Are you the sort of person that envisages the flag to fly if you won an Olympic medal? Or are you the sort of person who thinks about the flag draped over your coffin?
LATER on this year, we'll get to vote over the design of the New Zealand flag, out of three or four designs, and in 2016 we'll vote again, putting the favoured design up against our original flag.
The two-step referendum process will give New Zealanders a chance to veto any
change, something that Prime Minister John Key thinks could happen right now; he thinks the mood is slightly anti-change. He's hoping to convince New Zealand that it's time for a change.
Probably my favourite flag associated with New Zealand is the United Tribes flag, which flutters in the breeze every Waitangi Day. I like it because it's pleasing on the eye in terms of colour and design, but I concede that it's a complete anachronism to have the four stars of the Southern Cross against the cross of England's St George.
Is the Union Jack in the corner any less anachronistic? It is only a matter of a generation or two for many of us to connect to England, but no longer does the phrase, where England goes, we follow, apply.
We've had members of the Returned Services Association argue the flag as it stands was the flag they fought under. It could be a powerful argument. War commemorations and stories have never been more fashionable, with the centenary of World War I, but also the general rise in awareness and participation during Anzac Day and Armistice Day.
