False flag operation

On Wednesday, several British newspapers lamented that Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, had "decreed" that the British flag should no longer be flown over some public buildings to mark royal events, as if this:

a. mattered 

and

b. was true.

Horrified hacks at the Telegraph described how Nicola Sturgeon had "hauled down the Union flag",* while the folk in charge of the Express's clickbait bucket tried to raise the blood pressure of its more easily-triggered readers by describing the move as a "snub to the Queen".

It turns out that the story was nonsense from beginning to end (which isn't that surprising) and that one of the papers responsible for the disinformation, the Scottish edition of the Daily Mail, has actually apologised and published a correction, (which is):

"We are happy to clarify that the decision to change the policy on flag flying was taken and implemented by former First Minister Alex Salmond in 2010.

"The Protocol and Honours Team updated operational guidance in December 2017.

"We accept that the policy did not change under Nicola Sturgeon and that she had no involvement in the Protocol and Honours Team updating the operational guidance on flag flying for 2018."

*It is, by the way, great fun to troll the sort of people who ostentatiously call it the "Union flag" because it's "incorrect" to call it the "Union Jack",except when it's being flown on a vessel, because:

a. anyone who gives a monkey's is just asking to be wound up

and

b. they're wrong.

It is often stated that the Union Flag should only be described as the Union Jack when flown in the bows of a warship, but this is a relatively recent idea. From early in its life the Admiralty itself frequently referred to the flag as the Union Jack, whatever its use, and in 1902 an Admiralty Circular announced that Their Lordships had decided that either name could be used officially. Such use was given Parliamentary approval in 1908 when it was stated that “the Union Jack should be regarded as the National flag”. 

 Commander Bruce Nicolls OBE RN (Retired)