Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Picture this

Last weekend's Sunday Times imagined what the Union Flag might be should Scotland vote for independence in the forthcoming referendum. Something like this:











A bit of a mess but actually a fair representation of a post-Scotland United Kingdom.  A flag and a state dominated by England with Northern Ireland gradually fading out of the picture and Wales tagged on as an out of place afterthought.

Radnorian wonders if this historic flag might be a better bet.

UPDATE:  And then there are the Olympic Games.  An event that interests me not a jot, except that the proposed opening ceremony promises to be a gloriously naff affair.  Following a "green and pleasant" theme it will feature ducks, geese, cricket, grazing sheep, artificial clouds, the Glastonbury festival and the Last Night of the Proms, oh and that ancient thorn tree that someone took a chainsaw to a few months ago.

Now I've no complaint that Wales is represented by a giant daffodil atop a maypole, but the ceremony seems a little light on "the dark satanic mills."  Of course it's the one thing that unites both the old and new British elites, their dislike of industry and, especially, the English working class.  For those of us who actually admire England's industrial genius, watching the arty crowd making an ass of themselves should be fun.

5 comments:

Alandwales said...

Every dog has its day and in the 19th and early 20th century I am sure Wales must have been a net contributor to the UK.Right now based on GDP our part of the flag would probably be extremely small and getting smaller.
until our day returns lets try and enjoy our wonderful bit of the UK

Ysbryd Penderyn said...

The UK state is underfunding Wales by 540m a year according to latest data

Its a myth Wales is a subsidy junkie

Its was a huge net contributor to the UK state during the 1900s...if we only take the island into account and not the ill gained empire

Welsh not British said...

Alandwales, you speak like someone who beleives that Wales is subsidised. The truth is that the whole UK has to borrow £150 billion EVERY year just to pay it's bills.

An independent Wales would be no worse off than we are now as we would borrow. The important thing is that we would be able to invest the money in ourselves.

Alandwales said...

Sorry if I implied we were somehow scroungers.I was simply musing on the size of the Welsh bit of the flag in economic terms now and in the past if it's size was relative to GDP

Fferllys said...

Surely this is a much better flag design:

http://femaleimagination.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/wales-flag-union-jack-dragon.jpg

- puts the dragon at the heart of it all!