Flagging interest

HAVING BEEN involved involved in various campaigns over the past 40 years to change our national flag I was aghast to read in Letter of the Week (February 9) that the Southern Cross is still being considered an option for a future design. This was totally inappropriate at its inception as all countries in the Southern Hemisphere can see this constellation – it is not unique to New Zealand.

I totally agree that we should get rid of the Union flag as it has no significance for a multiracial society where immigrants from Asia will soon outnumber the tangata whenua, even if they have not already done so.

I can only think that the alternative design you published was done so tongue-in-cheek as it is obviously a parody on the American, bearing in mind that one of the main objections to the current flag is its similarity to that of our Australian cousins. PRIME MINISTER John Key has made suggestions regarding our sovereignty flag and others have voiced their opinions. The latest is from Chris Trotter, political columnist, who writes that he thinks the Maori protest flag Tino Rangatiratanga has merit and that it should replace our national flag. Trotter, at some length, explains that black in a flag meant ‘‘no prisoners will be taken – or bloodthirsty intent’’ and that is what this red, white and black flag means. It was designed to provoke and is widely used in protest marches, gatherings et cetera to discuss matters of discontent. To think that this flag would become my national flag is insulting to say the least. Trotter often seems to have a very Left political bias in his commentary and this is no exception. There is only one design that truly encompasses all in its simplicity and that is Kyle Lockwood’s, that shows red, white and blue, the fern and the southern cross, all symbolic to New Zealand. The day a protest flag such as I have described becomes our sovereignty flag, is the day I will look elsewhere to live.