For all us Brits

[mitchymo]

Be honest. How many of you (like me) never realised that the UK flag is not symmetrical?

[Essex Boy]

When I was at primary school we were rigorously drilled in Union Jack drawing. The teacher gave us very precise instructions and explained the importance of the lopsided placement of the white diagonals, with a stern warning about flying it upside-down by mistake.
To this day it makes steam come out of my ears when I see young children lining the streets with crude home-made red white and blue 'starbursts', probably made at school, that ignore the niceties of the design. Honestly, don't they teach them anything at school these days?

[mitchymo]

^ Its just so subtle when you don't take a good look. I was never taught how to draw the flag when i was at school 20+ yrs ago.

[Corny]

As a kid I had a small collection of flags. Noted this in the union jack and even a few others like that.

[pat grimshaw]

I was told about the off-centre St Patricks cross in school.

I've forgotten if there's an official reason but it seems somehow appropriate for the perverse, cack-handed Irish people

[lg7979]

I've known for a while, but just because I was taught about pretty much the same stuff as Essex Boy while I was in the scouts. I wouldn't have known otherwise though, or learnt it later, they don't teach that in schools now

[mitchymo]

I've forgotten if there's an official reason

I learnt that too. It is so the red diagonals of st patrick (ireland) do not dominate the white diagonals of st andrew (scotland). This is because Scotland is the greater of the two, and it didn't seem right for the irish addition to the flag take dominance over the scottish addition. I don't know why the scots should have complained, the poor welsh have no addition at all. Perhaps we ought to place a green border around the flag.

[star-warrior]

Knew this early on as I tried to draw it for the Queen's Silver Jublilee in 1977.

[talbot57]

Yes, and there is a correct way of flying it. In the example the flagpole would be on the left.

[gsdx]

I did. The Union Jack was incorporated into Canada's old flag, The Ensign.:



The Ensign. It is also incorporated into 4 provincial flags, Including Ontario's flag:

[pat grimshaw]

^ I get the impression that Canada abandoned its Union Jack flag without much drama. Australia has been dithering over the issue for about 20 years.
http://www.ausflag.com.au/red_ensign.asp

[HunterM]

Interesting fact. I'm an American. I never knew that. Yeah...it's very subtle.

[gsdx]

^ I get the impression that Canada abandoned its Union Jack flag without much drama.

Not much drama, but a lot of debate. The Union Jack had been part of our flag since the late 1800s. Former prime minister Lester B. Pearson (the guy who 'invented' the UN Peace Keeping Forces) wanted Canada to have its own distinctive flag before Canada's Centennial in 1967. There were dozens of proposals (some of which are cringe-worthy), but, ultimately, it came down to these 3:

Pearson's choice:


Diefenbaker's choice:


The winner:

[Kabluey]

Yep, had noticed it, it's up the top corner of our flag down here in little Britain.

[csb999]

perhaps a joke . Canada being fortunately rather more peaceable and peaceful than many , the flag has a red maple leaf , which falls off , not a green maple leaf which has to be pulled off .

[gsdx]

perhaps a joke .

It's not a joke. The official colours for Canada are red and white.

[EasyRory]

Off topic: I thought Brits (as in the thread title) didn't like being called 'Brits' - the way San Franciscans get all huffy over "Frisco'. I was rapped on the knuckles in another thread for using 'Brits'. No?

[cgymike]

I did. The Union Jack was incorporated into Canada's old flag, The Ensign.:



The Ensign. It is also incorporated into 4 provincial flags, Including Ontario's flag:

Alberta is Union Crap free

[Nishin]

^^ wow some of these are really unpractical to remember and draw

[Benvolio]

I learnt that too. It is so the red diagonals of st patrick (ireland) do not dominate the white diagonals of st andrew (scotland). This is because Scotland is the greater of the two, and it didn't seem right for the irish addition to the flag take dominance over the scottish addition. I don't know why the scots should have complained, the poor welsh have no addition at all. Perhaps we ought to place a green border around the flag.

