{"id":19616,"date":"2021-10-27T14:54:32","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T14:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=19616"},"modified":"2023-09-15T19:17:55","modified_gmt":"2023-09-15T19:17:55","slug":"what-does-the-union-flag-tell-us-about-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2021\/10\/27\/what-does-the-union-flag-tell-us-about-the-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"What does the union flag tell us about the UK?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Allan Armstrong has rewritten the introduction to the first part of his book, F<\/em>rom Pre-Brit to Ex-Brit<\/em>.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

In this he takes a closer look at the history of the UK’s Union Flag.<\/strong><\/p>\n

WHAT DOES THE UNION FLAG TELL US ABOUT THE UK?<\/h2>\n

Today, even the United Kingdom’s most diehard defenders realise their state may not be around forever.\u00a0This is one of the reasons they are putting up such an intransigent defence. And, as far as the British ruling class goes, their sense of entitlement, following their enrichment over centuries of imperialist plunder and domestic and overseas exploitation, means there are few lengths they will not go to maintain their privileged position, in the face of their continued global decline.<\/p>\n

We can get some indication of the current problems facing the British ruling class by examining a key symbol to have emerged in the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland – the Union Flag or Union Jack.\u00a0Four core areas have been recognised as forming the foundational basis for the UK state. These developed into what we now term England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Yet the official state flag does not represent the UK’s national make up very well.<\/p>\n

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\nThe Union Flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1801, and of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1921<\/p>\n

The Union Flag does recognise England with its St. George’s Cross, and Scotland with its St. Andrew\u2019s Saltire.\u00a0But Wales, now an officially acknowledged nation within the UK, is not represented with a St. David’s cross.\u00a0But the Union Flag still has a St. Patrick’s Saltire to represent Ireland, although 26 counties of Ireland are no longer part of the UK.<\/p>\n

Therefore, the state’s current official title, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, highlights a problem. Great Britain is neither the name of a nation nor of a state. Great Britain was once a geographical term used to distinguish the larger (Celtic) British peopled island from the smaller British peopled peninsula of Little Britain or Brittany. The name Great Britain covers what became England, Wales and Scotland but not Ireland.<\/p>\n

After the 1603 Union of the Crowns, under the Stuart dynasty, the term Great Britain represented an historical aspiration to create a united dynastic realm, which included England (incorporating its Welsh principality) and Scotland. This still left Ireland as a semi-detached constituent part of the wider Three Kingdoms, of England, Ireland and Scotland ruled by the Stuarts.<\/p>\n

In 1603, James I of England and VI of Scotland pioneered the first Union Flag using the St. George Cross and the St. Andrew\u2019s Saltire.\u00a0However, the Stuarts’ attempts to create an acceptable Great Britain through dynastic union proved to be premature.\u00a0The seventeenth and the first half of eighteenth centuries were wracked by conflicts over the future of Great Britain and the Three Kingdoms.<\/p>\n

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The Union Flags in England and Scotland after the 1603 Union of the Crowns<\/p>\n

War commenced between the Stuarts\u2019 Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England in 1639, and was then extended to the Three Kingdoms when\u00a0Ireland joined in 1641.\u00a0The monarchy was overthrown as a result of these wars. This occurred first in England in 1649, leading to Cromwell\u2019s republican Commonwealth. Following subsequent wars against Scotland and Ireland, a ‘Greater English’ Republic came to rule over all these islands between 1651-60, first as a Commonwealth then as a Protectorate. This led to two new flags, the first showing the addition of Scotland to England in the Protectorate from 1654, and the addition of Ireland from 1658.<\/p>\n

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The flags of the Cromwellian Protectorate after 1654 and 1658<\/p>\n

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The old Union Flags were restored with the return of the Stuart monarchy in 1660, but the UK remained unstable.\u00a0A new dynasty, headed by William of Orange followed the Glorious Revolution of 1688-91.<\/p>\n

After the 1707 Act of Union, a new Union Flag was designed.[1]<\/sup><\/a>Scottish Union Flag
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