Union of Commonwealth Realms

Before I start this post I would like to apologize for my lack of recent posts, this is due in part to research and study for a print publication I am currently working on, and it is taking up the greater part of my spare time, so post might be few and far between I'm afraid, but I will try to put one up every now and then.
Currently British politics is dominated (with a slight exception of regional elections in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) by the upcoming referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union. As usual I am not advocating any political opinion, but I was intrigued when I seen a hypothetical scenario. The scenario was the UK leaves and forms a free trade and movement zone, between the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. with certain joint institutions, rather similar to the European Union but more anglocentric. I even seen a potential flag for such a union by Zach Elsbury:

  It evokes the British ensign which not only includes the Union Flag but is the same style of flag used by Australia and New Zealand with a red field for Canada (the former flag of Canada was a red ensign). Its defaced with a shield quartered with the national plants of the four nations.
Inspired by this design I thought of having ago at a similar flag, with more emphasis of an international organisation rather than a colony. My first design was this:

Still inspired by an esign which has elements all of the four member states flags have in common,The Union Jack has official status in Canada and the UK, and appears on the Australian and New Zealand flags. it features the gold wreath and a globe. The roses form part of the cypher which is in the centre of all the commonwealth royal standards outside the UK, including those of Canada, New Zealand and Australia. The globe is from the flag of the Commonwealth of Nations. This flag is timeless as it has no direct symbolism to any individual state, meaning if a member leaves or other realms like Tuvalu or Jamacia join the flag doesn't require changing. However thinking the globe might look a little like a mock up British Empire flag, I decided to replace it with a crown, the symbol of the monarch which share:

I like this better as it is a simpler design and looks a little less cramped.

New South Wales

The flag of the Australian state of New South Wales is like most Australian state flags a blue ensign with a British Union Fag in the Canton, and a regional insignia in the fly.

Despite the name "New South Wales" there isn't any Welsh symbolism on it at all! The emblem in the fly is a cross of St George of England bearing a lion and Southern Cross.
I corrected this by changing the emblem just a little bit:

I replaced the St George's Cross with that of St David the patron saint of Wales, and the lion with the famous red dragon. The idea is really the same as the original flag but with Welsh symbols rather than English.
However if New South Wales wants to move away from British ensigns to something more original, i though of this flag:

 Its an inverted Cross of St David defaced with the Southern Cross (in the same pattern as the Australian flag). The reason I inverted the colours of the Cross of St David are:

• So it would be distinctive from the unofficial second flag of Wales
• I wanted to show a connection to Wales, but at the same time I wanted it to be Australian rather than Welsh. The same way the Nova Scotia flag symbolises a connection to Scotland but stands out as something Canadian rather than Scottish. 

I think inverting the colours was the best way to do this, Another version could have the red dragon in the canton:

However I think this might empathise the Welsh connection too much, which might defeat the point of inverting the colours in the first place. On the other hand though dragons are cool. 

Fiji

As it was announced earlier this week that the Fiji flag will change removing the colonial symbols.

The current Fiji flag

This got me thinking what could replace it? This was a topic visited by Leonardo Piccioni a while ago on his blog. His design was this:

and this

His flag was based on the flag of the Kingdom of Fiji before it became a colony, with the palm tree coming from the coat of arms and rugby logo:

flag of Fiji 1871-1874

I was also inspired by the old flag, however I chose two different symbols for Fiji, the canoe from the coat of arms (which may also be changed) and the Tabua (Whale tooth) an important cultural item.

The same basic flag as the Kingdom but with different symbols. My final design is horizontal and features the red white and blue colours of the first Fijian flag, with the Tabua as the central device.

I think the Tabua only on a horizontal design is much less messy, and this way most of the flag is on a blue field, which is in keeping with the lyrics of the national anthem "As we stand united under noble banner blue." 

Alternatively the canoe could be used, but from what I understand (which admittedly isn't much) the Tabua seems to be more relevant in modern Fijian culture. 

