The Union Flag can now be flown on public buildings on any day, after the than restrictions which meant that it could only be flown on certain days of the year - just 18 - have been scrapped. The Union Flag now flies over 10 Downing Street, and will all year round.

This is a very good thing. We are British, and should celebrate that fact by flying our flag. We must reclaim it from the BNP and such like, and fly our flag with pride.

This has quite obviously been done, however, to try and make Gordon Brown into someone seen as 'British', to pull the splinter of the Conservative's attacks on his Scottishness. To that end, he has been banging his "Britishness" drum for quite a while now, since even before he was crowned Labour leader and Prime Minister. But it hasn't, and won't, work. he is still seen as the dour Scot that he is. It is far too engrained in the public's image of him for a few sound bites of "I'm British!" to dispel.

What really doesn't help him is that he represents a Scottish constituency, in which a great number of his proposals - such as on health and education - will not be implemented. Since devolution has come to Scotland and Wales, yet not to England, for the Prime Minister to represent a Scottish constituency is absurd. Gordon's declarations of his "Britishness" won't change this, but rather give the Conservatives the opportunity to point out this absurdity again and again.

Whilst I applaud the granting of freedom over the flying of the flag, Gordon Brown's reasons for doing it are obvious.

Sources: BBC