It's just the way it is I guess, I have a real problem with the British 'flag of union' as a Welsh woman. It makes me feel very alienated. It is an emblem that I am expected to get behind and yet cannot. I'm just grateful that we are not expected to swear allegiance to it because I couldn't.

It is a flag that is composed of the crosses of St George, St Andrew and St Patrick, being no St David's cross, Reference to anything Welsh is absent.

Flags are such emotive emblems, recently the local newspaper carried a story about some suggestion that the Welsh flag be changed from a dragon on a green and white ground to something rather 'softer' and less threatening... like a red kite (presuably the bird rather than the type that flies from a piece of string). This suggestion did not go down at all well.

I have something of a softspot for the European Flag, maybe because I can see that it is not a static emblem. As more countries become European, more stars could be added... in theory at least. 



 
 

But then, like many I am concerned about what being a 'European' actually means...



 
 

I fear that if we view Europe only as an economic entity then the danger of becoming 'Fortress Europe' becomes more real. That thought alarms me. It seems wrong to open up internal borders only to create cast iron borders on the margins. 

I pray that the words of William Blake are not truly prophetic.

 


Tito's ultimate aim for Yugoslavia was 'Europeanization'. Once the system collapsed there was a vacumn which was quickly filled by issues of National Identity which are not going away, hence Kosovo.