President of the Flag Institute, Captain Malcolm Farrow OBE RN, has released his recent paper looking at UK symbols of sovereignty.
“Like every other nation, the United Kingdom has a range of national symbols signifying sovereignty on land, at sea and in the air. Because of our long and complex history, the UK quite possibly has a greater range of these symbols than any other country, and they have developed and matured in an unstructured manner over a very long time. One of the particular quirks about the UK is our lack of a written constitution in the form of a single and complete piece of legalisation. If we had a written constitution then it is reasonable to suppose that it would embrace symbols of sovereignty. The lack of such a document means that UK symbols of sovereignty are not encapsulated in any one reference and no single authority is responsible for them. This includes the national flag. Another dimension is the continued use of the Royal Prerogative for certain aspects of national life and the ambiguous manner in which this affects the national flag.”
Read the full paper
