional wooliness sets us above other, younger nations.
Today, however, it lies exposed as an arrogant and lazy indifference that so nearly ended in the dismantling of our once Great Britain.
Yesterday Scotland voted to stay in the United Kingdom.
Today the debate about the future of our Union (and with it our Union flag) starts in earnest.
Government must look up from its dusty constitutional ledgers.
It must apply the lessons of history rather than use history as an excuse for resisting change.
It’s time to listen to the vibrant democratic clamour of ordinary people living in the real world.
Those who view our most important national symbol in the modern British context of respect for the past tempered by open-mindedness about the future.
The Prime Minister must take decisive action by immediately.
Appoint a minister responsible for the governance of our national symbols and of our national flag in particular.
Appoint a working group as much for their ability to get difficult jobs done as for vexillological, historical political, or constitutional expertise.
Lay a proclamation before Her Majesty formally adopting the Union as our national flag.
Resolve – within weeks – generations of vagueness about our national identity.
Only then can the government expect to lay a guiding hand upon the safety and future of the flag of the United Kingdom.
As the UK’s national flag organisation, the Flag Institute stands eager and ready to play its part.
Charles Ashburner, Chief Executive