There ain't no Wales in the Union Jack

Subjects:

Peter Facey (London, Unlock Democracy): Earlier this week Ian Lucas MP held a debate at Westminster on the fact that Wales alone of the four constituent parts of the United Kingdom is not represented on the Union Flag.

For those of you who don't know, the present version contains the flags of St George, St Patrick and St Andrew and dates back to 1801. Ian's personal suggestion is to represent Wales by adding the Red Dragon to the Union Flag. Even if no one else supports it, my 2 year old son, who likes dragons, would definitely be in favour. For me one of the other suggestions of adding the flag of St David (a yellow cross on a black background) to the Union Flag has a nice symmetry.

leeksjack-flag24.gif

But a more serious issue is that unlike Scotland and even Ireland, Wales was effectively incorporated into England by force. The 1536 Act that effectively merged the two countries was an Act of the English Parliament. May be rather than a new flag we need to complete Welsh devolution and have a Welsh Act of Union worthy of its name.

Moderator: Today's Telegraph has some reader inspired suggestions of what the new flag might look like. We've reproduced one of the ones from Japan...

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