I thought the up-right white cross is the Welsh Cross of St David, Red cross Englands cross of St George, White x the Scots Cross of St Andrew, the red x the Irish cross of St Patrick ( from the Fitzgerald coat of arms).

[Swellegant]

I'm not a Brit and have never given much thought to the flags of other countries, certainly not enough to notice that the red diagonals were off-center; but this is an interesting topic which led me to do some research on you-all's flag...which was created in 1606 under James I, who being King of Scotland before becoming King of England created the first United Kingdom, and the flag was the St. George's cross on top of the St. Andrew's cross. The St. Patrick's cross was added later, in 1801. I imagine the omission of any Welsh flag was mostly aesthetic, as the green would have clashed terribly with the red and blue, and the dragon is rather more expensive to sew on than straight lines; one could of course just throw on the St. David's cross, but yellow and black wouldn't be much of an improvement over green and white.

Also, I learned a new word, vexillology (the study of flags).

[Beachguyj]

Be honest. How many of you (like me) never realised that the UK flag is not symmetrical?

Do you mean the placement of the red stripes that point to each corner?

I've never noticed your flag before,

but I see symmetry in the fact that if rotated the strip remains in the same position. The stripe is just not centered within the white.

[talbot57]

Wales had no explicit recognition because it was part of the Kingdom of England.

[mitchymo]

Off topic: I thought Brits (as in the thread title) didn't like being called 'Brits' - the way San Franciscans get all huffy over "Frisco'. I was rapped on the knuckles in another thread for using 'Brits'. No?

Who rapped you over the knuckles for that lol. Brits are what we call ourselves. Hardly gonna be an issue for anyone else to call us the same.

I thought the up-right white cross is the Welsh Cross of St David, Red cross Englands cross of St George, White x the Scots Cross of St Andrew, the red x the Irish cross of St Patrick ( from the Fitzgerald coat of arms).

The up-right white cross is just the background of the st george's flag.

Do you mean the placement of the red stripes that point to each corner?

I've never noticed your flag before,

but I see symmetry in the fact that if rotated the strip remains in the same position. The stripe is just not centered within the white.

Yes. The rotational symmetry of the red diagonal, is what makes it so subtle. It is the best way to maintain some sort of proportionality to the st patricks flag whilst not being allowed to centre the stripes.

[gsdx]

Who rapped you over the knuckles for that lol. Brits are what we call ourselves. Hardly gonna be an issue for anyone else to call us the same.

Ditto for us Canucks (except when someone pronounces it 'can-NOOKS', and then we politely correct them and tell the easily-offended that it rhymes with 'ducks'. We tell the not-so-easily offended that it rhymes with 'pucks'.)

[figjam]

When I was at primary school we were rigorously drilled in Union Jack drawing. The teacher gave us very precise instructions and explained the importance of the lopsided placement of the white diagonals, with a stern warning about flying it upside-down by mistake.
To this day it makes steam come out of my ears when I see young children lining the streets with crude home-made red white and blue 'starbursts', probably made at school, that ignore the niceties of the design. Honestly, don't they teach them anything at school these days?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom

"The only reason that the UK flag is not symmetrical is because of the relative positions of the saltires of St Patrick and St. Andrew. The red saltire of St. Patrick is offset such that it doesn't relegate the white saltire of St. Andrew to a mere border for it. St. Andrew's saltire has the higher position at the hoist side, with St. Patrick's saltire in the higher position on the opposite side."

[mitchymo]

Ditto for us Canucks (except when someone pronounces it 'can-NOOKS', and then we politely correct them and tell the easily-offended that it rhymes with 'ducks'. We tell the not-so-easily offended that it rhymes with 'pucks'.)

I've always called you canadians. I don't get where the 'ucks' bit comes from lol

[gsdx]

I don't get where the 'ucks' bit comes from lol

I wish I could tell you, but nobody really knows. The word has been around for almost 200 years, though - 32 years before Confederation in 1867.