When Ian Lucas, a Welsh Labour MP, suggested the Union flag be redrawn to incorporate the Welsh dragon, he could not have imagined that this would be the "popular" choice.
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Even at the height of Cool Britannia surely Tony Blair would have baulked at adopting this sunglasses-wearing, flame-haired cartoon dragon as our national emblem.
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And to make matters worse it was designed not by a patriotic Briton, but a Norwegian.
But the internet has spoken. After Mr Lucas issued his appeal for new flag, the Telegraph was deluged with designs sent in by readers.
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Some were serious, some scurrilous, some frankly ridiculous. Many came from Japan, where our competition sparked a national craze after it was picked up by a popular online forum.
We selected 20 of the best submissions and after a week-long online poll the sunglasses-dragon has emerged as the overwhelming favourite, with 55 per cent of the vote.
Even when we factor in questionable voting patterns (the winning design came from the back of the field with a surge of votes in the last few days) and the cynical wit of online readers, the choice seems a bizarre one.
The Norwegian designer, who wishes to remain anonymous, said he intended the flag to represent the union of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in a modern, cool light.
The dragon itself was inspired by a Japanese anime television series.
"It represents shouting "UNION!" and joining together; kicking reason to the curb and doing the impossible; fighting the power, and piercing the heavens," he said
And what impact does he think the new flag would have on foreigners like himself?
"That the UK is awesome. I just hope they don't think it's a pirate flag.
"Actually, if this design is rejected as a common flag perhaps the Crown might file it for future use as a privateer ensign on the high seas or in outer space."
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The influence of Japanese voters was also apparent in the runner-up design (above), which features a Manga cartoon character riding the traditional Welsh dragon. It tallied seven per cent of the votes.
The size of the dragon in relation to the tiny Union Jack may also have caught the eye of Welsh readers, who would have been less impressed with the third-place design (below), which earned six per cent of votes.
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A flag showing St George slaying a Welsh dragon seems to jar with Mr Lucas's stated intention of illustrating Wales's "true place in the Union".
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So has this whole exercise just been a bit of fun, or is there momentum behind the idea of a new Union flag?
Nine per cent of people in the online poll voted to keep the existing design, and most Telegraph readers who left comments were hostile to any suggestion of change.
Donald J Pedley summed up the mood of many readers who believe the Union Jack is both aesthetically pleasing and an effective national emblem.
"What an absurd idea. Has Great Britain nothing else to waste it's time on? The current flag is recognised and still respected around the world. It is still incorporated in flags of some Commonwealth countries."
On the plus side, if this were adopted, the next time the SAS pulled a British national out of a forced marriage in some backwards hellhole and one of the locals complained, they could reply, "Who the hell do you think we are?"
And in other news, recently leaked internal memos show that the British military is considering the practicalities of weaponizing drills and galaxies.
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Academia Nut wrote:On the plus side, if this were adopted, the next time the SAS pulled a British national out of a forced marriage in some backwards hellhole and one of the locals complained, they could reply, "Who the hell do you think we are?"
Flagg wrote:My favorite is the one with the King spearing the Dragon.
He's St George, not a King, ya silly bugger.
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Flagg wrote:My favorite is the one with the King spearing the Dragon.
He's St George, not a King, ya silly bugger.
Yeah, I saw that after I posted it ('King George' got stuck in my head for some reason). No edit button, and it wasn;t a big enough deal to me to do a follow up correction.
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If we ran this up the flag poll, would you salute it?
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Those gun nuts do not understand the meaning of "overkill," and will simply use weapon after weapon of mass destruction (WMD) until the monster is dead, or until they run out of weapons.
They have more WMD than there are monsters for us to fight. (More insanity here.)
Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière from the anime Zero no Tsukaima (sometimes humorously referred to as Zero no Tsundere because of the main character's violent/cuddly personality shifts). A rather bizarre anime featuring a poor bastard who gets transported from our world to a Harry Potter rip-off one to serve as the familiar of a (seemingly) inept witch whose primary claim to fame is blowing things up when she tries to cast spells. Good at times, exceedingly retarded at others.
Features a Mitsubishi Zero blowing dragons out of the sky at one point, so it kind of fits, and then Louise manages to set off a magical nuke to take out an invading England knock-off nation's aerial fleet.
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Apparently the two most popular designs were created by and voted for by 2channers.
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Technically Wales can't get added to the UK flag for a fairly obvious reason.....
