In my town we're twinned with towns in the Czech Republic and in France, so those flags are flown in the shopping centre all the time, along with the Union Jack. The European flag gets flown outside the Town Hall a lot of the time, and the flag of the UN, and I'm sure we'd fly the World Flag as well if we had it. And sometimes it's the Harlow Flag. All at half-mast this week.

Over in Tipperary last week there'd have been flags outside pretty well every house, and they'd have been the Tipperary Flag, because it was the All Ireland Hurling Final against Galway - and they'll still be there now, because Tipp won, and this weekend it's the Camogie final, which is the women's version of the game, and Tipp is in that too. But noone flies that flag because they hate any other county, and if anyone from Galway had been living in Tipp and chose to fly the Galway flag noone would have worried about that either.

Flags are a symbol that you love your country (for example) and if anyone ever flies a flag as a symbol that they hate some other country, or hate some other people, that is the only real way of desecrating it. And sadly, as katlaughing reminded us, there are people who do that sometimes, and in places where that happens to fly that flag would seem like sharing in that desecration.

I see they've got a World Flag T-shirt. I might get one of those, since I haven't got a flagpole.