Petition launched to add Wales to the Union Jack
Stephen Price
A UK Government petition has launched calling for Wales to be included on the Union Jack.
The petition created by Dylan Sleeman in late January has 778 signatories as of 10 February and says: “I urge the Government and Parliament to recognise Wales’s integral role within the UK by updating the Union Jack to include Wales.
“I am calling for an official review and redesign process that engages experts, stakeholders, and the public to ensure Wales’s rightful place on our national flag.
It adds: “Currently, the flag incorporates elements of England, Scotland, and Ireland but overlooks the distinct identity and heritage of Wales, despite its status as one of the UK’s four nations.
“I think this change would foster greater inclusivity, accurately reflect the unity of all UK nations, and promote a sense of equal representation and national pride. I am a firm believer that this change would be a positive one for the people of the United Kingdom.
Controversy
Back in 2021, The Tory-led UK Government said that the Union flag represents “the Kingdom of England and Wales” and ordered it flown on all UK Government buildings, every day.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said that the Kingdom of England and Wales was one of the “constituent nations” of the UK, in a statement announcing the move.
“The Union flag is the National Flag of the United Kingdom, and it is so called because it embodies the emblems of the constituent nations united under one Sovereign – the Kingdoms of England and Wales, of Scotland, and of Northern Ireland,” the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said.
“The Union flag dates back to 1606 when James of Scotland became King James I of England and it was decided the union of the two countries should be represented symbolically by a new flag.”
The previous Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “The Union flag unites us as a nation and people rightly expect it to be flown above UK Government buildings.”
Also in 2021, calls were made for Scotland to be replaced with Wales on the Union Jack by a columnist for the Mail on Sunday.
Peter Hitchens believes the flag, which has nothing that represents Wales on it because it was considered to be part of England when it was created, will need to be redesigned, because there is “no way of stopping Scotland from leaving the Union”.
The present design, adopted in 1801, combines aspects of three national flags, which are the red cross of St George for the Kingdom of England, the white saltire of St Andrew for Scotland and the red saltire of St Patrick to represent Ireland.
“Historic wrong”
Mr Hitchens said Scotland leaving the union would create an opportunity to “right a historic wrong” done to Wales, provided it doesn’t opt for independence too.
He said: “Quite soon we will have to redesign the Union Jack. I can see no way of stopping Scotland from leaving the Union, so there goes St Andrew’s Cross.
“At least that will give us a chance to right a historic wrong and include some symbol of Wales on the national flag, provided they don’t declare independence too.
“Did you know that the Royal Arms of England used to feature a lion for England and a dragon for Wales? The dragon was dropped, in favour of a unicorn, when the English and Scottish crowns were united in 1603.
“I find this a useful way to think about it. We have in recent years seen major nations, including Yugoslavia, Germany and the USSR, change shape utterly. Perhaps we should get used to the idea we are about to undergo the same thing.”
View the petition from Dylan Sleeman calling for Wales to be added to the Union Jack here.
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No thanks, why would we want to be included on the butchers apron. Besides we won’t be around much longer I hope
Do not sign up for further entrapment. This is scandalous.
They haven’t wanted us represented on their precious flag for four hundred years so as far as I am concerned they can stick it where the sun does not shine. I am quite happy just to have our own Ddraig Goch. They don’t deserve us.
Two words NO THANKS
I like the current Union Flag because it represents Cymru’s usurpation by England. Every time I see it, especially when I see it being flown in our nation, it makes me double my efforts to strive for freedom and independence, and to offer hope for the future to our younger people.
Not a bright idea. First because the climate of the times in much of England is such that any change to the union flag would be greeted with such patriotic outrage that the proposal would get absolutely nowhere..
And secondly – at least as far as supporters of an independent Wales are concerned – because, in the unlikely event that the change were to be accepted, it would be a tacit acknowledgement of the permanence of Wales’s place within the union.
Too little too late.
We’ll have have one all to ourselves soon.
Absolutely not. That flag is an international embarrassment. The first things people think of when they see that vile rag are genocide and theft.
We need to distance ourselves from the awful butchers apron and anything to do with it.
Referring to this as a union, is like a psychopath locking a woman and her children in a basement, and calling it a family.
Ddim diolch. Stockholm Syndrome.
This would have been my comment too, but you beat me to it 🙂
The English flew this flag over tyranny around the world for centuries, compared to decades for the USSR and a few years for the Third Reich.
The more anyone becomes aware of this the more relieved we should be that we are not included on it. It is constantly being banished from it’s few remaining outposts around the world, so the same should happen with our ‘first and last colony’.
The only remaining use for it in Cymru is for me to practise my paintball skills with my red and yellow Owain Glyndwr pellets.
No thanks
Dim diolch, dim i neud hefo’r Butchers Apron.
I would rather it was kept off the flag.
No.
My eyes are bleeding.
The irony here is that both nationalists and unionists are in agreement. Nationalists don’t want Wales to be associated with anything British, whereas Unionists want to keep their iconic flag exactly as it is. Personally I support an independent Wales, however as long as Wales remains within the union we should have the right to demand the same representation and respect that the other UK nations have.
It’s only right. The Welsh wool and steam coal industry of the 19th Century were the powerhouse / engine room, of the British Empire. No Wales – NO Great Britain.
Best Steam Coal powered the Royal and Merchant Navies…
For the Welsh Wool trade visit Dol and take a two hundred year stroll up the Aran and down the other bank…a beautiful spot !
Not in a million years would i want to see our dragon defiled by being incorporated into the Butcher’s Apron. Never!
Feb 12th Darwin Day, evolution to devolution…
There is a little church on the Mawddach he used to attend I believe,
In my day it was more the young ladies of Liverpool nearby who used to interest us…
Why the hell would you want Wales to be represented on that flag? We should be working to leave the UK, not begging to be further entangled in it.
Dim diolch!