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“Britain isn’t cool, you know It’s really not that great. It’s not a proper country, It doesn’t even have a patron saint. It’s just an economic union, That’s past its sell-by date”

— from Take Down the Union Jack by­ Billy Bragg.

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On Sept. 18, the people of Scotland will vote on the break-up of Britain.

The ripple effects of a vote for independence will be felt around the globe and one of the most visible would be to render obsolete one of the world’s most recognizable flags, the Union Jack.

For two centuries, the iconic Union Flag has fluttered from the flagpoles of Royal Navy ships — in the form of the battle flag, the White Ensign — as Britain ruled the waves.

It has been appropriated by all manner of artists to proclaim their Britishness. Ginger Spice wore a Union Jack dress; The Who wrapped themselves in the flag on the cover of The Kids are Alright; and Oasis’s Noel Gallagher played a Union Jack-decked Epiphone Sheraton guitar.

The flag counter-changes the Scottish and Irish crosses of St. Andrew and St. Patrick over the English cross of St. George.

Yet, for many Scots, Irish and Welsh, this symbol of Britishness is a political synonym for Englishness.