Winning Flag Wins Flag Contest

As Span pointed out, in a reply to the Juande Ramos posting, the phony war is over and the Dorset flag has been chosen. In a poll of 2,086 people, 54% of the vote opted for the white cross, with a red border on a golden background following a competition run by Dorset County Council to find a new flag. With help from the Flag Institute, a centre for research and documentation for flags and flag information, four designs were short-listed and these were put to the public vote. The next most popular design winning just 856 votes or 22%.

Democracy in action eh? A county with a population of a million or so and 2,086 people voted. What's more bizarre is that the winning flag had already been adopted by the county on an informal basis until somebody, with more time on their hands than me on a February morning enjoying the post tax return rush, decided that there should be a contest. Despite the fact that nobody had thought about a contest before, but hey, what's council tax payers money good for if not to waste and it gave around 1,000 people the chance to vote against the design.

I can't see myself adorning the family Peugeot with one of the flags, my public displays of allegiance don't go further than a West Ham United sticker in the back window.