Scrutable

Here's the flag from my municipality:



Historically this was a small fishing village as you can probably tell. The traditional muleta fishing boat is pretty cool, apparently deriving from an Arabic design. Bunch of grapes because of all the vineyards.

In the 20th Century they should have updated this flag to include the enormous chemical industry, but they chose not to for some reason.


Portugal's one is pretty fiddly to draw with all those castles and things:

Cheshire has a nice flag, you can try to come and get our wheat but we do have a sword.

headshot wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 23, 2021 7:13 am

Vertigowooyay wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 22, 2021 9:01 pm

Bollocks to flags. They’re nasty little scraps of material that divide, not unite.

Yep. I’ve always said this. I particularly dislike regional flags in the UK. Another way to say “we’re better” that plays into division and exceptionalism.

I find the Black Country flag particularly egregious. Red, white and black and features chains that the area is famous for producing, but that also happen to have shackled slaves on the ships that imprisoned them. Any effort to educate the locals falls on deaf, or racist, ears. Even progressives here say it’s just a symbol of pride in the area’s history - they just can’t see how offensive it could be.

I think the Black Country flag is awesome. I'm surprised its offensive to anyone. The colours and images are symbolic to its industrial past, reading further than that is going out of your way to find fault...

Is the Sunderland AFC badge offensive because it has a ship on it? Ships were used to transport slaves... should we get offended about shipping? Bonkers.

They were laughing at the Sunderland one, prob'ly 'cos it's the same shade of blue all around the boat, suggesting it's sinking.
As for the black country one, the first thing chains suggested to me was shackling.
It is a brilliant, striking, design though.

Oh. Chains. Oh I get that now.
I saw three f.cking great bastard-wasps bearing down to attack.
Doesn't say 'come on in' to me says 'dangerous, keep away'

I quite like the Maryland flag, which is pleasingly geometric:


Quite why the Hawaiian flag still contains the Union Jack after all this time I don't know. It's not like we stopped them from getting annexed or anything...

tom p wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 24, 2021 3:48 pm

They were laughing at the Sunderland one, prob'ly 'cos it's the same shade of blue all around the boat, suggesting it's sinking.
As for the black country one, the first thing chains suggested to me was shackling.
It is a brilliant, striking, design though.

Yep.

On top of the football there was a big ship-building rivalry between the Tyne and the Wear.

The actual "Mackem" nickname is a derogatory term from the Tynesiders for the poor quality ships they apparently were turning out. The legend oes the Wearsiders would supposedly undercut the other shipyards but though they would "Make'em" they wouldn't be able to complete them to the necessary standard meaning the other shipyards, including Tyneside, would be compelled to "Take'em" and finish the job.

The boat on their badge looks like it is in distress and on the verge of being swamped; combine that with Sunderland's economy and football team being perpetually underwater and you had a perfect metaphor for the general malaise on Wearside. One they voluntarily picked themselves.

The one they've replaced it with is your standard uninspiring cod-medieval coat-of-arms which looks like it should belong to the sort of dubious degree-mill that'll will give your dead cat a degree in Homeopathy for £50.

Yes, I like the Maryland flag. The flag of Loudoun County, Virginia, on the other hand, may be the worst piece of heraldry I've ever seen:

bolo wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 24, 2021 5:11 pm

Yes, I like the Maryland flag. The flag of Loudoun County, Virginia, on the other hand, may be the worst piece of heraldry I've ever seen:

That just looks like the coding on Space Invaders got borked.

bolo wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 24, 2021 5:11 pm

Yes, I like the Maryland flag. The flag of Loudoun County, Virginia, on the other hand, may be the worst piece of heraldry I've ever seen:

There is (always) a TEDTalk about that.

Spoiler

Milwaukee's is physically painful to look at.

This is getting ridiculous.

From the government,

Currently, Union flags are only required to be flown on all UK Government buildings on designated days. The guidance will ask for the flag to be flown all year round, unless another flag is being flown – such as another national flag of the UK, or a county flag, or other flags to mark civic pride.

This is getting absurd
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... SApp_Other

Damn, ninjaed

Fishnut wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 24, 2021 6:29 pm

This is getting ridiculous.

From the government,

Currently, Union flags are only required to be flown on all UK Government buildings on designated days. The guidance will ask for the flag to be flown all year round, unless another flag is being flown – such as another national flag of the UK, or a county flag, or other flags to mark civic pride.

I told you Starmer would never win a flag waving contest against Johnson.

The slow descent towards Norsefire continues.

Vertigowooyay wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 24, 2021 7:11 pm

The slow descent towards Norsefire continues.

Just had to find out what Norsefire was.

I think we’re on a sad slide towards the US. I thought of all the things we’ve copied from the States over the years flag shagging wouldn’t be one of them. Makes me sad and angry.

I’ll be f.cking livid with Russell T Davies if it turns out the government watched Years And Years and thought it was a policy document.

Vertigowooyay wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 24, 2021 7:25 pm

I’ll be f.cking livid with Russell T Davies if it turns out the government watched Years And Years and thought it was a policy document.

Well the media took The Day today & Brass Eye to be instruction manuals...

Little waster wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 24, 2021 5:33 pm

There is (always) a TEDTalk about that.

Thanks! I like the podcast that guy produces, but I started listening more recently than the TED talk episode so it was new to me.

The Milwaukee and Pocatello flags are indeed terrible, but in a different way from the Loudoun County terribleness. Very hard to decide which is worst. Yuk.

Grumble wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 24, 2021 7:20 pm

Vertigowooyay wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 24, 2021 7:11 pm

The slow descent towards Norsefire continues.

Just had to find out what Norsefire was.

I think we’re on a sad slide towards the US. I thought of all the things we’ve copied from the States over the years flag shagging wouldn’t be one of them. Makes me sad and angry.

The increase is nationalism that all this does worry me, but we've got a long way to go before British schoolchildren are doing something similar to the Pledge of Allegience every morning.

Little waster wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 24, 2021 5:10 pm

The actual "Mackem" nickname is a derogatory term from the Tynesiders for the poor quality ships they apparently were turning out. The legend oes the Wearsiders would supposedly undercut the other shipyards but though they would "Make'em" they wouldn't be able to complete them to the necessary standard meaning the other shipyards, including Tyneside, would be compelled to "Take'em" and finish the job.

According to the Wiki, this explanation is "disputed" and "unlikely". Time you started an edit war Lw.

jdc wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 24, 2021 8:03 pm

Little waster wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 24, 2021 5:10 pm

The actual "Mackem" nickname is a derogatory term from the Tynesiders for the poor quality ships they apparently were turning out. The legend oes the Wearsiders would supposedly undercut the other shipyards but though they would "Make'em" they wouldn't be able to complete them to the necessary standard meaning the other shipyards, including Tyneside, would be compelled to "Take'em" and finish the job.

According to the Wiki, this explanation is "disputed" and "unlikely". Time you started an edit war Lw.

The claim that it is disputed is disputed.

The supporting link takes you to a 404 page.

Digging further will take you to an equivalent page where the argument is made citing County Durham historian William Fordyce in 1857 that a) Mak’em was probably a term of abuse b) on the basis that the ships “made” on Wearside were cheaper and poorer quality than those “built” elsewhere (distinction his).

In his description of Sunderland shipbuilding in the late 1700s and early 1800s Fordyce notes that Sunderland shipbuilders were “vigorous and enterprising in the prosecution of their business”, but “did not appear generally to have been possessed of much scientific knowledge respecting it.”

Much of Sunderland shipbuilding in that early period (1700s-c1830s) was seemingly about building ships where quality was very much regulated by price. In his explanation of this situation Fordyce uses italics to emphasise the words ‘build’ and ‘make’ to describe the differing qualities of workmanship available. It is clear that he was relating a particular opinion of Sunderland shipbuilding in those earlier times.

The site itself https://englandsnortheast.co.uk/about-the-site/ (last updated October 2020) is merely the hobby project of some amateur local journalist and historian which he has occasionally been updating since the days of dial-up with all the authority that goes with that.

This is most-telling by the repeated failure to state that Mackems are all troglodyte degenerates and the original inspiration for the Morlocks in H.G. Wells Time Machine.

monkey wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 24, 2021 7:45 pm

Grumble wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 24, 2021 7:20 pm

Vertigowooyay wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 24, 2021 7:11 pm

The slow descent towards Norsefire continues.

Just had to find out what Norsefire was.

I think we’re on a sad slide towards the US. I thought of all the things we’ve copied from the States over the years flag shagging wouldn’t be one of them. Makes me sad and angry.

The increase is nationalism that all this does worry me, but we've got a long way to go before British schoolchildren are doing something similar to the Pledge of Allegience every morning.

Someone needs to ask Johnson "If Britain is so great, why are you importing all your political ideas from America?"

Which one of you is responsible for this?

I never knew until now that London has its own flag



and the City of London has a different one.