They just have so many uses!

 Source

 DIXIE, Wash. —

A lost 12-year-old girl found a vacant cabin in the Blue Mountains and wrapped herself in the flag to stay warm until she was found.

Trisha Patterson of Camas was found Wednesday morning by ground searchers about 10 miles east of Walla Walla.

Blue Mountain Television reports she was checked by medics at a fire station at Dixie and reunited with her mother.

Trisha had became separated from her family during a hike Tuesday evening near her grandfather’s cabin.

Sheriff’s deputies searched overnight with help from volunteers on foot, ATVs, motorcycles and a helicopter.

So what exactly do the council have against the national flag?  The mind boggles.

From the Telegraph

Royal British Legion members in Calne, Wilts, have campaigned for months for the right to hoist the flag over the town hall, amid opposition from councillors.

They believed they had won the battle when the council agreed to consider handing over control of the flag to the Legion.

However, the Legion says the council has now produced a 50-point health and safety document which would prevent anyone with specified physical ailments from accessing the town hall roof.

The criteria rules out most members of the local Legion branch, as they are aged over 60. Younger members are employed and the Legion said they would not have the time to do maintenance and raise the flag.

John Ireland, a local councillor, who is also the Legion branch chairman, said: “We have fought bravely and many of us risked our lives in a world war so we are perfectly capable of going up a ladder a few feet to put a flag up on a roof.

“It is absolutely ridiculous to be talking about health and safety. All the council is trying to do is find excuses to stop us flying the flag.”

Accusing the council of “sneaky” behaviour, he added: “What they gave in one hand, they took away in the other, knowing full well that none of us are fit enough to match those rules.”

Margaret Russell, the Legion branch treasurer, said: “The whole point is that we want to show the people of the town and the brave families of those who died, and troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, that we are proud of them.

“The only thing which represents them is the flag and the town hall is the best place to put that.

“The council has tried to prevent us from doing this and the health and safety rules are just the latest hurdle they have put in our way.”

Last November, the 19-member council rejected Mr Ireland’s proposal to fly the flag permanently over the town hall.

Nude model faces jail over flag

1 hour ago

A model faces up to four years in jail in Peru for being photographed sitting naked on the nation’s flag, fashioned into a saddle and placed on a horse.

Patriots demanded that Leysi Suarez be punished. She insists she has not committed a crime.

“I love Peru and show it with my body and soul,” she said.

 

From the press association

This looks just awful, the Union jack is a pretty internationally recognised symbol, lets hope this is just some nonsense which will just fade away.

http://www.yourvale.co.uk/news/where-i-live/2008/07/16/welsh-influenced-union-flag-launched-at-llangollen-105722-21352602

 

A CONTROVERSIAL campaign to redesign the Union Flag with Welsh elements has been launched by an English flag fanatic at the International Eisteddfod in Llangollen last week.

Campaigner John Yates, from Milton Keynes, has amended the nation’s favoured flag to include the colours of the traditional Welsh flag, and is hoping the Welsh people will get behind his bold new design.

“It just came like a bolt out of the blue to me. With two crosses and two saltires in the four flags of the UK countries, it was an entirely natural design of flag,” said John, 60.

Mr Yates says the Eisteddfod, held last week at Llangollen’s Royal International Pavilion, was a natural place to garner support for his proposals, because it was exactly two years ago at the 2006 Eisteddfod when he came up with the idea for his creation.

“I had struggled with the idea of a new Union Flag for over 30 years but it was at the Eisteddfod that I saw someone selling the St David’s flags. It was like an answer to a maiden’s prayer.”

The new design mixes the three existing flags from the United Kingdom - England’s cross of St George, Ireland’s saltire of St Patrick and Scotland’s blue and white colours - with the black and yellow cross of St David, used by many as an unofficial flag for the Welsh nation.

Wales’ official flag, The Red Dragon, was not included in Yates’ design because it did not match the aesthetic embraced by the Union Flag.

Clwyd South MP, whose constituency includes Llangollen, said he welcomed the proposals.

“I fully support better representation of Wales on the Union Flag. I have signed a parliamentary petition supporting such a change along with several of my Welsh colleagues. The flag should mean something to everyone in the Union and instil pride in Great Britain as a whole.”

Yates says that along with parliamentary support, he has also received favourable comments from the Queen regarding the new design.

For more information and to support John’s campaign, contact 01908 606362.

