Ghost of a flea

You can't drop a bombshell like that and not tell the rest of the story.

Where did you find the cufflinks?!

Ha ha! Chris, I hope you are watching The Apprentice. One of the contestants, Raj, is like some eldritch avatar of the Red Ensign ethos arrived from beyond to represent imperial chic in game show format.

Anyway, you have seen to the heart of the matter with your cufflink question! I found them on eBay. That link should take you to another pair the gentleman has for sale at the moment though I expect can be contacted directly so Flea-readers are not bidding against each other. I should have made clear these are not the Canadian Red Ensign (whichever version). Perhaps we could commission some?

I, for one, would love a pair of Red-Ensign cufflinks. I'd prefer the Newfoundland ensign, of course, but I'd wear the Canadian ensign in a second. I already wear a leafy Canadian pair from Expo '67 that I picked up on E-bay a couple of years ago.

The only flags in this house, btw, are the Newfoundland tricolour and the jolly roger (arrr)

If we commission some can we get the 1867 version with that Nova Scotian fish?

I understand the sentiment of Ianism but isn't this a very large raft we are on? I think I have opinions diametrically opposed to many in the group which does not depreciate the nature of the group but rather to strengthen it.

I agree with the large raft approach. Mahayana blogging!

If y'all commissioned a set, I'd be a very willing purchaser, whether they be the green-leafed ones of the war periods or the 1867 fishy ones.

As much as I approve of fishies I am not sure how well the more complicated Ensigns would translate to cufflink scale...

And definitely partial to war-time green leafy over red leafy, btw.

I agree with Alan's remarks about the big tent / large raft theory, and he is perhaps the penultimate example that I was going to point out. We approach things from polar opposites sometimes, but we agree in certain areas, and that's more than enough.

Didn't we hash all of this out during our e-mail bull sessions? Codifying Red Ensign-ism into a core philosophy wasn't something we were interested in doing. Seeing Ian Scott's point, I think he's reading more into the symbolism of the flag than is really present in the group of blogs.

For me it is a case of in necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas -- in certain things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity.

I finally feel that I've contributed something useful. I must go bask in that knowledge for a while, now... :)

This is interesting as one of the things that has been bugging me most lately, which I have shared with John of Argghhh by email, is the lack of civility and standards of discourse in blogging and the need to asset an ethic of some sort so that discussions do not collapse into me right/left Bush evil/Kerry evil claptrap. Perhaps we need a Red Ensign Manifesto as to Good Manners and Disagreement.

Eric has some thoughts on civility and dialogue that are worth a look.

And ¡No Pasarán! makes reference to Samuel Johnson.

Chris wrote, "Seeing Ian Scott's point, I think he's reading more into the symbolism of the flag than is really present in the group of blogs."

Hey Chris.. I'm not sure if I made my point very well in my post or not. However, in my post I did point out that I generally found myself in agreement with the Red Ensign bloggers.

My issue is with symbols and flags themselves, and the propensity of people to "rally around" a flag or symbol. Several years ago, I decided not to be a flag waver of any sort because of my concerns.

I was very tempted to put up that Red Ensign on my blog - but in the end, decided against it because of my decision. I love the way the Red Ensign looks. And I think the Red Ensign bloggers tend to think along the same lines as I do, a lot of the time.

But in the end, as I posted in that entry, I'm just not a "symbol" kind of guy. I've seen far too many times when symbols become more important than personal philosophy and individuality. Maybe you gotta be from a place like Northern Ireland to really appreciate this :)

"in necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas"

Dead on, brother.

Interesting point. I like flags as symbols but not particularly for personal reasons...or rather not one flag captures all my person. We McLeods have an real elvish flag in the castle, we Scots have a dandy Royal standard and few flags beat the St. Andrew's cross for loveliness. They each ring true to an aspect of me as does the red ensign, even in its Jerome the Giraffe form: http://www.genx40.com/archives/2003/may/flags

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