Australia, Belgium and Canada also allow it. In the US the act is protected by the first amendment in the Constitution. In China you can be jailed for it for up to 3 years. In most other countries the practice is illegal to varying extents. Laws around burning national flags vary around the world. What is the law around burning flags in other countries? It is not clear if she was arrested for the attempt, but the video shows a bit of a scuffle with some riot officers toward the end as they were pushed away. She was unsuccessful, as was another protester who was filmed trying to tear it down. The yob was filmed using a lighter to set the flag alight as it draped off the iconic memorial to Britain’s war dead in Westminster.ĭuring the short clip of the outrageous attempt, others can be heard yelling at her to “get down” as she stands on the memorial’s plinth. What happened to the Cenotaph flag during BLM protests?Ī Black Lives Matter protester tried to burn a Union Flag at the Cenotaph as peaceful demonstrations in London turned ugly on Monday, June 8. Other than that the only official Government document around the creation of the flag is its specifications that were outlined in the BR20: Flags of All Nations reference book, written by the Admiralty during the Golden Age of Sail. Home Secretary, Sir John Gilmour, backed this in June 1933 by saying that the Union Jack was the national flag and might be flown by any British subject on land, during a House of Commons speech. His answer was that the Union Jack should be regarded as the National flag, and it undoubtedly might be flown on land by all of His Majesty’s subjects.
#Is it illegal to burn gay flag full#
The UK enshrines the right to deface the flag under Freedom of Speech laws, though there have been multiple attempts to make it illegal over the years.Īccording to the Flag Institute, on July 14, 1908, a statement was made in the House of Lords by the Earl of Crewe (on behalf of the Government) in reply to a question asking whether the full Union Jack might be flown on land by every citizen in the Empire. It has never been defined by an act of parliament, but it's been used by Brits so much over the course of history that it's become an internationally recognised symbol of Great Britain. Legally speaking, the Union Flag/Jack is not the flag of Great Britain, but has become a symbol by assumption. "The object is replaceable, but people aren’t." "If those people represented by it want to destroy it then that’s part of the point of its existence as a symbol. "We should value people more than the cloth because it represents the people. "I’d rather someone burned our flag than that they hurt someone or beat someone up. "It’s like burning a towel and waving it around your head – you could hurt someone. "If you buy a union flag and burn it then legally speaking the main issue is more with health and safety.
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Otherwise it's technically an act of vandalism because you're destroying someone else's property.Ĭhief Vexillologist (flag expert) of the Flag Institute, Graham Bartram, told The Sun: "In Britain we don’t have any laws against burning the national flag. It is not illegal to burn the flag, so long as it's yours.
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Is it illegal to burn the Union flag in the UK? However during protests across the world there are often attempts to destroy the British flag. THE Union Flag, or Union Jack, is a proud symbol of Britain held up and worn by those representing our country in everything from sporting events to war.