It grinds my gears when I see our national flag flown upside down.

I remember chatting to an Australian many years ago and told him that the best way to irritate a “Brit” is to fly the flag upside down. He laughed – he didn’t know the flag had an up and a down. Sadly, many pictures in the press indicate that a lot of British people don’t know there’s a right way (and wrong way) either. Our flag does not have reflective symmetry. This is due to the offset of the St Patrick’s and St Andrew’s crosses. What this means is that there is an up and a down. The wide white of the St. Andrew’s cross should be above the red of the St. Patrick’s cross on the part of the flag that attaches to the pole, as shown here…

If you fly the flag upside down, easily done, especially if you don’t know there’s a correct way and a wrong way, it looks like this…

Flying the flag upside down is considered a mark of disrespect or a sign of distress (in navel situations).