Union jack represents ‘Kingdom of England and Wales’ says UK Government amid plans to fly it all year

The UK Government has said that the Union flag represents “the Kingdom of England and Wales” as it has 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.”

‘Unites us’

Currently, Union flags are only required to be flown on all UK Government buildings on designated days. The new guidance, which will come into place in the summer, asks that the flag to be flown all year round.

The UK Government will also now allow dual flagging, allowing the Red Dragon and the Union Jack to be flown on the same pole.

However, they are not imposing the guidance on governments outside of England.

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.”

Conservative MP for Morecambe, David Morris, has also called for the flag to be flown from BBC buildings, which in Wales would include central square in Cardiff and upper Bangor.

He said that the corporation “could do with a reminder of how the Union Flag is cherished by the British people”.

Plaid Cymru MP Liz Saville-Roberts however said that orders to fly the flag “reflects terribly on this Tory Government’s desperate insecurity about the future of their Union”

“They know change is coming,” she said.