‘The Union Jack’, says Nick Groom in his masterly Story of the British Flag, ‘is an international flag, representing four nations and defining them in their relationships to each other.’ Bless him for trying to make it sound simple. In fact this most recognisable of (inter)national flags is so weighed down with political, religious and heraldic significance, so hung about with rules and regulations, and so widely misunderstood, misinterpreted and misappropriated, that it is surprising it can still summon the strength to flutter. 

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