How to do vexillological trolling

My last journal was about changing the British flag in case of Scottish independence. Now I know the results: 55% for Union, so "Kingdom of Scotland" and "United Kingdom of Southern Great Britain and Northern Ireland" will not appear in next editions of maps. However, if Scotland seceded from the Union, the Union Jack (this term is preferred by Wikipedia) could be unchanged. The Union Jack was created in 1606 after Union of the Crowns and was not changed in 1707 by Union of the Parliaments. In 1801 it was changed while uniting Ireland with Great Britain and not changed in 1921 where Southern Ireland became independent. This tick-tack could make the flag change in 2014 and there was so many possibilities... This one was viral, but I don't believe it was intended for official use. The best non-my proposals in my eyes were this and this . This is similar to one of my older deviations, only Scotland is changed for Cornwall. Humorous flags are not in my interest, you can find plenty of them.

But wait. Does current Union Jack really have to change? Wales is not represented separately, only Cross of St. George reminds Welsh dragon. By the way, I would not accept Welsh dragon on flag of the United Kingdom. It is so complex and unrelated to the rest of UK. Welsh symbol could be something simpler, maybe only two colors (white-green or black-yellow) added to British flag. However, no minority has intrinsic right to being represented on flag of a compound state. Imagine flag of India: orange for Hinduism, green for Islam, blue for Buddhism. Are Indian Christians striking for its change? Christianity is part of India since St. Thomas, almost 2000 years, but it has no place in flag of India. Iraq: another country with religious and linguistic plurality. Its flag reads "Allah is Great" in Arabic. No Kurdish, no Aramaic, no Christian symbol. I know Allah means "God" in Arabic, so different religions can say their god is great. (Off-topic: many deities in the world are all "pointers" to one "object" of God. The difference is in "type check".) So not representing Wales (and Cornwall, which is undoubtedly part of England) in British flag is OK. Another problem is representing Scotland in rump United Kingdom. As I said here, Scot-free Britain has no obligation to change its flag (neither has Australia etc.) Scotland is still part of British past and many Scots live in other parts of UK (e.g. Ulster Scots and Alex Ferguson). In comment on this deviation I mentioned two flags, they are here: British Republic and United Kingdom . Their description is in the comment. But return to the topic. Many countries lost a territory, but still represent it on flag. I want not to mention Malaysia and Sudan, but Aragon, Portugal and Romania.


Coat of arms of Aragon (present in its flag) and flag of Sardinia

Do you see that? Sardinia was part of the Crown of Aragon and even today, when they are inseparable regions of Spain and Italy, CoA of Aragon features symbol of Sardinia. Crown of Aragon was united with Crown of Castile in 1469 and formally dissolved in 1716. Kingdom of Sardinia was perfectly fused with Piedmont in 1847 and in 1861 united in the Kingdom of Italy. There is no more common power for Aragon and Sardinia, except for European Union etc. But Sardinians are calm and don't want change of Aragonese symbols.


First flag of Brazil, flag of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarves and current flag of Portugal

Armillary sphere is navigation tool used by Portuguese when they travelled through Atlantic Ocean to Brazil. It soon became symbol of Brazil, because Ocean was only way to connect Brazil with Portugal. It is no more official symbol of Brazil, but it still lives in unofficial symbols. However, in 1911 it became part of official flag of Portugal. In that time Portugal had no power over Brazil. Brazilians are not worry about that, because this is in no way irredentism: Portugal still borders the Atlantic Ocean.


Coat of arms of Romania and flag of Moldova

Now you must see it. Moldova was part of Romania during interbellum. Even today the bull of Moldova is present in CoA of Romania. Tricolor and eagle are in both too, but they are common symbols, because blue-yellow comes from Wallachia and yellow-red from Moldavia. When Romania still has bull in CoA and red stripe in flag, why shouldn't United Kingdom have St. Andrew's Saltire and Scottish lion rampant in its symbols?

Flags are adapting to countries, and CoAs too, but they have their own life where tradition is more than politics. Republic of Macedonia removed red star of socialism from its CoA in 2009, eighteen years after fall of SFR Yugoslavia. I am aware of Greeks hating everyone who calls FYROM "Macedonia". For them I have this statement: Slavs of FYROM have full right call themselves "Macedonians", same like Boers can call themselves "Afrikaners", literally "Africans". Neither Skopians are descendants of Alexander's Macedonia, nor Boers are descendants of Black Africa. But they NOW LIVE in Macedonia or Africa respectively. There are even Slavs in southern Macedonia, they are more Macedonian than Skopians, because Skopje is on the edge of historic Macedonia, while Thessaloniki is its center. Slavic Southern Macedonian was e.g. mother of Sts. Cyril and Methodius and Božidara Turzonovová, living in Slovakia. And not to forget: creating new flags where there is no demand is useless. It is not total waste of time, one can learn a lot of graphics, history and practise art skills, but sharing these flags as future official proposals is trolling. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has no demand for new flag today. United States of America have already prepared flag with 51 and 52 stars. This article is therefore gallery of artwork, if it isn't trolling. However, I would prefer flag not counting the number of states, because if California is divided in six states, I won't like flag with 55 stars. Maybe future flag of USA will be in my request list. I have graduated from engineering, so I try to be more real than in 2013, when I started with deviantART.