Better teach Phyllis before she zips off to replace Mr Sibtijiet Flimkien

Not that the reporting is much better – it’s either a Union Jack or a Union flag. There is no such thing as a Union Jack flag. That is like saying you’re going to buy a ‘cupboard wardrobe’ for your clothes.

A jack is a small version of the flag which is flown on a ship’s mast. When the sun never set on the British Empire, Union jacks were seen flying on vessels of the Royal Navy practically the world over, which meant that the best known form of the flag became the jack.

And so the Union jack became the Union Jack, the semi-official name for the flag itself, which is probably the world’s most recognisable one, along with that of the United States: the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes.