Flag

[poliphilo]

How do you decently dispose of an old flag- a national flag, I mean?  I found one in the attic that had been well nibbled by mice and I could have put it in the dustbin- but that seemed disrespectful- so I opted for the bonfire- where it smouldered and stank. 

Comments

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

You do have a flag code which is pretty much the same as ours. And while our CIVILIAN obsession with symbols of our country is nearly unique in "free countries", I would be shocked if your military is significantly different than ours in those attitudes.

Even though Baden-Powell formed your Scouting as a vaguely-paramilitary organization (uniforms, ranks, oaths, and so forth), the BSA maintains a much more vaguely-paramilitary feel. And our police departments were historically formed on a more paramilitary model (and we're not unique in that -- the Irish Garda and the Italian Carabinieri are two other European examples), while most Commonwealth countries have Peelian-model police.

So, yes, I definitely see your point, and Googling, I find hundreds of BSA flag ceremonies, and no British ones.

[glitzfrau.livejournal.com]

Erm, I am not a police history expert, but the Gardaí were founded as an unarmed force in the 1920s, and although there are of course firearms squads just as there are in UK police forces, I find it hard to match being unarmed with the adjective 'paramilitary'.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Okay; I presume I'm thinking of some other country that has a police force of a similar name. Thank you for the correction.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

In my youth I was a Girl Guide and my father and brother were heavily involved in scouting in the 1960s, so I suspected that if I hadn't ever heard of a Scout flag ceremony, they probably didn't exist. You're absolutely right that our military would have similar views on flags to the US military, but our police, not so much.