Deconstructing The Flag

Today's image was 'inspired' (o.k, maybe more as an act of desperation) by coming across the depiction of a Union Jack on a plastic bag underneath our kitchen table. I didn't wan't a straight on representation so I scrunched up the bag and this was the deconstructed looking outcome - with some added jiggery-pokery from photoshop!
A bit of history first (you know me by now!) - the Union Jack is the de facto national flag of the United Kingdom. The Union Flag was also used as the official flag of several British colonies and dominions before they added their own flags.
The present design of the flag dates from a royal proclamation following the Union of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. The flag combines aspects of thee older national saint based flags: the red cross of St George, the white saltire of St Andrew for the kingdom of Scotland and the red saltire of of St Patrick to represent Ireland - although the Republic of Ireland is no longer part of the UK, Northern Ireland is. There are no symbols representing Wales, making it the only home nation with no direct representation on the flag - although the Weals dragon as been adopted as a supporter on the royal coat of arms of England since 1485 during Tudor rule.
Flags are really abstractions, symbolic design objects representative of nations and institutions used to show support for, or dissent from, one's country which is particularly resonant with the times we are currently living in with rise of nationalism and populism not just in the UK but across the world, and especially in America at  present, where they appear to be being abused by those who seek to try to sow the seeds of division by inciting hatred and prejudice rather than bringing people together and treating them with empathy, understanding and compassion.
As a riposte I found a fascinating article online about the New Union Flag which wants to change the Union Jack from an object of possible agitation to a space for communication and inclusion.
The New Union Flag, designed from a proposition by the artist Gil Mualem - Doron, is a modified version of the Union Jack, which includes designs of fabrics from former colonised communities and of various ethnic and national groups in the UK and was part of a Tate Modern exchange programme called "Who Are We", which originally took place in 2017.