A town hall has been banned from flying the Union Flag on Armed Forces Day as climbing 8ft to reach the pole is 'too dangerous'.
Officials say it is risky for the site manager to scale a ladder and unfurl a flag at the 200-year-old building in Bourne, Lincolnshire. So the pole will remain bare for the event on June 27.
What is also interesting though is that the article goes onto say it is the first year the St George's Cross has not been flown at the town hall on the Queen's birthday.
Is it standard practice for English town halls to fly the St George's Cross and not the Union flag on the Queen's birthday?
10 comments:
As someone who takes a bit of an interest in flags and heraldry, I can categorically state I've never heard of flying a St George's Cross rather than a Union flag to celebrate the Queen's birthday. It simply doesn't make sense.
Most local authorities simply follow the flag flying procedures outlined by the Dept of Culture, Media and Sport for use by UK Government departments and fly the Union Flag on the designated days.
I would doubt the word of the Daily Mail here. After all, that's a fairly old building, and until recently seeing a St George's flag on _any_ local government building was a rarity.
Personally I believe the Daily Mail have just re-hashed a press agency story used http://www.bournelocal.co.uk/news/Health-and-safety-stops-St.5226445.jp and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5348012/Town-Hall-banned-from-flying-Union-flag-on-Armed-Forces-Day.html and managed to mix up the details.
Is it actually "health & safety" regulations or is it insurance companies wishing to minimise the likelihood of being sued?
It's fashionable to denounce restrictions of doing things as being down to H&S regulators, but for as long as society is as litigious as it is now, insurance companies naturally want their clients to play safe so they don't have to make large payouts.
I think that one of the effects of Devolution has been more nationalism.
Thus more St George's flags at events, matches, on town-halls etc in England; and likewise in Scotland and Wales. I deplore this phenomenon.
Of course, excepting Flag Days on government buildings, the Union Jack is effectively taboo in NI, which is an utter disgrace to me. The only official building in Belfast that flies it daily is City Hall.
I'm sorely tempted to have a decent flagpole and flag from the Flying Colours company (royal warrant-holders) erected above the doorway and flying the Union Jack on statutory Flag Days. I'd love to do that, except only places like Crom Castle and the ilk can get away with it in a dignified manner!
Tim
Oh, sorry, the Robinson Centre and Castlereagh fly it too!
I can categorically state I've never heard of flying a St George's Cross rather than a Union flag to celebrate the Queen's birthday.DG,
I thought it slightly strange, hence the post. The Telegraph, I think, says it is the Union flag.
Tim Roll_Pickering,
"Is it actually "health & safety" regulations or is it insurance companies wishing to minimise the likelihood of being sued?"
Good point. They could always ask for volunteers offering to do it regardless of the "risk"- there would be no shortage I'm sure.
Tim (the other one!)
If it is flown, I'm not sure it's down to an upsurge in English nationalism, more the fact that their is a complete inconsistency concerning the rules applied to this kind of thing.
Indeed. It may be hard to achieve total consistency while we have Devolution, though. I think you're right all the same, O,Neill.
Tim
Don't get me started on flags and Local Authorities! When I was at Newcastle City Council during the 2002 Football World Cup, a guy was suspended for putting up a St George's Cross. Ok, we could have the "political correctness gone mad" speech all over again (and did). But the REAL irony was that in the Policy and Research Section where I was, we'd had a sweepstake. We'd all drawn 2 teams. And we all had an A5 flag of the teams we had drawn displayed on our desks so that everyone could instantly follow who was still in it who was out. So whilst in one part of the Council a bloke was being suspended for flying his OWN flag, we were hapily "flying" flags of all nations elsewhere. All part of a bizarre wider agenda which I still don't think I've completely understood - even though I've been thinking about it in some detail for many years.
Right, fair do, so if it is to dangerous for an employee to climb the eight feet, all some plucky scamp needs to do is climb up there, hoist the Union flag, and hey presto; it'll have to stay forever.
and if they remove it, sure then we will know the first pleading was an excuse for treason. simple.
Just had a thought. There's an intense campaign going on at the moment to promote the Lincolnshire county flag. Wonder if there's a link? I fly my Northumbrian county flag when appropriate. But public organisations should stick with flying appropriate national flags (individual UK national flag or the Union Flag) on celebration days imho. As an asside, it's great to see so many C of E churches flying the flag of St George around England these days.
This is a disgrace.
It should be a right in law to fly the flag from any public building in the UK.
If they don't like the UK, piss off out of it.
Other countries in Europe would not stand for this nation-hating garbage.
Post a Comment