I saw this BBC story Rebranding puts black marks against UK flag, this morning. Despite the negative implications in the title, this is a positive story. In fact given the content of the story the title is a sick joke!

“Britain’s national flag – the union jack – has been given the makeover treatment, in the hope of reflecting a more modern society.
It’s become the marketing executive’s remedy for any organisation’s ills. From BT to BP, the Labour Party to the Lottery, hardly a business or institution has escaped the rebranding bug.
Now moves are afoot to redesign that most sacred of British hallmarks – the union flag.”

The story is also up to the usual poor standard of grammar and coherency in journalism. Just from the quotes above, has it already been ‘given the makeover’ or are ‘moves afoot’ to change it? It goes on to say “A campaign is being launched to modernise…”, but then shows a picture of the proposed new flag.
The article alternates between calling it the Union Flag and the Union Jack. A little research shows that either is correct but a little consistency would have helped.
In all the story is interesting, and in theory a good idea with good intentions, but as is pointed out, and some of the reader comments agree, unlikely to come to anything.

I had another day off sick today (tummy troubles would be polite). I managed to get some work done, but not a huge amount…

I just thought I would catch up on my ongoing attempt to get fit and healthy. A few weeks ago I started taking my bike in to work — cycling from home to the train station, train station to office and back again in the evening. That’s about five miles a day. Last week, I started cycling all the way home in the evening. That puts my mileage up to ten miles a day; fifty miles per week! That was hard work but by the end of the week I’d got my time down from 45 minutes to 36. It also saves me lots of money!
The no smoking has been going fine. This is now my seventh week without a smoke. I really only have one ‘problem’ time — 11am in the office. It still get a strong craving of some description at that time. It’s not really that I want a cigarette, it’s more that I know I would be having one at that time if I hadn’t stopped. I don’t know why that time is so strong, and it is only when I am in the office too. Weekends are fine. The rest of the time I just have to consciously keep myself occupied. Mostly that seems to involve drinking coffee or eating. Otherwise I have to be reading, or on the computer, or something. If my hands are idle I get a little ‘twitchy’! Sometimes really twitchy.
So, with no alcohol, no cigarettes, cycling 50 miles a week, and watching what I eat, I should soon be feeling really fit and healthy.
Bizarrely, I’ve been off work ill today!