Macron Changed The French Flag Last Year, And No-One Noticed Until This Week
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- Опубликовано: 16 ноя 2021
- In July 2020, the Presidential Palace in Paris took down its French flag, and put up a new one that uses a very slightly darker shade of blue. Mr Macron has been using the darker flag in press conferences ever since. And somehow, no-one [in the media] noticed it until this week. So what does this mean? Does France officially have a new flag? Can the President just do that? Why change it anyway? I decided to investigate...
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CREDITS & FURTHER INFO
Europe1 article and radio clip:
www.europe1.fr/politique/info...
“Is it anticonstitutional to change the colours of the French flag?” from La Voix Du Nord:
www.lavoixdunord.fr/1099237/a...
BFMTV’s coverage of the 31st March 2021 presidential address, showing navy blue flag behind Mr Macron:
• Covid-19: l'intégralit...
Aramis Navy ship by Jean-Pierre Bazard:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
New Zealander here. A few years ago we spent a cool 26 million on a flag referendum. After numerous designs were pitched, debated, shortlisted and voted on, the votes were tallied, and the overwhelming consensus was "What the actual fuck is wrong with you?"
and what was the answer?
@@markonfried we wanted to know what was wrong with our idiot-in-charge that he'd waste so much on a vanity project.
But we kept the old flag.
I actually liked some of the alternatives a lot more.
Especially those with the leaf motif.
@@rogerwilco2 there were some good ones, weren't there.?
Perhaps if the shortlisting process had been run better, one of the alternatives would have gained serious traction.
And I was slightly flippant in my top post, of course. Still, the result was no change, and there was a widespread feeling that it was all a massive waste of time and money in the service of Key's ego.
@@daddymuggle Key did run on a re-election platform that included holding a referendum to change the flag - which he was keen on to cement his place in history. Come 26 Jan. we'll have all the wannabes telling us to change ours - because all the alternatives they produce actually end up being more divisive than the current ANF is - and it dies away until the next year - or the ALP wants to talk about something other than raising taxes and wrecking the economy.
"What sort of things do your politicians get up to when no one's looking" - The German parliament is famous for passing unpopular laws just when the national football team is playing for the world cup.
We did that in France too, until we figured out you don't even need people not looking, just send the police to harass protesters :)
France used to.put potentially-unpopular laws into effect in August, because everyone is away on vacation, so they don't notice.
We Italians have perfected the art of passing unpopular legislation even further. We not only pass those laws in the late summer months (but not in the dead of night like the Americans, that's too on the nose), we craft laws specifically for that purpose.
Our politicians first delegate the task of writing a bill to the government, as emergency legislation.
The government then writes enormous, confusing bills containing every possible miscellanea imaginable, so that unpopular measures are hidden in a sea of other provisions, all unrelated to each other. Good luck finding anything there.
They then attach a confidence vote on the bill, this substantially eliminates any chance MPs have of actually reading and debating the thing, and forces majority MPs to approve it without discussion, using one or two very popular or important provisions in the bill as an excuse for the urgency.
Every major law in Italy is a bullshit faux-emergency decree nowadays anyway, so no one finds this strange.
@@blede8649 I see every government in the EU takes note of each other's techniques to screw their people. Really heart-warming to see such cooperation between countries :x
@@Biouke I think that's just every government in the world. Except for North Korea, The Glorious Leader Kim Jong Un is a paragon of virtue, and his government is the nicest in the world.
What about the proportions of the colours? Many of the flags depicted in this video have equal-width bars of colour, but the traditional French flag had three bars of unequal widths.
Damnit Lloyd and your obscure facts no one had a clue about until this very second and now I'm annoyingly intrigued and will probably spend entirely too much time scrounging on the internet for information on this....You swarmy English peacock, hats off from the colonies.
Only the Navy flag (the "pavillon") has unequal widths, to be easier to see it in the sea
The Alabama flag has undefined proportions and only a minimum width for the arms of its St. Andrew’s Cross. It can even be square or rectangular. It can be a stylist’s dream and a vexillologist’s nightmare. Or vice versa. That minimum width means there can be no Alabama flags below a certain size so desktop flags are not Alabama flags even if they look like tiny Alabama flags.
Unequal colors would be a problem. Every color shows a part of the nation at the revolution. An other statement is royal blue, revolutionners red (Paris' commune riots) and peace white between them. Giving more ou less place for one would be breaking our nation balance. So there would be bad bad reactions and political mobs in France
@@romain.lacroix are there ever no political mobs in France?
