By Wee Hamish

What is it with the Saltire? Some people are saying it was banned from T in the park last weekend. Maybe that was to snuff out any political angle to the festival. That’s the sort of country we’re living in now, where we can’t even fly our own flag without being accused of being subversives.

I don’t feel all that subversive. Angry and frustrated but not particularly subversive unless reading Wings Over Scotland counts, but this thing with the flag has really got me going. It’s our flag, for God’s sake and we’re not allowed to wave it in case it upsets the powers that be.

The thing is, people know that flags are important. You might think they are just pieces of cloth with some pretty colours and designs on them but they mean a lot more than that. People identify with a flag and that gives the flag a symbolic power. Just ask David Starkey, the media’s go-to celeb when they want an anti-Scottish racist rant. He said the other month that the SNP and their supporters were using the Saltire like the Nazis use the Swastika. OK, the guy’s a bampot but maybe he has a point, doesn’t he? Aye, right!

People who support a political Party which stands up for Scotland will obviously want to express support for that Party’s objectives by waving the country’s flag. In my experience, people who do this are expressing support for Scotland more than for the SNP. If, by some unlikely miracle, Scottish Labour happened to regain their senses and began working for the benefit of Scotland, some of their supporters might start waving the Saltire too, not because they are Labour supporters but because they support Scotland.

The odd thing is, while Starkey and others claim the Saltire has been appropriated by the SNP, they never admit that the same argument works the other way round. People who supported the Better Together campaign opted to have the Union Flag as their country’s symbol. They turned their back on the Saltire and deliberately chose to stay part of the UK. In my opinion, that means they have no right to whine about SNP supporters flying the Saltire. It’s the flag of Scotland and those who believe in that country and its people. Which is why they want to ban it from public events like TITP. It’s un-British and subversive. Which is why I’ll be looking for a Saltire sticker to cover the Union Flag on my next Driving Licence. Scotland is my country. The Saltire is my flag and I’ll keep on flying it.