Welcome!

Welcome to my blog site! My son came up with the title ("Fifty and Fed-up"), as 'Grumpy old man' is a bit over-used! Besides, I hope my blogs won't be restricted to 'rants' - although, at this stage, who knows?

I was prompted to set up a blog, would you believe, by a catalogue advert for a rug! I won't say which catalogue, but it was advertising a Union Flag rug ... in shades of blue!

It reminded me, of course, of the raised eyebrows when Great Britain's Olympic sportswear was unveiled some months ago. Is there any other country, I wonder, where people routinely 'deface' their national emblem by changing its colours?

Being charitable, I guess it could be argued that it is the very design of our flag that is iconic. Change the colours of a flag in standard tricolor format and you cease to recognise the flag. Change the colours of the Union Flag and it is still unmistakably the Great British flag.

But, as I say, that is being charitable. In my mind the colour of the flag is integral to the flag itself. Why would anyone want to change the colours? It is our national flag, not a fashion accessory.