The Norwegian flag has to be "high red / høirødt" and "dark blue / mørkeblaa" without specifying what that could be, so we have some variation. The ministry of foreign affairs tried codifying the colours for internal publications, then seen as an official statement, which led to a lot of backlash and later retraction.
The shape of the flag, however, is described mathematically in excruciating detail like someone trying to lob a Holy Hand grenade from Monty Python.
Yeah, that's done for almost every flag. There's even a Numberphile video about how to construct the flag of Nepal from the instructions written down in their constitution.
"What sort of thing do your politicians get up to when they think no one's looking?"
Very good use of the UK flag there, Tim.
Cigars anyone?
???
@@NoNameAtAll2 A english politicial broke the rules (he more or less took a bribe), and the evidense was as strong as can be. The PM and the rest of government did not like the ideer of one of their own getting punished so voted to change the rules to allow bribes. And for some reason the public did not seem to agree that it was the moral thing to do. So now the government is attempting a u-turn and change the rules back again
@@GreenLarsen but not retroactively so the scumbag (whose name eludes me) will
walk free with no consequences...until they need to change the rules again to cover the next scumbag
@@kidmohair8151 yep :/
As a Brit, I’m rather jealous that *this* is France’s idea of a political scandal right now…
As a Czech I sympathise.
as a French, I weep...
Well, the police stopped the rape investigation against the Ministre de l'Intérieur recently and the far-right "intellectual" who has been playing with the idea of joining the presidential race for a while now hasn't officially started campaining yet, so we have a little free time before the next shitstorm. Probably.
This must be white things 🙄
Same here as I live in the US. The GOP is still trying to over throw the 2020 election and we are looking to be in dire straights if the GOP Sedition Caucus (which is most of the GOP), gets back into power again.
Here in Texas one can occasionally see the French Imperial flag as one of the "six flags over Texas" stuff. Being an old historical flag no longer in use, it's the least known of the flags. Thus, people will ask "What's that white flag with the bees on it?" Actually it's an array of gold fleurs-de-lis on a white background, but yeah.... from the ground they look like bees.
Hello roldan,
What is the reason that those 6 flags are risen?
Ha, jokes on you, the French imperial flag did have bees on it.
Though it's not the one you're referencing to.
Ah that is very funny because the Fleur de lis very likely originated as a symbol directly refering to bees, which was a symbol used by the Merovingians, probably to "christianize" it. Napoleon brought them back and used them instead of Fleur de lys. By using a symbol from antiquity he indentified himself as the descendent of the very first rulers of France but distancied from the ones the revolution just guillotined. Bees and Fleur de lys are basically the same thing in French iconography, they just indicate different periods.
@@boerbeun its the 6 flags that have flown over that area in Texas : imperial France, the Spanish empire , Mexico, The republic of Texas (as it was independent for a time), the confederate states of america, and then the United states of America
The last time America changed its flag was July 4, 1960, to add a star for Hawaii. Technically, the design had already been adopted before Hawaii had strictly become a state, but it did not go into effect until almost a year after the statehood was official. The 50 state version was designed by then-17-year-old Robert G. Heft, originally for a school project. He received a B-. His teacher agreed to change the grade to an A after it was accepted as the official flag of the country.
As for France, I like the revolutionary flag better. It has the weight of history and symbolism behind it regarding France as a country. I understand the argument in favor of the lighter colors as a political statement of solidarity with the EU, but also... I just think the marine blue looks better.
I also like the faster, marching pace version of La Marseillaise.
unrelated but that teacher that gave him a B- died this year
"but it did not go into effect until almost a year after the statehood was official."
Since April 1818, any change to the US flag takes places on the following July 4. Thus:
Before January 3, 1959 - 48 states, 48 stars
January 3, 1959 - Alaska statehood, 49 states, 48 stars
July 4, 1959 - Flag changes. 49 states, 49 stars
August 21, 1959 - Hawaii statehood, 50 states, 49 stars
July 4, 1960 - Flag changes, 50 states, 50 stars
The library in my hometown happens to have been dedicated in the fall of 1959, and so has a 49-star flag in a display case in one of the reading rooms, with a little brass plate next to it explaining what the heck it is.
I wonder where the US could put another star...then looks intently at Puerto Rico...
@@jamesnewcomer4939
Star within a star
The navy actually flies a slightly different flag still; each stripe further from the hoist is slightly wider so that they all look like they're the same width in heavy winds, whereas the national flag has them all the same width.
The one used behind officials on TV also has weird dimensions to ensure it looks even on television...
Well, that blows my hypothesis of it simply being a cost cutting measure (all flags the same) out the window!
That is actually the original revolutionary flag. The one with equal widths has been adopted by Napoleon later.
