Over several entries I’ve explained what is right about wanting a ‘county flag’ – i.e. the civic pride and the marketing factors that such a device so powerfully facilitates. However it is just as important to explain why it isn’t ‘wrong’ to have a county flag.

Whilst most people I’ve spoken to are genuinely excited about having a flag that is tied to the local area I know that there are those that may not be convinced owing to misinformation or false pre-conceptions.

One myth that should be exploded is that inventing a flag is ‘false’, inventing a county flag even more so. This belief comes about because tradition (which is just a more impressive way of saying routine) is such a powerful influence on peoples’ lives, whereas ideas that are not yet established are an element of the unknown. Things that work well and last along time can rightfully become very proud traditions and in flag terms we can be very proud for the Union Flag being old, distinctive and a representation of Union and that is but one example of many old flags.

By contrast some people feel new flags are merely ‘made up’ and can be quite dismissive. There are two points to show this attitude to be groundless. Firstly all flags and all traditions were invented at some point – so once upon a time someone probably claimed that Union Flag wasn’t a proper flag cause it wasn’t old. This same flaw always makes me laugh when people against a UK Olympic football team claim that the Lions rugby is different because it’s got tradition on it’s side.

More specifically concerning counties, it should be noted that some county flags are very old and that they are quite wide-spread when you look across Europe. For instance the flag of Kent is often considered to have been around in the Tudor age and the Northumbrian flag has design roots older than England itself. Currently the UK Flag Institute has 18 officially registered county flags, 1 regional and 7 town flags.

There are plenty more unofficial flags and this website does a grand job of collating proposals and banners of arms as well as the official county flags of England.

So we have clearly shown that the concept of county flags has a very long and distinguished pedigree. However more importantly we have shown that pedigree is not actually the important part of determining whether a flag is proper. They are simply symbols for that area and allow you to focus your pride, when it was designed or invented is immaterial and a flag invented yesterday can be just as good at channelling our pride as old and distinguished flags like the cross of St George.

Next week I’ll counter the myth that county flags either undermine national flags or are rendered redundant by national flags.