‘We need some PRIDE’ Calls for historic English buildings to fly the Union Flag

The article reproduced below was taken from The Express newspaper:

‘We need some PRIDE’ Calls for historic English buildings to fly the Union Flag

HISTORIC buildings in England should have the Union Flag flying from them and not be used to advertise a charity, a senior Tory MP has claimed.

By David Maddox

PUBLISHED: Fri, Nov 18, 2016

Historic buildings in England should have the Union Flag flying from them, says senior Tory MP

South West Wiltshire MP Andrew Murrison has demanded that English Heritage removes its “non-descript” flag from the more than 400 historic monuments it runs and replaces it with the Union Flag.

The organisation, which since April 2015 has been an independent charity with a duty in law to manage and maintain England’s historic heritage, currently flies its own flag from famous buildings like Dover Castle overlooking one of the gateways to Britain, the Jewel Tower in Westminster and the Roman Fort on Hadrian’s Wall.

Dr Murrison, a former defence minister, said: “If you go to countries like France of the United States you see their national flag flying from their historic buildings not some non-descript flag representing the organisation that runs them.

“I really feel we need some pride in ourselves as a country and our monuments.

“It’s not as if people need to see an English Heritage flag to work out where they are going.

I used to live next to Portchester Castle near Portsmouth and the English Heritage flag on that was a complete waste of time. If you were looking for Portchester Castle it was pretty obvious where it is.

But that castle also overlooks the harbour where the Royal Navy surface fleet is based and people from France enter our country on a ferry.

It really should have the Union Flag flying from it not some charity advertisement.”

An English Heritage spokesman said that the charity is willing to discuss the issue with the MP.

He said: “We do fly the Cross of St George or the Union Flag to mark important occasions, including the birthday of Her Majesty the Queen and Remembrance Day.

Outside of those special occasions, we revert to the English Heritage flag. At sites with a royal or military connection and where there is a second flagpole, the Union Flag is also flown daily.

English Heritage is a charity and every penny we receive goes towards looking after the historic sites in our care – flying our flag reminds the public and our members that they can support our work through a visit. We are aware of Dr Murrison’s concerns and we have offered to discuss them with him.”

Dr Murrison’s intervention comes amid a push by Tory MPs for organisations in Britain to start being more patriotic again following the Brexit vote on 23 June.

Last month Romford MP Andrew Rosindell was rebuffed by the BBC after he demanded that the Corporation, which was accused during the Referendum of being biased towards the Remain campaign, starts playing the National Anthem again at the end of the day.

The National Anthem was played late night on BBC 1 until 1997 after Tony Blair’s New Labour Government started its ‘Cool Britannia’ revolution.

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A spokesman for the Campaign for an English Parliament said – “Why should English Heritage properties fly the Union flag, surely they should be displaying the flag of England? The equivalent organisations to English Heritage in Scotland fly the Scottish Saltaire on their properties, those in Wales, the Welsh flag. So why oh why is it just England that must show loyalty to the Union?”