Surely in a heavy wind, the flag would be the most stretched out horizontally, and so would not require different widths in order to give the illusion of same widths.
@@vladsnape6408 It's also rippling, which has horizontal effects that compound with distance from the hoist
" - "
-President Macron
such a powerful quote
Well, Macron's quotes are either great praises towards himself, insults towards French people or plain silent. I'm not surprised at all. Not that I give the slightest crap about that change.
@@Col_Mustard ok but you have to agree that this quote i highlighted was great
@@TeaDrinkingColonist it sure is.
If only he was more silent
The French shrug in quotes
As a french man, I have to state that you perfectly spoke "Macron" and "Europe 1". Almost no accent at all. 👍
I find it quite significant and symbolic that Giscard d’Estaing - being of aristocratic descent, would change the blue of the flag from the original (navy) colour from the Revolution - when being an aristocrat meant you could get your head chopped… to a _royal_ bue. Subtle yet significant.
Macron restoring it to the revolutionary Republican original navy blue is equally symbolic.
I love that the navy was like, "yeah we're not doing that."
"EU can sink to its own dystopic megalomania for all I care"
@mean mole You British?
@@btbarr16 Nah, mate. I am the French Navy.
Nobody pick a fight with this guy. He _is_ the French Navy.
@@Bob3D2000 I fought with the French Navy.
I fought with the US Navy.
I fought with the Royal Navy.
I couldn't walk into a naval bar ANYWHERE without getting the crap beaten out of me.
the navy's ensign is a weird one. It's isn't 1/3 each colour, instead it is 30% blue, 33% white and 37% red. But supposedly looks more like 1/3s when seen at a distance flying from the stern of a ship.
Not to mention more red is symbolic in that it can be viewed as relating to war, which makes sense for a part of the armed forces. But then again more blue would be in line with the navy.
it also helps when the flag has got a bit tattered and lost some of the red bits off the end :D
The 'Drapeau France Télévision' has even more interesting proportions, 40% blue, 20% white and 40% red. It looks good when the flag is standing behind an official giving a speech or being interviewed.
Ah, they pulled a Bangladesh.
Yes, it's called visual proportions. The colours appear more 'even' than they actually are when the flag is flying. It's not limited to either France or naval use - the Tricolore displayed hanging from flagpoles behind the president during speeches and such has been known to use these proportions too, for example.
"what sort of things do your politicians get up to when they think no one's looking?"
my parliament passed a new law in the middle of the night, yet it's so controversial that it sparked massive demonstrations for more or less 3 months
my government tripled the price of gasoline in one night
Hi Tim,
Being Franco - British and living permantly in France since 2004, I was quite surprized by this revelation, I have yet to hear any mention of it on the news, I'll have to ask at my local café when I go for my 'apero' shortly, It'll be interesting to find how many of my 'concitoyens' know of this. Quel orage dans une tasse à thé..!
In contrast to France, the blue of the EU flag will stay unchanged forever, because you'd need 26 national governments to agree on a new color.
There are indeed specific colour values for the EU flag regulated in the 1996 guide by the European Commission and in the 2004 guide by the Council of Europe.
More than 26 governments, because the flag is used by the Council of Europe, which has 47 member states (including the UK).
I think that the EU 12 stars at least was fixed at the time of the Maastricht treaty based on the 12 members at the time. It was decided then that no further stars would be added as new members were added
@@cakemartyr5794 Could you imagine how stupid it would be to add stars to a flag based on how many territories are in the area. (*sarcasm btw. I'm American and rather like the US flag)
@@bbmikej Did Trump consider slipping in a star for P.R., his favourite territory?!
The exact shade of red and blue doesn't matter that much, as long as there's no other country which has the same red/white/blue horizontal tricolour but with different shades, LUXEMBOURG!
(This comment has been brought to you by the Kingdom of the Netherlands)
* confused Irish and Ivory Coast noises *
Paraguay also has the red, white and blue horizontal...with a coat of arms in the middle
Ours is prettier though! Kisses from LU😘
@@DeFausti I did not quote that! Greetings from Brazil
The commonwealth of Andorra-Moldova approves.
Congrats for the musical gags, thoroughly enjoyable! 🙂
Great background music as ever Tim!
That's why I love this channel. An English person teaching a french person that my flag changed. And, yes, no one noticed.
Salute Raphaël, en anglais pour 'learning to' nous disons 'teaching' :)
@@edwardlane1255 Merci ! I'm still learning 😁
Well some French people did cause my family knew.
It’s was on top of my Google news page 2 to 3 weeks ago.
