Flying British flag is legal

PATRIOTIC Britons planning to fly the Union Flag over the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee weekend will not risk breaking the law, Connexion can confirm.

We checked with the parliament, as it was proposed last year that waving foreign flags should be banned.

However a parliamentary spokesman said: “The law proposed by Guy Teissier [a Marseille MP and mayor of one of the city’s arrondissements] was neither debated nor adopted by parliament, so it has now fallen through. It will be up to the new parliament, after the coming elections, to decide if they want to consider something similar.”

Britons – or others wishing to mark the jubilee – can therefore wave their flags with impunity.

Mr Teissier’s proposed law stated that “publically using a foreign flag” can sometimes be “provocative towards our republican institutions”, especially if used near to such symbolic locations as mairies and prefectures. He suggested it should only be allowed on formal permission from the prefecture, and otherwise be punished with a €1,500 fine.

This will be only the second time – after Victoria – a British monarch has marked a diamond jubilee. Four days of celebrations are planned, from Friday to Tuesday, with groups around the UK and world being encouraged to organise “Big Lunches” on the Sunday (See tips on organising an international one here: Big Lunch).

Planned celebrations in France include A Queen's Diamond Jubilee Party at 17.00 on June 3 at La Fourchette de Fagus in Faye-la-Vineuse in the Indre-et-Loire (reservation requests to nicolas.gaudron@wanadoo.fr or by calling 02 47 95 62 43) and a large cocktail party hosted by the Royal British Legion (Nice-Monaco) at the Yacht Club de Monaco at 18.30 on June 2 (registration on jubileepartymonaco@gmail.com). The Commune of Druas (Lot-et-Garonne) and its Association des Commerçants are combining their annual picnic with marking the jubilee, on June 1 at 20.00 at La Halle de Duras (bring your own food). They are also holding an Entente Cordiale concert at 21.00 June 2 at the Château de Duras and a street party in the Place de la Mairie at Loubès-Bernac at noon on June 3. The Franco-British cultural association Xpressions, for the area around Guémené-Penfao in the Loire-Atlantique, is among other groups celebrating the event.

In the UK plans include a pageant of around 1,000 boats on the Thames on the Sunday, a concert on the Monday evening at Buckingham Palace, the lighting of beacons, and a service of thanksgiving at Saint Pauls and a carriage procession on the Tuesday which will be the second of two bank holidays.

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