it's only very recently (within the last 2-3 years) that the English flag has had any connotations other than football hooligans and the BNP.

Well, it's always flown over Anglican Churches, any time they have a reason for flying a flag, such as a church fete.

Hanging flags out of the window really took off when the European (football) Cup was held in England few years back. It's more about footballism than patriotism - a way of saying "this house is excited about the football". I remember one house near us which was wearing the flags of three nations.

I've always seen the flag of St George as much less in-your-face than the Union Jack, and far less imperial baggage. Nice simple two colour cross, Scandinavian looking. Flag of a small country, not of a would-be world power.

As greg pointed out though, however much people might be pleased at things that have been done in their part of the world, or the way it looks and so forth, that's nothing to do with anything they have done, so what's to be "proud" about?

Actually I think we use "pride" in two different senses here - there's personal pride, for things we have done, and it's unfortunate that we use that word talking about stuff like countries or football teams, when we really are talking about is feeling pleased and happy. But using the same word in both contexts can trick us into carrying over a kind of possessive quality that just doesn't belong, sometimes with disastrous results.