At first I was expecting some “indignation” but it seems like Zemmour took the spot on every other news
@@amell.5461 French media tend to fill the news with non-events when there is nothing of interest to report about.
As stated in the video there is no special shade of blue, white and red written in the law.
Neither Giscard nor Macron changed anything official.
That's the same level of news as replacing your Asus computer screen with an Acer of the same size.
"What sort of things do your politicians get up to when no one's looking" - Well Tim, let me tell you about the British House of Commons these last few weeks....
Here in the USA, we've been having a lot of trouble involving the sorts of things politicians get up to when everyone's watching but they just don't even care anymore.
Given that coincided with the UK flag, I think Tim has a good idea ;)
A very slight hint at the idea that one might look at the UK. Very subtle! 😂
can somebody enlighten me what the British House of Commons have done?
what happened in UK?
Beautiful clip and interesting information. I can’t help but see the changing the shade of blue on the flag as a political statement.
Great music choices again.
The Yes Minister one took me the longest time to get thinking "come on, you know this!"
I'm thinking someone on the palace staff ordered a new set of flags, used the cheapest manufacturer they could find who didn't check the colors, and when they arrived the staff decided it wasn't worth the effort needed to return them.
That's what you get when you send RGB files to be printed in CMYK
that... is probably exactly what happened
This is kind of what happened with the Dublin Gaelic football colours. They began as dark blue and when back in the days before computers they sent an example jersey for a new batch to be made, they didn't realise it had faded to a light blue and the company wouldn't know the correct colour. Which the company duely colour matched to and it has stayed light blue ever since.
Disagree. I think It looks more classy
Chinese suppliers changed.
Based on the things that American politicians do when people ARE looking, I don't even want to begin thinking about what they do when people aren't
Why sully this very French moment?
@@geraldhenrickson7472 You're right. Viva la France!
Politicians are always being watched. Even when they aren't being crooked, perverted, a fifth columnist or a jack booted thug, people think they are. Even the most popular politicians have vocal hatedoms- De Gaul is considered the father of modern France, but while in office his survived several assassination attempts and an aborted coup over Algeria. Harold Macmillan was one of the most popular post war prime ministers but his party won't mention this as they reversed all his policies years ago. Tony Blair was probably the most electorally successful politician in modern Britain and yet calling yourself a fan just 20 years later is political suicide across the spectrum. Many moderate Liberals and even some lefties ones (Hunter S Thompson) see Nixon as infinitely superior to Reagan, Bush or Trump.
@@hamishwhitehenderson5197That's because of the overton window. Reagan pushed it so far to the right that, starting from Clinton, even Democrat presidents aren't as "progressive"as Nixon when it comes to the welfare state.
@@hamishwhitehenderson5197 20 years ago you could barely find someone who voted for Thatcher despite her winning 3 elections. These days it’s deemed acceptable to say you supported her because of the political shift to the right. And the “Greatest Briton”, Churchill, was given the electoral boot just after the war.
Every politician is viewed through the prism of today. Sometimes to their legacy’s benefit and, sometimes, it’s detriment.
Tim, do you compose/perform all the music in your videos? It's awesome!
Great video!
I guess you might say that the revelation of the colour change...
... blue their minds.
Groan! Hahaha!
Oh no, Jago is spreading his puns to other channels too now.
Hallarious, I'm redy to laugh out loud
"I blue myself." - the French flag
While you're on a video abot France - any chance of a video about the Channel tunnel?
Strikes me that Macron has been extremely smart here. He’s likely to face a relatively eurosceptic opponent next year, whoever gets through to the second round, and quietly “de-EUing” his own flags limits the ability of any opponent to make “restoring the true French flag” a symbolic issue in the election: one that would be a no-win for Macron, as he either stands by the “EU blue” flag or appears to “back down”. At the same time, not making any announcements about it or requiring other institutions to change their flags prevents it from becoming an issue in the *opposite* direction. My guess is that, if he’s re-elected, he’ll then mandate the “new” flag nationally, to maintain consistency
Oh my god. He is smart. Or at least listening to smart advisers.
Nice try, could have been a real strategy. But no one in the eurosceptic opposition (or anywhere else really) was taking about the French flag colors, so I doubt it could have become an argument. Add to that, that in the current context arguing about small changes of colors would make any opponent kinda ridiculous. We already had a bit of that when the far left leader Mélenchon started an argument about the EU flag being a religious symbol and so violating the concept of state secularism, and it mostly backfired at him.
