super-structure

I had never really given a lot of thought to the design of the "Union Jack" before. The mix of diagonals and crosses in th modern flag is actually the sum of the flags of England, Scotland, and Ireland, as seen here. The Union Flag also shows up in many of the countries still under the Monarchy, such as Australia and New Zealand (not to mention various smaller island nations). It also is in the flags of the State of Hawai’i and was even incorporated into the original American flag (the Grand Union Flag), when we were still an British colony. We dropped the Union Jack in favor of a field of stars whose number would be equal to the number of states in the Union.Several of the Canadian provinces (British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario), though it is notably missing in the Canadian national flag. This may be in part to the fact that several other provinces have flags of Scotland or England in them, and not the Union Flag. We may not be loyal subject of HM the Queen anymore, but at least we still get a long well enough to have her over every now and then.