Anger at MoD plan to unfurl £2.5m of new flags

[Union Jack]

Or so says the Scotsman newspaper today....

Anger at MoD plan to unfurl £2.5m of new flags - Scotsman.com News (http://tinyurl.com/5acts8)

"Tanked up: the Ministry of Defence says the services fly a lot of flags which eventually get worn out and it is bad for morale of soldiers if they are old and tatty."

Which? The soldiers or the flags? Time to get rid of all those regimental colours?

Justifying the spending, an MoD insider said: "There's more to the military than bullets and bombs, you know. If you took the attitude of nothing but the essentials, then where would the parades and the nice posh uniforms be? You need these things too."

Where indeed, as I said to our own dear Queen only last week ......

" ..... includes new Union Flags, the Navy's Red Ensign and the Army and RAF flags."

No red ensigns in the Royal Navy since 1864!

Jack

PS Please be gentle ......

[ORAC]

Hang 'em from the yardarm, that's what I say.... :}

[MAINJAFAD]

No such thing as a RAF Flag either :=:=:=

[ORAC]

Standards aren't what they used to be in the press..... :}

[Pontius Navigator]

I get through a fair number of flags and ensigns in a year. Maybe they should spend a few £Ms designing ones that done fray. My Chinese printed polyester as still pristine.

The traditional military ones are in a coarse linen or cotton and probably cost 10 times as much.

[Whenurhappy]

An absolute non-story - and I get a wiff of Scottish Nationalism in the article and postings - especially as the contract was awarded to an English firm.

As sad as the various losses described therein are, they are simply used to spice up a weak story; indeed they are non-sequitar and sloppy journalism. This article is akin with the article in the Torygraph today advising that the MOD has decided that no 'combat' medals will be awarded for service in Afghanistan (again, complete rubbish).

There is no question that the £2.5M spent on flags/ensigns/dusters is at the expense of ECBA/Osprey/serving and maintenance of platforms/protected mobility &c... Why not, then, reduce spending on housing, food, pay to pay for equipment provision for theatre? The truth is that equipment purchased for theatre use under UORs is funded from central government (CPF) and not from the extant MOD budget.

[diginagain]

If only they'd pay a couple of pence to add a strip of mesh to the end of the flag, it'd stop the fraying and save MoD a couple of million.

[Beatriz Fontana]

£34.95 for a Union Flag... from where? Or is the MoD buying in bulk for a reduced price?

They are robust things, those flags, but when you're 1,500ft at the top of the Rock of Gibraltar exposed to the elements, you're going to get a bit tatty.

Sounds to me like the story is a bit of a cheap dig. The MoD always replaces tatty flags, why is it an issue all of a sudden?

(And shock, horror, the flags are being made by an ENGLISH company!! You see, the Scotsman paper could have said British, but no... what would they prefer, made in China?)

[Jimlad1]

Of course if MOD wasn't replacing them then we'd have a story about how MOD standards were dropping etc...

[GreenKnight121]

Precisely.

All this is is another "hate the military" pile of steaming male-cow-feces.

[cynicalint]

It's only because they do not including the azure background and circle of gold stars of our current government.......

[exscribbler]

This is a non-story pushed out by some under-brained journo; take no notice.

Flags do get tatty if they're used but what really p:mad:s me off is when chavs have a St George's flag with ENGLAND written across it as if they have to be reminded. Thick b:mad:s.

Once upon a time our local Tesco had some flagpoles from which they would fly a house flag (a blue thing with TESCO written on it) and a Union Flag. I remember seeing a young manager lowering them one evening and he allowed the Union Flag to trail on the ground. He was not impressed when I took him to task for lack of respect for his national symbol. I didn't expect a side party to pipe the still and everyone on the upper deck to face aft and salute but he could have looked after it better, I thought. The problem was solved when the flagpoles were removed so there could be more parking for customers with children...

#2 son lives in Denmark where people are proud to fly their national flag (the Dannebrog) from flagpoles in their gardens. People won't do that sort of thing here because they'd be thought of as members of the BNP. How sad.

Rant over.

[thunderbird7]

Is this just another thread about the standard of military standards?

[Warmtoast]

exscribbler

Once upon a time our local Tesco had some flagpoles from which they would fly a house flag (a blue thing with TESCO written on it) and a Union Flag

Which reminds me of one of Banksy's recent scribblings in the Essex Road, N London as seen here:

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/TescoFlag1_800x600.jpg

[exscribbler]

Warmtoast - spot on! :ok: BTW - is the flag the right way up?

[GOLF_BRAVO_ZULU]

It's interesting that the picture the Scotsman has used to demonstrate the military use of flags is;

http://editorial.jpress.co.uk/web/Upload/TS//TH1_286200817tanksamillion.jpg

Two Jockanese flags (can't make their mind up over which one to fly?) flown from a Jock Unit's AFV, no doubt clearly denoting it as a British vehicle (as I'm sure every American airframe jockey knows). OK, fair enough, good national pride makes for a good fighting spirit and long may it continue.

Flags represent Units and those who own them. It's hard to take pride (or engender respect for) a Unit, Service or Country if the flag, standard, ensign, jack or pennant looks like a bag of s**t. That doesn't just mean the state of repair but also the quality of the manufacture and material (bunting, currently a woven wool and nylon mix). You get what you pay for.

As many of you have observed, it's a lets kick the MoD non story

[Green Flash]

clearly denoting it as a British vehicle (as I'm sure every American airframe jockey knows)

And Terry flies which flag when he's out and about? Thought dayglo panels were the standard marking (and electronic stuff - beacons/IFF/IR strobes etc etc). Agree about a tatty flag though.