It had been an unusually hot night. My duvet was damp and rumpled when I woke. I remembered we had a council meeting that evening.

“A flag is about loyalty to a country, its laws and traditions. It’s a kind of reassurance, a reminder that this is a country that will protect us, fight for us if needed…”

That’s Henry speaking.

“But it’s also a political statement. Right now, especially….” The woman is anxious but determined. “And it’s never been flown every day before…”

The couple called McVay, the only members of the public at the meeting, have come to protest a decision to fly the national flag on the flagpole by the war memorial.

“No, it’s just the flag of the Union. It is a symbol of the nation to which we all belong”, says Henry.

All the windows of the village hall are open. Ms McVay fans herself with the parish magazine. Shrieks or pleasure come from the play area. 

At the March meeting of the council, there was a majority decision that we should fly the Union flag, up till now only flown on Remembrance Day, all the year round. But the meeting also decided to air this decision in the parish newsletter before acting on it.

As soon as the newsletter went out, I got a phone call from the house opposite the war memorial saying they often sat in their garden in the afternoon and evening where a gap in the trees let in the sunlight on a little section paved with flagstones. The flagpole was right in the middle of that gap and would cast a shadow over their favourite spot. If there was a breeze its flapping would disturb them, too.

I postponed the issue from the May meeting when a new council is chosen.

“No home has an absolute right to a view. Planning law does not support such a right. We all know that a new house can go up opposite us any time”, says Henry. 

“Yes but we do have a right to light. That’s embedded in the law…”, says Mr McVay. (I did not recognise him. Perhaps he “works away” doing the week.)

“Actually there are some practical issues here. First a flag flown every day will deteriorate quite quickly and will have to be renewed. Second, flying a flag every day takes away any novelty. It will be a constant presence that goes unnoticed because it is always there. Why don’t we just fly it on selected days?” 

I like Amita. She is a cardiac nurse at the big hospital in the town. Perhaps she will be the next chair. It was a good piece of conciliation.

So, we decide the fly the flag only on the following days. Mr. McVay suggests the days. He must have come prepared for this compromise.

Remembrance Day (Nov 11), St George’s Day (April 23), The Queen’s official Birthday, (second Saturday in June).

And on one other day which I will explain.

Buried in the cemetery of the village church is a the hero of a famous incident in which a handful of men defended their station against an army of Zulu warriors. He was a young engineer who just happened to be the senior officer present.

That made him a popular hero. Queen Victoria invited him to lunch. It was 1880. The public was excited by Britain’s rapidly expanding empire.

And the project needed popular heroes…

I looked towards Amita, our eyes met, but she said nothing.

(I found in Wikipedia that the general who presented him with the Victoria Cross said of him in his private correspondence “A more uninteresting or more stupid-looking fellow I never saw…”)

A film was made about this acton in 1975, with Stanley Baker in the leading role.

Amita is an Indian name. It means “infinite, boundless”.