Worldflagshop News

Certainly an interesting proposal but what could they change it to?

Suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

As Australians celebrated their national holiday, the country’s political leaders dismissed a renewed call for their flag to be redesigned.

The prominence of a Union Jack in the top left corner – a reminder of Australia’s origins as a British colony – is considered by some critics as a relic of the past which has outlived its purpose.

There have been several attempts to have it changed during its 100-year history.

But the latest seems doomed to failure as well. Ray Martin sparked the debate, saying: “We’re not Anglo-Irish any more, we’re multi-cultural. We don’t need the British connection.

We don’t need the Union Jack in the corner. There are a lot of Australians who don’t relate to the Union Jack any more.”

But politicians from both major parties united in support of the flag.

In a speech in Canberra, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd referred to it as “our national flag which we celebrate under for Australia Day today and into the future”.

Tony Abbott, the leader of the opposition, said: “People like our flag. They’re proud of our flag. I think our flag of stars and crosses represents our history and our hopes.”

Critics also point out that most new immigrants to Australia now come from South East Asia rather than Britain(sky.com).

Has the world gone mad? Tell me what you think……

Google row over missing Aborigine flag (excerpt from BBC website)

Google has been criticised in Australia after it removed an Aboriginal flag from a competition-winning drawing appearing on its homepage.

But Google said they had to remove the flag after its designer, Harold Thomas, refused them permission to use it.

The central ‘o’ of Google’s name was originally formed by the bright yellow sun in the centre of the flag, which is officially recognised as the flag of indigenous Australians.

But the image which appeared online on Australia Day showed only the sun.

Mr Thomas – an Aboriginal elder – holds the copyright for the flag but allows groups supporting indigenous rights and issues to use it without charge, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. He said he charged for commercial use of the image but that Google had failed to negotiate with him properly.

He said Google had eventually offered him “a pittance” for the image rights so he refused

The flag itself: designed during 1970s indigenous land rights protests

Since then, the black, green and white flag has become a symbol of pride throughout in the county.

It’s hard to believe, when you see so many black, green and white Devon flags flying proudly right across the county, that it only became a reality in 2003.

The Devon flag emerged out of a debate right here on the BBC Devon website. And the debate culminated in a web-based poll.

This led to a shortlist of about a dozen designs submitted by Devonians both at home and abroad.

Many of the designs used the traditional Devon colours of black, green and white.

 T he result of the first vote was so close that a second poll was carried out to remove any doubt.

The most favoured design topped both the original BBC Devon poll and the follow-up shortlist vote, and was designed by BBC Devon contributor Ryan Sealey.

The design received 49% of the total votes cast in the final count. The group promoting the new flag then contacted the British Flag Institute, which is one of the world’s main research and documentation centres for flags.

It collects and provides all kind of flag information, from past and present, from all over the world.

Since those early days, the flag has really taken off.

It is now flown from County Hall in Exeter, at the Devon County Show each year, and the Devon rugby team also has the flag on their shirts.

And all over Devon, you can see the flags flying in gardens and on car bumper stickers(article courtesy of the BBC website).

Note from the author:

It is interesting to note that since then, there have been many new County flags initiated and registered throughout the UK. The most recent being Wiltshire. To see a full listing of all and approved British County Flags, you can visit:

http://www.flaginstitute.org/index.php?location=10#top 

or http://www.worldflagshop.co.uk/acatalog/Counties___Provences.html

Many of the local county population have enjoyed competitons held by local newspapers and radio stations and have eagerly awaited the winning designs.

Worldwide Flags Ltd have been selling County Flags since their inception and have activley promoted new County designs. Included in their range are many different sizes of flags and bunting which help to continually promote County Flags in their different guises.