Originally adopted by the Council of Europe thirty years earlier, the twelve golden stars on a blue background became the 'logo' for the EU and its predecessor in 1985. Twelve golden stars, explicitly ...

Flags in the United States are fairly straightforward. The nicknamed "Stars and Stripes" flag has stayed almost the same for more than two centuries, save for the addition of new stars for new states ...

To be a European is to have learned from history that what starts off as patriotic fervour can, under the wrong kind of pressure, curdle into something far uglier. Most Europeans thus treat the flags ...