JerryChicken wrote:
Who the hell designed a flag that could be hung upside down even by mistake ?
I mean, they aren't the most complicated of icons are they, a few stripes, a bit of colour, it can't be beyond anyones wit to design one that could be hung upside down, inside out, back to front, machine wash at 20 degress and spin dry ?
I quote the Japanese flag as an example.
Aye, well, there are loads of flags that can be hung upside down by mistake.
Horizontally striped ones, the stars and stripes, almost any with a device superimposed onto them (e.g. NZ, Oz, Spain).. etc etc.
But, putting that aside...
The red diagonal cross in the Union flag is the cross of St Patrick which once represented the whole of Ireland, much of which is now a separate republic and not part of the UK.
The flag of Northern Ireland is a St. George's cross with a red hand in the middle.
So ... there's no real reason to keep that red diagonal cross and, with that removed, the Union flag would then be symmetrical in both the horizontal and vertical planes.
Sorted.
Oh, and before anyone mentions it ... the reason there's no St David's cross (for Wales) in the Union flag is because Wales is a principality, not a kingdom. England and Wales are the same Kingdom.
I think it was one of the King Edwards (no, not a potato) who subsumed Wales into his English kingdom
And if any Welsh get uppity about it, just remind them that Henry VII (the fella with zero claim to the throne and who got lucky when Richard III was killed at Bosworth) was Welsh.
to an estimated £9 billion total cost. My O level maths tells me that is over budget by at least 3xs. 