I do think The Dragon should be in there somewhere, probably in dead ecntre, looking out at you. And whoever thinks Animé is popular over here should be shot at point blank range with a Haggis cannon.
I'm just wait for the X to get taken off
Please note: The SNP is in power. The SNP currently are trying to figure out to afford all of their manifesto pledges and are currently about as likely to get Scotland out of the Union as I am of winning the hundred metres gold in Beijing.
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Dartzap wrote:Technically Wales can't get added to the UK flag for a fairly obvious reason.....
I do think The Dragon should be in there somewhere, probably in dead ecntre, looking out at you. And whoever thinks Animé is popular over here should be shot at point blank range with a Haggis cannon.
I'm just wait for the X to get taken off
Please note: The SNP is in power. The SNP currently are trying to figure out to afford all of their manifesto pledges and are currently about as likely to get Scotland out of the Union as I am of winning the hundred metres gold in Beijing.
So take your flame bait and shove it where the sun shineth not
I think he meant taking the red Irish saltire out, not the white Scottish one. If they took the white one out, they'd have to take the blue background out too, and that would just be silly.
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When I saw the thread title, I thought it was about this. Linka
His dragon-slaying heroics have kept his legend alive through the centuries.
But the Church of England is considering rejecting England's patron saint St George on the grounds that his image is too warlike and may offend Muslims.
Clergy have started a campaign to replace George with St Alban, a Christian martyr in Roman Britain.
The scheme, to be considered by the Church's parliament, the General Synod, has met a cautious but sympathetic response from senior bishops.
But it clashes with the increasing popularity of the saint and his flag in England. The World Cup brought out millions of St George crosses as the symbol became increasingly mainstream and less frequently dismissed as a badge favoured only by far-Right political activists.
If St Alban replaced St George, the red cross on a white background would have to be replaced as England's flag by Alban's symbol, a diagonal yellow cross on a blue background that bears a strong similarity to St Andrew's cross, the flag of Scotland.
The proposal has been put forward by the Rev Philip Chester, vicar of St Matthew's, Westminster, who has called the use of St George as patron saint 'dotty'.
His call for a change is based on the lack of firm historical evidence that George - said to be a Roman general from the 4th century AD who was put to death by Emperor Diocletian for professing Christianity - ever existed.
He said: 'We are sure St Alban is a real figure. What's more, he lived in this country.'
Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams indicated support for an upgrade for Alban, although he is said to be cautious about relegation for George.
He told the Sunday Times: 'I think St Alban is irreplaceable in the history of English Christianity. Perhaps we ought to raise his profile because it's the beginning of the church in this country with martyrdom, wisdom and courage.'
The image of St George was used to foster patriotism in 1940, when King George VI inaugurated the George Cross for civilian acts of the greatest bravery. The medal bears a depiction of the saint slaying the dragon.
However, George has become unfashionable among politicians and bureaucrats. His saint's day, April 23, has no official celebration in England, and councils have banned the St George flag from their buildings and vehicles during the World Cup.
The saint became an English hero during the crusades against the Muslim armies that captured Jerusalem in the 11th century.
An apparition of George is said to have appeared to the crusader army at the Battle of Antioch in 1098.
His dragon-slaying legend is thought to have begun as an allegory of Diocletian's persecution of Christians.
Alban was martyred in 304 AD on the site of St Albans abbey in the Hertfordshire city that now bears his name.
A Roman army officer, he was said to have converted after sheltering a Christian.
A yellow diagonal cross on the Union Jack just wouldn't look right.
And as far as offending muslims go, is there *anything* that doesn't offend them anymore?
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It's from the Daily Mail. I usually check to see if the date is accurate.
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CaptainChewbacca wrote:A Chinese Dragon on the british flag?
Maybe for Hong Kong.
It's not a Chinese dragon. A Chinese dragon has four toes or, for items used by the Emperor and his family ONLY, five toes. (A dragon with three toes is referred to as a "python.")
Those gun nuts do not understand the meaning of "overkill," and will simply use weapon after weapon of mass destruction (WMD) until the monster is dead, or until they run out of weapons.
They have more WMD than there are monsters for us to fight. (More insanity here.)
Robert Treder wrote:I think he meant taking the red Irish saltire out, not the white Scottish one. If they took the white one out, they'd have to take the blue background out too, and that would just be silly.
Obviously, he means removing the red and white X and have Norway annex Great Britain.
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They should replace the Union Jack for a MORTAL KOMBAT logo. Fuck this half measures shit.
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