Sorry, Sierra Leone, not Guinee Bissau.

Checked your choices for the new flag, not much choice there indeed. Did not like the ‘red peak’ design. Noted also no ‘kiwi-themed’ flag.

Btw sorry for your loss in the second test, but the Black Caps really lost their way in the second innings. I find them one of the more sympathetic teams, but I think they can do -and should have done- better.

I personally agree, though I have heard cogent arguments for not voting and can support that choice if it is made deliberately. In this case, it was important for another reason as well though. As you mentioned, it may be awhile before we get another referendum. Spoiled votes are recorded and reported in NZ, so I’d hoped a lot of people who supported change but were turned off by how this was run and the choices that resulted would spoil their votes so that the total votes for the new flag plus those spoiled was a large percentage together, ideally over 50%, demonstrating support for change but not this particular change. But there was no organised campaign for this outcome and the spoiled votes numbered less than a percent, I think.

I’m glad you recorded your protest the way you did. Few things pi$$ me off more than people who say they didn’t vote “in protest”. That’s just an excuse for not voting. A protest vote means turning up and spoiling your ballot in some way such as crossing all the names off. In fact I wrote a post on the topic very early on: To Vote Or Not To Vote . I had about seven subscribers at the time, so not many people have ever read it!

The fern is indeed popular here too, and may have made it onto the flag, though many were against it because a white fern on black is associated with sports teams and in particular the All Blacks, and many feel the national flag should say something else. There was always going to be a fern option to choose from, but the PM skewed the pitch from the start by stating his preference not just for the fern, but for a particular flag design, which he and some other Ministers started campaigning for, wearing it on their lapels, etc. In the end, the “independent” panel selected four flags for Kiwis to choose from, three of which included a fern and two of which just happened to be the exact design preferred by the PM, with only slightly different colour schemes. It was a farce and a rare massive political miscalculation for an otherwise extremely savvy PM, and it drove more support to the current flag. As I would never vote for a union jack even in protest, but wasn’t about to support John Key’s vanity project either, I spoiled my ballot as a protest of the whole disgraceful episode.

I was wondering whatever happened to the flag effort. Interesting that the process degenerated into politics. Unfortunate too. I favored the fern design and figured if the people of NZ had good taste, they would agree with me and go with the vegetable. 😎

The Canadian flag (red maple leaf with side bands, also a vegetable ) was adopted in 1964 by a committee which included members of the various parties. The choice had been quite political for a long time, but in the end, the vote was 14 to 0 for the new design.
Happy St. Pat’s!

Yeah – it goes on laws rather than what actually happens. We don’t have a formal constitution which puts us at a disadvantage too. We had atheist PMs from 1999-2016, and multiple atheists in parliament as well as all sorts of religions, including Rastafarian, Sikh, Muslim etc. Plus multiple openly gay and lesbian (and one transgender) MPs. That couldn’t happen in the US but they score better than us on government because of the First Amendment.

Yeah, we had a vote last year with four choices. I voted to change to one of the new ones (which included a Silver Fern in the design) but a majority voted to keep the old one. The whole process was badly handled and it became a referendum on the prime minister for a lot of people, which was a shame. We need a new flag that reflects us better, but because of how it was handled last time it while be a while before we get another chance to change.

Kosovo (!) and Guinee Bissau (!) are ‘green’ too, I see now.