Group: uk.transport.london · Group Profile
Author: John RowlandJohn Rowland Date: Aug 19, 2008 05:17
R.C. Payne wrote:
> Mark Brader wrote:
>> Tom Anderson writes:
>>> I think that's quite a nice idea. You might want to subdivide
>>> further than by country, though - if, say, 90%% of plaques are about
>>> British people ... then the national flag isn't providing a lot of
>>> information about those ones.
>>
>> Ah, but the trick is to use the *correct* national flag. For Samuel
>> Pepys, the St. George's Cross; for Samuel Johnson, the Union Jack
>> without the red diagonal cross; for Samuel Palmer, the present version.
>
> That could cause problems. For example, would you use pre- or post-
> 1800 Union Flag for Wellington? Then there are the really awkward
> people like Alexander Graham Bell[1]. Would he have a Union Flag, a
> defaced (Canadian) red ensign, or the Stars and Stripes (and in that
> case, how many stars)?
The flags are not for the deceased, they are for the tourists, so you would
use current flags only - this would be a necessity, since a lot of people
don't want to see Swastikas all over London, and a quarter of the world used
to have a Union Jack flying over it anyway. You would use
English/Welsh/Scottish/Norn Iron flags instead of Union flags, again
maximising usefulness to (British) tourists. It wouldn't have to be one flag
only.
| 