I think the real political reason (if there is one) is that for the presidential election (in a few months) there is a strong right that is menacing him. It's been at least a year since the gov started to act on right / far-right ideas (at least for show) with security issues, police... Recently, we also had the celebration of Charles de Gaulle's death, and every politician that is not far left claims to be true to Gaullism. I know there's a lot of prejudice against de Gaulle in the anglo world, but if you look at the guy's history both during ww2 and when he was president, you'll see he really was a political giant who definitely brought France up and even had a lot of influence worldwide (I heard even Nixon had a 10h conversation with him, which may or may not have an influence on the US - USSR pacification of diplomatic relations). Anyway, so in France everyone claims to be Gaullist to some extent (but very few actually are, if you just compare the ideologies, and especially not Macron !). Through "Gaullism" fantasy (at this point, it's so overused the term means nothing when talking about modern politicians), France thinks the past was better, glorious, under de Gaulle of course, but to some extent also under the other presidents before Sarkosy.
So the flag thing may be a message to tell to the French population that Macron is faithful to the French spirit (ye olde Gaullist France, strong and independent). It's also an act to show he is a strong leader, since he invokes the glorious (more martial) past, the colors are more "mature", and so on. Or maybe he just liked the old colors better, and I agree :p
The funny thing is that it had to be Macron, the closest president to Giscard d'Estaing (the guy who changed the colors first to clearer taints). Both dislike traditional French culture (but at least d'Estaing was a cultured man and knew what he was talking about :p ), both dream of a European federation and jump at every occasion to give national prerogatives to Brussels.
@@mythicdawn9574 I was clearly about to comment about the Gaullist aspect of this change of color that I guess you explained quite clearly, so thanks for adding this ! 😊
They can flip the red to the hoist to match it the way most were using it in the First French Republic.
@@TremereTT I am going with smart advisers.
Superb choices for the background music 😄
Bleu marine is definitely classier than that awful bleu électrique. He nailed it.
It took a Brit to make me understand what's going on with my flag. I did notice a lighter colour compared to when I was a kid, but not always, as I live by the sea. Now I understand it all. Thank you Tim.
But... as I read it there has been no 'official' change to the flag, which would, I assume, require some sort of legislation. This video is just about the flag flown at the presidential palace. Such a non-story, though typical of Macron.
Could it also have been changed by D’Estaing because of the wider adoption of colour TVs in the 70s? The lighter shade may have looked better on those. Marlboro did the same thing when they sponsored the McLaren F1 team. In real life, the shade of Red on the cars looked more orangey, but on screen it was a vivid red. Now that we have better TVs, that kind of trickery isn’t needed anymore.
D'Estaing...is that French for disdain?
*Great Point!* Since many brands did so in the past.
Officially it was to match the blue of the new EU flag, but i see your point
@@gustavmeyrink_2.0 actually a former french président (from the 70s/80s)
@@gustavmeyrink_2.0 French for disdain is "dédain". Oh and btw, "D'Estaing" (so a former president name only here) is said like the french word "destin", which means "destiny".
WTF ??? How come I learn of this on an english speaking channel and not on our national TV or something... What a waste of public money...
It gets all clearer once you understand why Giscard made the change in the first place. It was not simply to avoid a clash of color but to avoid a clash of color on TV (also on poorly printed newspapers but it was less important). With b&w television and early color tv the much darker french flag appeared black by contrast with the EU flag. TV have become much better at representing colors and contrast, so this change is not necessary anymore.
Growing up in Ireland in the '70s, we were thought that the Irish flag was green, white and gold, so most of the flags I saw back then were green, white and some sort of yellow. This was because Irish nationalism didn't want to be in any way associated with the Orange of the Ulster unionists. Now that we're generally on friendlier terms with our Northern neighbours the flag is back to it's original green, white and orange, in most places anyway. As far as I know none of these changes were never official.
Officially, and in government institutions, our flag was alway Green, White and Orange, though yes, some public perception caused flag manufacturers to use gold or yellowish orange instead. You can still see some of the strange tricolours in the North nowadays though, because anything orange is bad. Just like anything green is bad in the opposing community.
Flags are a hilarious clusterfuck of a shitshow in Northern Ireland. One politician complained about Italian flags being shown in classrooms... In an Italian language class... because he thought it looked like the Irish flag...
Wasn't blue once an Irish colour?
@@francophone. Aye it was. It was the colour associated with Saint Patrick and subsequently Irish royalty, especially the High King of Ireland, if I remember correctly.
@@cacamilis8477 let's not harp on the past ok?
@@anthonyoer4778 Hahaha... Harp...
