Fabricated Rah-Rah

After a public campaign lasting almost a decade, following which a Conservative MP discovered she had nothing better to do, the county of Leicestershire has commissioned itself an official flag. Far from being merely pieces of cloth, flags are a vital expression of difference from one's inferiors, and according to Alicia Kearns MP Leicestershire has been sadly lacking in history, pride, self-definition and community spirit since the Domesday Survey of 1086. Even with the British Legion aboard, one wonders how they managed so long without her. The chief vexillologist at the Flag Institute noted that county flags were created as "flags of the people," which doubtless explains Leicestershire's choice of colours and motifs from a couple of unpretentious working earls: the Muslim-killing Robert de Beaumont, and the traitor and Jew-basher Simon de Montfort.