New Zealand flag referendum

I have just saw on the BBC News (online article see here) that New Zealand will hold two separate referendums in 2015 and 2016 to possibly try to change their flag. So I think now is a good time to share my proposals. My first thought was a flag based on the flag of the United Tribes, regarded as the first NZ flag

Flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand 1834-1840

Not an actual proposal but it did get me thinking about the United Tribes design, particularly the design in the canton. Perhaps a modified version of the flag:

National flag and maritime Jack

It reflects the first New Zealand flag, with black representing the Maori people and blue those of European descent. White is neutral and represents peace and unity. The idea for a white cross rather than red came from the NZ Yacht ensign.
Likewise the red white and blue ensign system for use at sea would probably look like this:

Naval Ensign 

State ensign

Civil Ensign

Air Force flag

Army Flag

Most of the ensigns are relatively unchanged from the current one but have the white cross flag in the canton rather than a UK flag. The naval ensign is an altered Royal Navy ensign. Ships of the Royal New Zealand Navy (as did the Canadians and Australians) used an unaltered St George's ensign until the 1960s, So its another historical reference, The St George's ensign with the aproprate flag in the canto is not uncommon in Commonwealth navies and is used by India,Barbados and Jamaica. Undefaced versions of the state and civil ensigns still have the Southern Cross, as I think it looks nicer than a plain blank field. or alternatively the white cross could be used:

Flags of the territories in "Free Association" with New Zealand, are also based on UK ensigns, with Union Jacks in the canton, these may wish to change this to a NZ flag:

The Cook Islands

Niue

However the NZ Prime Minister, Mr John Key has said he would like a black flag witha silver fern similar to sport flags. So Mr Key these designs are for you:

Its distinct and a cross between the current flag and the silver fern one. The red, white and blue maritime ensign system can still be used:

Please feel free to comment and discus ideas or alternatives. 

New Australian Flag

The topic on weather or not Australia should change its flag form the traditional British Ensign is a hotly debated subject and political mine field in Australia. From what I have read most Aussies are content with their current flag for the mean time. Personally I like the Australian flag but if the Aussies ever voted to change it what would it be?

This was my original design. As you can see it has most if not all the characteristics of the current flag. The Southern Cross Star formation, Commonwealth star and a red cross similar to St George's Cross. It also has the Aussie Colours of Green and Gold. Native Aboriginal colours of red, yellow and black, and the British colours of red, white and blue. Two more aspects of this design is the boomerang shape with the aboriginal colours in the canton, and below that you can see part of the make up of the Union Jack, but not a whole one. These symbolise the two main Australian communities the ones descendent form Aboriginals and British Settlers.
Personally I thought this although interesting was very complicated. So I retired to studying the Australian flag.

   

The three main consonants of this is the British Union Flag in the Canton, the Commonwealth Star under it. This symbolises six Australian states and the seventh point is for all the Australian territories that aren't part of the mainland. Towards the fly is the southern cross star formation which can also be seen on the similar flag of neighbouring New Zealand. The bit on this flag that the pro-new flag people don't want is the Union Jack as this symbolises British Sovereignty, this is probably not surprising as Australia was part of the British Empire when this flag came out. However today Australia is fully independent so some people say the flag is out dated. Others say it was the flag Australians have fought and died under and link to their ancestors and mention that the Queen is head of state of Australia and other countries in the Commonwealth.  

I decided to remove the Union Jack if only to see what it would look like without it. I didn't think it looked too bad. I moved the Commonwealth star up to the centre and it looked better. Then I thought about changing the colour. Green and Gold seemed the most appropriate. This was the result: 

It is clearly Australian and is based on the traditional flag. The other advantage for this flag is that in keeping with Australian tradition, the colour can change for sea. Currently the State Ensign is the current flag. The Civil Ensign is the Australian Red Ensign and the Naval Ensign is the the Australian White Ensign . For example the new ensign of the Royal Australian Navy might look like this:  

Alternatively the stars could be blue.

My friend Leonardo Piccioni from the Flags Forum also designed a version shown below:  

 

This is the civil version he had the idea that the government version should include the Commonwealth star and the Civil one only the Southern Cross.  Me and another form user 26 May 1989 (who is Australian) think that although the Kangaroo is a great Aussie symbol it is rather Corporate which is not good for a national flag. Now the reason I included Leonardo's design is because I used it as a template for the next design:

State Flag

 

Civil Flag

As you can see I removed the Kangaroo. In terms of colour the only colour this would change is white for the Navy, as at sea both Gov and Civil ships will use either the State or Civil versions. Although the Civil flag looks a little plain I think after use it would 'grow on you' but I think there are lots of alternatives that should be considered. to see the flags forum discussions on the subject click HERE