Politicians in Germany love to pass _really_ unfavourite laws during major football events. Like holding a late night session during the national final to fly some new surveillance law under the radar. European and World Championships are always their happiest time (and when you need to be the most vigilant about shit not making the news because _did_ you see that game last night?).
Same in the US. Only, every Friday night is their playground.
@@thePronto The Friday Evening News Dump. The W administration with Karl Rove in charge of messaging raised it to a high art, releasing things in the 7 PM hour just after the network evening news shows that are still how the most reliably swing voters get their news but in time for the cable-news prime time opinionators who play to the bases to report on them.
In France, they do that during the summer vacations or during the night.
That doesn't really work anymore, because the german team sucks balls.
In Belgium, our governments always pass unfavourable laws in July-August, when everyone is preoccupied with their Holidays.
I've learned so much in that video, thank you.
I started watching your videos when I was in India and was particularly moved by the one on Afsluitdijk in the Netherlands. Now a couple of years after that video was released I’m in the Netherlands now. I really look forward to see around, especially the ones you’ve covered.
Here we go:
1. Talkin' Bout a Revolution
2. True Colors
3. In the Navy
4. Art Attack Theme
5. Les Marseillais
6. Les Marseillais (slower)
7. Les Marseillais (faster - can never get enough Les Marseillais)
8. Yes (Prime) Minister
Thanks Tim!
Thank you for your service. Some of them really bugged me
It's "La Marseillaise" ;)
@@orhin3231 but there were three of them ;)
@@edwardlane1255 En ce cas c'est "Les Marseillaises". Parce-que c'est "La Marseillaise" et non "Le Marseillais".
@@OntarioTrafficMan interesting - une marseillais, des marseillaises. but given that the full title is 'La Marseillais" is it une "La Marseillais", des "La Marseillais" or des "Les Marseillaises" - probably the former?
That little bit on the speed of the national anthem was both hilarious and intriguing, it just seems so petty xD
I am reminded of the scene in Casablanca.
Presidents spend half their time listening to the Marseillaise, and they have to do it on their feet. I get why Mitterrand would want to shorten the ordeal a little.
d'Estaing hated nationalism and anything close to it. The flag change was to "soften" the colors, make it less martial. Same for slowing down the Marseillaise, because he found it too aggressive (well yes, it's a military chant...). He's the same guy who pushed harder than anyone else at the time to form the EU (legit wondering if the guy wanted to get rid of his own country and make it an EU province ^^ )
@@mythicdawn9574 indeed, frankly I am amazed that people haven't realised that the EU plan is a Federal Europe.
I like that the melody for "talking about a revolution" is playing in the background, nice touch
In France when I asked about the flag to my relatives the only response I got was a unanimous :
"Huh. Didn't notice that."
Which to be fair, is normal seeing as nobody cares about at all.
Was it remarked, accompanied by a typical Gallic shrug of the shoulders?
The fact no-one noticed sums up my feelings on the matter.
There have been many murders, robberies, manipulations etc. that have been unnoticed for a while as well. If you're happy being an ignorant, that's it's your choice.
in Austria we changed one line of the national anthem from "sons" to "daughters and sons"
now it sounds very stupid and out of rhythm
Come on, it's progressive and inclusive!
Cue T.Rex: "You won't fool the children of the revolution!"
I baffles me that they had to squeeze "und" into the text. Couldn't they have separated "Töchter" and "Söhne" with a comma or would that sound too artificial?
I'd have thought that 'Kinder' would have covered all gender differences!
Excellent information. I think it stay as it was.
I love your trolling with the accordian version of True Colours
"What sort of things do your politicians get up to when they think no one's looking?" I'm in the US and....I think we'd best not talk about that here
No kidding.
Yea verily.
Naa,trump tried to overthrow the election and when that didn't work,he sent an angry mob to ransack the capitol.
@@Ron-rs2zl I wish the only things the politicians in the U.S. were getting up to is fiddling with colors of things instead of senators campaigning against Sesame Street's Big Bird for being a communist.
@@noyopacific They will learn from their mistakes. They are learning how to throw out ballots to swing elections their way and the coup will be complete.
Experience has shown that even under the best forms of government,those entrusted with power have,in time and by slow operations, perverted to tyranny.
Thomas Jefferson
Nice thing to use the "Yes, (Prime) Minister" theme at the end. I can imagine the interaction between a French civil servant and Macron going something along the lines of: "Have you ordered all flags, in all cities, on all buildings to be replaced, sir Pierre?" -"Yes, monsieur le président."
no mention of changing flags in towns and villages though?
Wilhelm die Apfelsine :)
Why would he say yes in english but mr president in french?
@@darnellpistachio2991 No clue, but a hybrid sentence like this doesn't sound bad in my opinion.
