Press

FLAG

21 January 2010

I think the public should not get too hung up on the old New Zealand flag.

It is inevitable that it will change sooner or later. The Union Jack section on the flag is no longer relevant and as a British citizen, we do wonder why you still use it.

The Union Jack is a flag that is really out of favour with the British public. Sure it is unfurled on Royal, State and municipal occasions but the ordinary Brit wouldn't be seen dead flying it over their homes.

It is seen as having some unsavoury connotations that the British public don't wish to be reminded of. Namely our colonial past and what was done in the name of this flag.

Britain is a country that doesn't want to think about that anymore. They know what happened back then and that's where they want to leave it.

Even in British schools these days, British Empire history is barely covered . . . ..I think something like two hours are allotted to it in the annual school curriculum. British children hardly know anything about it or nothing at all.

This is a good thing as anything that could cause divisiveness or ill feeling in oneself or in others is something to be shunned. With Britain's huge population of people who were not born there or are descended from earlier immigrants, the Union Jack is seen as a symbol of colonial suppression. For the sake of harmony, it is a flag best used only occasionally. A lot of Brits would prefer not at all.

By far the most popular flags are the ones of the individual parts of the UK such as the red cross of the flag of St George, the blue cross of the flag of Scotland and the flag of Wales. These flags you will see in use everywhere but even with the Flag of St George of England, to fly it on one's house can be misconstrued that you are a member of the British National Party and a fascist of some sort. The flag of a country should be relevant to and say something about the country it belongs to. It should be modern and current and embody all the peoples who live under that flag. Our present flag does not do this. It harks back to the 18th and 19th centuries and it's meaning no longer has relevance in the 21st century. The Tino Rangitiratanga flag is very beautiful. It is modern and relevant and is of a quintessential New Zealand design and could not possibly be mistaken for the flag of any other country.

It says something about New Zealand . . . .it says we treasure our culture, our art, our sense of being New Zealanders and that even though we are not a republic we are nevertheless an upstanding, forward thinking and proudly independent country and a people who are proudly confident to show to the world we are no longer aligned or behoven to our history or the history of an old colonial power that wants to forget and has moved on.
C Jackson
Timaru