Who knows, you might win a holiday there!

 From the associated press

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq has announced a competition to design a new national flag and is calling on Iraqis and artists and designers inside and outside of the country to take part.

Lawmaker Mufeed al-Jazairi announced the competition on Tuesday. He says interested people have until the end of September to submit their designs.

Al-Jazairi says a committee will select three designs to be presented to the parliament, which will vote on a new flag by the end of this year.

Earlier this year, Iraq’s parliament voted to strip the three green stars of Saddam Hussein’s toppled Baath party from the country’s flag. But parliament kept the script of “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is Great” in green.

The new forum can be found here: flagwire.net

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/449533

They are in a bit of a flap over in Canada over rigid stands for their national flags on Canada day.

 

It is a good way of protecting flags and prolonging their life (they tend to fray at the end) but to the purist eye I guess they are not as visual.

You can buy Candaian maple leafs here by the way!

From the Glasgow Herald

REGIMENTAL standards thought to have been found after the Battle of Waterloo by Sir Walter Scott have been dismissed as “tourist tat”.

The four flags - described as three French and one Scottish - were heralded as an important discovery when they were found recently in a cupboard at Abbotsford House, the author’s home near Melrose, Roxburghshire.

They were thought to be price less souvenirs taken from Waterloo by Scott in the days immediately after the 1815 battle in what is now Belgium.

But even before they take centre stage in a £10million campaign to boost falling visitor numbers at Abbotsford, critics have pointed out that one standard apparently from a French regiment has English writing on it.

Another appears to be Russian - even though the Russians were not involved at Waterloo.

Amateur historian Bob Burnett, from Edinburgh, said: “The standard purporting to be that of the French 105th regiment of the line says just that, 105th.

“Unless Napoleon was in the habit of having his military standards made up in Britain in the English language, the suffix to the numerals would have been e or eme.

“I regret that Sir Walter was, like many of us, sold the tourist tat of the day.” Another flag described as being English is now thought be Imperial Russian.

National Army Museum spokesman Julian Farrance said: “We have the eagle headpiece and the flagpole taken from the 105th regiment here in the museum in London.

“It is almost certainly impossible that the flag and the flagpole would have been separated at the time - they would have been together.

“The idea that the flag would have been left behind for Walter Scott to just pick up from the battlefield is unfathomable.

“Frenchmen would have, and did, give their lives to defend it and protect it.”

Abbotsford Trust executive manager Jacquie Wright last week described the standards as an “amazing discovery”.

Yesterday, she said: “We just don’t know what they are. We are sending photos to various people to have them authenticated but they are definitely from the right period.”

and all announced on the anniversary of the battle!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/7458741.stm

 

Flags from the battlefield at Waterloo have been found in a cupboard at the home of Sir Walter Scott.

The four banners, which date from 1815, were discovered by trustees sorting through Abbotsford, Scott’s home near Melrose in Roxburghshire.

The novelist brought them from the scene of the battle, which he visited after hearing of Napoleon’s defeat.

The Abbotsford Trust, which runs the house, hopes the standards can be restored and put on public display.

Very fragile

Jacquie Wright, executive manager of the trust, said: “We were very excited to find the banners. They are very rare.

“As you can imagine, they have been lying in a cupboard since 1815 rolled up in bits of paper so the material is very fragile.

“He collected other things, which were on show because he put them on show but these things were actually put away in the cupboard.

“We would absolutely love to have them on display one day.”

She added: “It may be that one of the family knew that the banners were there but we had no idea of their existence until just recently when we unravelled them.”

Scott, author of classics such as Waverley and Ivanhoe, was interested in military history and collected many relics.

Rob Roy’s gun and Montrose’s sword are among the items on display at Abbotsford.

Scott was allowed on to the battlefield at Waterloo and took three French and one English banner, some of which have bullet holes through them.

Inspired by the battle, he wrote a poem The Field Of Waterloo.

Abbotsford is full of souvenirs Scott collected throughout his life and was first opened to the public in 1833, five months after his death.

It is run by the Abbotsford Trust, which must raise around £10m to fully restore the house.

The Battle of Waterloo took place in Belgium on 18 June 1815 and saw a French army of 124,000 men led by Napoleon fight the armies of six nations.

The 97,000-strong British-Dutch army was led by the Duke of Wellington and another 117,000 men were led by Field-Marshal Blucher, a Prussian.

After eight hours, the battle ended in defeat for the French.