Love the choice of background music lol
The South Carolina Senate decided in 2018 to standardize the SC flag. While all state flags contain the palmetto and gorget on a blue background, different manufacturers have different drawings of the palmetto, shape/placement of the gorget/crescent, and even the blue color varies. In 2020 they unveiled the 3 finalists and the winner. Unfortunately, they picked the one that looked like the tree was drawn by an elementary school art class, and a huge backlash ensued. They withdrew that version and will soon pick the standard design from the other 2.
Indeed, in Germany, in our flag, we don't use yellow: we use gold. Indeed indeed, we actually do use yellow, we just don't call it "yellow", we call it "gold", because we've been calling it "gold" for, like, forever, and you can't change on how you've called something for forever, even with a constitutional amendment. Btw, I believe there was an effort once to actually use a gold-ish yellow in the flag instead of the regular yellow we are using, but it didn't go very far. So we keep using black, red and yellow, but we would never admit. We're not Belgians.
In heraldry, yellow and white are officially called gold and silver, being the bare metals of the armour on which there were originally painted. Maybe that caused the confusion?
isn' it actually a different yellow to the yellow the Belgians or Swedes or Spanish use? In German heraldry I believe yellow is always gold and white is always silver, so maybe it's just Germans being pedantic or a bit 1848?
Thing is, in heraldry, yellow *is* gold. Of course, white in heraldry is also silver.
As if it would be still accepable to use a German flag in Germany.
@@isobellabrett This isn't exclusive to German heraldry, though. The heraldic names of yellow and white in English are literally the French words for gold and silver respectively ("or" and "argent").
As a Dutchie I love the colors, it's just my neck hurts to see them as they should.
And then the aspect ratio is all wrong. aaaarghhh!
As a German I have similar feelings about Belgium.
*G E K O L O N I S E E R D*
@@gustavmeyrink_2.0 But Belgians being Belgians, they've shuffled the order as well ;)
Lol!
Yo is that the Yes Minister theme at the end 😃
That was a rollercoaster of disdain. Thanks!
This reminds me of that one guy on twitter who decided to slowly edit a US state slightly bigger everyday on wikipedia. Except for every other possible detail.
Can I get a link? or at least tell us which state it was
@@jameswoods8843 I think it was Missouri, but I could be mistaken
@@jameswoods8843 It was a tweet by rob whisman about making missouri slightly larger. The tweet has been deleted, but typing the words "rob whisman missouri" in your favourite search engine brings up repost upon reposts of the picture on meme sites.
Just want to take a minute to acknowledge not just the video but the great comments as well, you've built a really decent community with your content!
That clarifies the situation to no end!
Oh my god, I just realised you partnered with Jay Foreman 😆
We had a flag commission a few years ago here in Scotland and decided that the colour of blue didn't really matter too much as long as it looked good, but if anyone was bothered, Pantone 300 would be fine.
There was no mention of what shade of white was needed.
Though it has been trending towards the lighter shade, possibly so it *doesn’t* match the Union Flag. Given that the origin legend concerns a white cross seen in the sky over Scotland, perhaps a pedantically correct version should be on a grey background ;-)
I'd say change it to the color of the E.U. flag, just to annoy the English.
For FFFFFF sake, Scotland!
@@OntarioTrafficMan in German we would say: "Persil wäscht weisser als weiss!"...in english: Persil (a detergent brand) washes more white than white (a commercial slogan that never changed in the last 40+ years).
@@didierjud8086 It directly translates into "Persil washes whiter than white!", which I seem to recall was their advertising slogan here when I was a kid. Might still be, but I haven't paid any attention to TV adverts for many years.
I was in Normandy in early October of this year and saw a number of French flags which made me go "Huh, isn't that blue a bit darker than usual" and then I prompty stopped thinking about it.
Very interesting video and absolutely hilarious.
Lol clever using the french instrumental version of 'true colours' ahaha
Politicians in Australia get up to many an awful thing even when people ARE watching.
In The Netherlands the EXACT hue of the colours are written in constitutional law, so it can't be changed whatsoever. Maybe has something to do with the Luxembourg flag
How is that done? Is the phrasing really not subject to interpretation?
Yep. And the "Prinsenvlag" ;)
@@michelfug They are specified as: kobalt blue, bright white and bright vermillion red as per Royal discreet of 1937, partly to prevent the re-introduction of the 'Prinsenvlag' as was the fear in nationalist (socialistic) times. In this flag the red colour was more orange-like. Yeah I know.... Anyway, if this was the case for the French, the blue colour would have been specified as 'navy blue' for example and that could not have been changed.
