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Former Tory special adviser says 105ft Union Jack plans are ‘height of distaste’

17 Jul 2021 2 minute read
Queen Elizabeth House in Edinburgh. Former special adviser Lauren McEvatt (LinkedIn]

Former Conservative special adviser Lauren McEvatt has branded plans for an eight-storey sized Union Jack in the Welsh capital as the ‘height of distaste’.

She was commentating on the proposed placing of a 105-foot flag to cover one side of a new UK government office in Cardiff city centre.

Speaking on ITV Wales’ The New Normal podcast, the former special adviser to the Welsh Secretary, said that while she supported some aspects of the UK Government’s ‘muscular unionism’, others she viewed as ‘a bit crackers’.

She said: “Do I think that 80-foot union flags in Cardiff are tasteful? No, of course, I don’t. I think they are the height of distaste.”

But she said that it was part of a wider policy of ‘badging’ infrastructure to highlight those areas that have benefited from UK Government investment.

‘Badging’

“It does not do bad things to talk about how the UK government can ‘badge’ some of its expenditures,” she added.

“I would look around Cardiff Bay and areas that have had regeneration money from Europe and there would be a really big European flag and a big Welsh Government dragon and then there would be sod all to say a quarter or even a third of the funding was coming from the UK Government.”

A petition opposing the flag plans, launched by YesCymru, is currently approaching 20,000 signatures.

It states: “We believe that as the capital city of Wales, visitors, commuters and residents should not be faced with a gigantic Union Jack flag on arrival at Cardiff Central railway station.”

The UK Government has defended the proposals saying that the use of the flag was ‘normal practice’ for a project of this size.

A planning application was passed by Cardiff Council who determined that the flag would be ‘appropriately proportioned’ in relation to the size of the building.

Lauren McEvatt served as a special adviser to the Secretary of State for Wales from 2012 to 2014.


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Meic Haines
Meic Haines
2 years ago

“But she said that it was part of a wider policy of ‘badging’ infrastructure to highlight those areas that have benefited from UK Government investment…”

– So how about painting gigantic EU flags on all the projects across Wales that have benefited from Regional Funds for the poorest areas in Europe?

Chris
Chris
2 years ago
Reply to  Meic Haines

And a massive Ddraig Goch on projects funded by us.

Kerry Davies
Kerry Davies
2 years ago
Reply to  Chris

Projects like tube station upgrades, the Olympic park, Docklands Light Railway and HS2?
All those “national” UK items of no benefit to Wales or most of the UK.

Chris
Chris
2 years ago
Reply to  Kerry Davies

Absolutely. Everything we have paid for. Olympics, DLR, HS2, next royal yacht, the Brexit plane, etc etc etc

Quornby
Quornby
2 years ago
Reply to  Chris

Like HST2 for instance. Welsh tax for zilch benefit.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
2 years ago

I thought the height of distaste was 5′ 7”

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
2 years ago
Reply to  Mab Meirion

I’m sure that cutting up a flag and displaying fragments of it is both distasteful and illegal. Think about that plonker’s tie in parliament and the careful folding of it in downing street. Kind of reminds a fellow of other angular motifs…

stoppem
stoppem
2 years ago
Reply to  Mab Meirion

Ah. Not just me, then.

Cai Wogan Jones
Cai Wogan Jones
2 years ago

“Sod all to say a quarter or even a third of the funding was coming from” Westminster! But hang on, where do the taxes paid by Welsh taxpayers go?

Surely, the Treasury in London should have a great big draig goch on it to acknowledge the funding contributions it receives from Wales.

Shan Morgain
2 years ago

But she has not understood that the Tories are busily dismantling the Union just as fast as they can.’Muscular union’ is calculated to annoy and alienate the native people and their many allies. Tories too clever for their own good.

Morry
Morry
2 years ago

How about badging projects that should have been funded but haven’t because Wales doesn’t get a fair share of funding under the UK Government’s Barnet Formula. We could have rundown estates, crumbling hospitals, schools that need to be rebuilt all branded with a Union Jack with an appropriate symbol to show that the UK has been draining the money out of the economy for years – and we could also have branding on the water supply system to show just how much money is taken from Wales by that system – how we pay more for the water than consumers… Read more »

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
2 years ago
Reply to  Morry

A graphic of Wales under the ‘ultra-violet’ light of ‘fiscal responsibility’, include where the EU money went as well. That would make a great 6th form holiday project! Teach the young to be savvy…

j humphrys
j humphrys
2 years ago
Reply to  Mab Meirion

Q…………hurried packing of suitcases, shirtails flapping, burning rubber………….

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