Towards A More Perfect Union...Flag
by David B. Martucci
Originally published in NAVA News No. 162, May-June, 1999
With
the changes in the United Kingdom now taking place, one has to wonder what will
transpire if and when the country renounces its claims to the
"Kingdom" of Northern Ireland. Since the Sovereign now has revived the
use of the Scottish version of the Royal Standard (with two "Scottish
Quarters" instead of one) and there have been sightings of the "Scotch
Union Flag" (Fig. 1), Great Britain seems ripe for further flag changes.
Of
course, the "Scotch Union Flag", a "sandwich" of the
background of the Scottish Flag and its Saltire Cross separated with the English
Cross and its fimbriation in the center, is not in keeping the design
considerations of the first Union Flag (Fig. 2). That flag placed the English cross
and fimbriation on top of the Scottish Flag. To be correct, the "Scotch
Union Flag" ought to place a fimbriated St. Andrew's Cross over the English
Flag (Fig. 3) but the design I do not believe would be very popular. "Too
much white" would probably be the most common criticism.
Also,
Britons, both English and Scottish, seem to have become quite fond of their
"red-white-blue" colours, which would explain why we are seeing the "Scotch Union
Flag" instead of the plain Scottish Cross. The English, I think, would not
feel that comfortable reverting to the Cross of St. George with no blue colour
in it at all.
Of
course, if Ireland as a Kingdom drops out of the UK, then they could always
remove the "St. Patrick's Cross" (so called) from the present Union
Flag (Fig. 4) and revert to the original Union Flag (Fig. 2). That would still have
the problem of which cross is superimposed over which, a fact that the Scots
still seemingly don't like very much. And having two different "Union"
Flags would not seem to me to be a good way of promoting the "Union,"
although two different Royal Standards seems to be a good thing.
So, from a design standpoint, one has to consider the following guidelines if a redesign of the Union Flag is being considered:
-
Must keep the two national crosses of England and Scotland.
-
Must present the two emblems as united without one obviously taking precedence over the other.
-
Must use the three colours (red-white-blue) in something approximating the present proportions of each colour.
How can this be
accomplished? As a designer, I can see only one way. A gyronny of
eight, each segment bearing a piece of the two crosses alternately. I am not sure that is the best description but
the drawing shows the idea best (Fig. 5).