Flags have featured heavily in the news recently: train liveries, the Olympic rules and Photoshopped castles, for instance. And perhaps not without some justification, I have been criticised for the extent of my focus on the topic.

But images evoke stories, and this blog’s stated purpose is to consider the “narrative of Scottish Unionism”.

So for that reason, my previous use of a Union Flag icon to accompany my comments was inadequate, because used in isolation, it tacitly yields the distasteful but no less real “Scottishness” argument to the Saltire-waving nationalists.

But by a similar token, using only St Andrew’s Cross wouldn’t have worked either, because it lacks a distinctive “Unionist” component – and I say that despite my stated intention of supporting moves to reclaim Scotland’s flag from the nationalists and to depoliticise its use.

In short, George Foulkes has a valid point. The deliberate promotion of the Saltire, not in and of itself but to the exclusion of the British flag, is indeed “independence by creep”. It’s part of a calculated effort by the SNP to encourage a form of Scottish patriotism which is devoid of any British context, and which therefore all too easily crosses the line into political nationalism.

Countering the nationalists’ machinations isn’t straightforward. They seize every opportunity to mockingly accuse the unionist parties of being fearful of promoting Scottish pride, and despite Annabel Goldie’s valiant efforts in making plain that “the Scottish National Party does not have the monopoly on Scottish patriotism”, their rhetoric is clearly resonating with all too many.

But the case needs to be made: we are 100% Scottish, 100% British and indeed 100% European. We believe, not — as they would portray us — in dependence, but in interdependence, both within the United Kingdom and at the supra-state level. That, to my mind, is the essential “Unionist ideal”.