Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Keep smiling

This recent picture taken at the harbour in from one of the regular Gurnites. The Union Flag is upside down it seems. We checked this out and indeed it is:

"The flag does not have reflection symmetry, due to the slight pinwheeling of St Patrick's cross, which is technically called the counterchange of saltires. Thus, it has a right side and a wrong side up. To fly the flag the correct way up, the broad portion of the white cross of St Andrew should be above the red band of St Patrick (and the thin white portion below) in the upper hoist canton (the corner at the top nearest to the flag-pole), giving the Scottish symbol precedence over the Irish symbol. This is expressed by the phrases wide white top and broad side up. Traditionally, flying a flag upside down is understood as a distress signal. In the case of the Union Flag, the difference is so subtle as to be easily missed by many. Indeed, some people have displayed it upside down inadvertently." More here on Wikipedia

3 comments:

Freedom said...

With any luck we'll see the saltire removed from this flag very soon, and then there won't be the right way up problem!

salty dog said...

I think the intention was to show distress.

Anonymous said...

freedom, pipe down.