EU flag orders take a knock

DEADLINE: UNION JACKS FLY HIGH AHEAD OF MARCH 29

Demand for EU standard drops by 90% since 2016.

Knaresborough

At a flag-making workshop in northern England, orders for Union Jacks are flying off the production line while the EU’s blue-and-yellow standard is proving less and less popular.

Flying Colours, which makes flags for Britain’s royal palaces, has seen EU flag orders drop by 90% since the country voted to leave the bloc in 2016.

“We’ve certainly seen a fall,” Andy Ormrod, director of the factory in North Knaresborough in Yorkshire, told

“Times have changed, our attitudes have changed, the demand isn’t there,” he said.

Britain’s union flag is proving more popular than ever, with orders up roughly 75%.

“People are getting a little bit more passionate, I personally think, in being British,” said Ormrod, who voted for Brexit because he is “sick and tired” of Brussels.

The union flag is currently only flown from government buildings on 21 days each year, including royal birthdays and anniversaries and saints’ days.

Graham Bartram, chief vexillologist at the Flag Institute, a research centre in London, puts the trend down to various factors, including Britons wanting to downplay displays of patriotism and the country’s imperial past.

Prior to 2007, it was technically illegal to fly the EU and other national flags in Britain without planning permission, because they were considered advertising.

Following a law change, the bloc’s flag began flying outside the Scottish parliament and the Welsh and London assemblies.

A petition lodged with parliament in the aftermath of the 2016 referendum called for all EU “flags, emblems and logos” to be removed immediately from public buildings in Britain.

The government rejected the calls, noting that “while the UK is a member of the EU it is in order for EU flags and symbols to be used in government buildings”. All that could change. A spokesperson for the mayor of London said the emblem would be taken down from outside City Hall.

However, spokespeople for the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament, said no decisions have been taken.

The European flag was first created by the Council of Europe and only later adopted by the EU.

Bartram said its use by the Council, which Britain will remain a member of, could provide cover for those who want to keep flying it after March 29.

Could it become a symbol of Brexit resistance? “Possibly,” he added. –

People are getting a little bit more passionate.