Glasgow Greens bid to ditch Union flag in favour of Palestinian and transgender ones

Glasgow is to consider axing the Union flag for Royal events and instead flying transgender, Palestinian and Cuban flags in an attempt to “reflect the city’s progressive values”.

Dan Hutchison, a Green councillor, has put forward a plan to be debated next week in which the Union flag would no longer be flown at Glasgow City Chambers to mark royal events such as the birthdays of the King, Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Instead, he has proposed that the revolutionary Red Flag will be flown to celebrate workers on May 1 and that the transgender flag will be hoisted to mark “Trans Remembrance Day” on Nov 20, in Scotland’s largest city.

While the British flag would no longer be used to celebrate the Royal family, he has proposed that a series of foreign flags should be flown to mark overseas national holidays.

These would include the French tricolour to mark Bastille Day, the Palestinian flag to mark “solidarity day” and the Cuban, Pakistani and Ukrainian flags to mark their independence days.

Mr Hutchison, who was elected in 2022 and represents the Govan ward, is a member of the Republic campaign group.

He claimed the existing flag protocol at the City Chambers “does not adequately reflect the progressive and internationally minded city of the modern day”.

His motion calls on other councillors to agree that “adopting flags such as the transgender flag and the red flag signifies support for both Glasgow’s transgender community and workers”.

He proposed flying foreign flags in an attempt to recognise “that Glasgow is an international city, with a rich history of migration, and with a vibrant twin city scheme”.

Stephen Kerr, the Scottish Tory MSP, denounced the plan as “proper loony Left stuff”.

The council is run by the SNP, propped up by the Greens, in a similar deal to a coalition pact between the two pro-independence parties at Holyrood.

“This is entirely disrespectful to thousands of citizens of Glasgow and beyond who will be amazed that the Scottish Greens would sooner celebrate German, Cuban and French national days than any of the days when the Union flag would be flown,” Mr Kerr said.

“But it is unsurprising that it would be a Scottish Green councillor who would show such hatred for our country, its values and traditions given their record of student style politics.”

He added: “Councils should stick to the day job, sort the outrageously bad roads in Glasgow, get the bins picked up on time, and maybe do something about the litter problem and stop worrying about virtue signalling flag waving.”

In November, Mr Hutchison welcomed a vote by Scotland’s most famous country music club, the Grand Ole Opry in Glasgow, after its members narrowly voted to ban the American Confederate flag.

The flag is viewed by some Americans as racist as it was used by slave-owning states in the US Civil War but others have defended it as a symbol of southern US heritage.

Mr Hutchison’s flag motion is to be debated at a meeting of Glasgow’s full council on Thursday.

If it receives the support of a majority of members it will be declared the “decision of the council” and officers will be tasked with bringing it into force.

Of the 85 councillors in Glasgow, there are 11 Green and 37 SNP politicians, meaning the motion is likely to pass if both pro-independence parties support it.

The Union flag is currently flown from City Chambers on seven Royal occasions. The proposals would mean the national flag of the United Kingdom would only be flown above the City Chambers on one day of the year, Remembrance Sunday.

Thomas Kerr, leader of the city council’s Conservative group, said: “Glaswegians have regularly shown their affection for the Royal Family – not least when Her Majesty the Queen passed away – and will give this ignorant stunt short shrift.”

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