@@SanderEvers You're right!
To be honest, the Prinsenvlag looks quite nice.
Tim, are you going to do a Nantes tour? (Machine de nantes)
I love the accordion cover of “True Colors” at 1:38.😆
The German flag is... an interesting one. The colours, of course, are black, red and gold; but in heraldry, gold is conventionally represented by yellow. So far so good.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior recommends the following colours: traffic black, traffic red, and melon yellow. But in 1999 the Federal Cabinet suggested slightly different colours for the country's "corporate design". For printed media, they specified jet black, traffic red and colza yellow, with rough equivalents in Pantone and CMYK; for online media, they specified the hex codes #000000, #FF0000 and #FFCC00.
However, in the legal ordinance that specifies the details -- but not the exact shades -- of the various flags and banners, the illustrations render heraldic gold not as yellow, but as a metallic gold colour, which German Wikipedia describes as "heraldically controversial".
So there it is. An actual physical flag is supposed to have melon yellow, a depiction of the flag printed on paper is supposed to have colza yellow, but the official regulation implies it's supposed to glitter like gold.
Schwarz-Rot-Senf...
The Germans like it to be precise. The German parliament, the Bundestag, has even its own reserved color, and it is "Reichstags-Blue" (patented by Norman Foster, similar to former 'königsblau' / royal blue, but a shade more democratic and tending a bit to violet depending on light incidence). All the office chairs (design "Figura" by Mario Bellini) in the parliament show this color.
I was torn between the light blue and navy blue. After this video I must say that I like navy blue much more. Seems more right
Sorry, but it actually was shown left all the time. Adieu
As an American who's used to the navy blue of the US flag, I agree that it feels like the more right color.
The political opponent to Macron is *Marine* Le Pen where his favorite color is bleue *marine* go figure
Navy blue always looks good.
@@dontspikemydrink9382 No. First French Republic usually used it reversed of what it is now.
another lovely movie i enjoy the storyline and beautiful camera work
Hey Tim, fyi french people talked about it en masse that day it was announced, keep up the good work
I absolutely LOVE the fact that I, a bona fide french person, am learning details about my own country through an English youtuber's very qualitative videos :') Now this is great journalism !
Excellent command of the English language for a French person
"What sort of things do your politicians get up to when no one's looking" - We know. Ex prime minister and current MP was wiretapped in a hunters cottage. Yeah, it sounds weird but that's Slovakia.
Love the Yes, Minister soundtrack at the end
I loved the change to the ‘Yes Minister’ theme music at the end …
This is the flag we bared to battle ever since the First Republic, and to me it has much deeper meaning than the one we had after Giscard d'Estaing.
As a french, I consider the navy blue version way more balanced (they might change for a darker red too and it will be perfect). I also heard that the light blue was chosen because it looked better on TV.
Je suis Anglais. Je regret ma Francais est tres mal. Les coleurs de la vielle flag de emperial Allegmaine... Sorry, I can't do it. The colours of the Kaiser's old Imperial German flag were black, white and red. Perhaps this signals a closer union with Germany.
I hope not.
@@raypurchase801 Good try old bean !
@@horus8296 Merci buckets.
What's about black? The color of the fascists? That at least would be honest, so then France and Germany can change to the same colors, black.
@@raypurchase801 both countries are on a bad way, just the same totalitarian behavior from politicians in France and Germany. Dark times.
Very cute , MERRY CHRISTMAS x
I'm from Serbia and our government change the coat of arms (and at same time the flag) few years ago and it was bigger change than just color but not a lot of people noticed or cared.
What bothers me more is what our politicians do openly when people are looking and are still praised by almost half the country for their complete lack of acceptance of reality.
Sounds like we’re from the same country.
Guiscard d'Estaing: "Les pouvoirs présidentiels de désaturation allez!"
Macron: * plays _Un_ 'Inverser' card *
Love the “soundtrack” in this one. You could say that you’re musical “true colours” are shining through. I see your true colours and that’s why I lo-ove you.🙂🐿
"Have you checked?" Ooh, good one!
And I thought only in Brazil politicians loved to do things when no one is watching. As my dad says, only the zip code is different, People are the same everywhere....
Cheers Tim, love your videos.
Here in South Africa, we had a complete flag change after 1995... But now we have so many colours in our flag, I don't think even the politicians know what the official shades of them are :)
I hated our new flag at first, it seemed so cheap and garish and amateur hour after the dull formality of the old flag. Now I really like it, vibrant and stands out. Pity it's basically come to represent shameless corruption :(
@@wraitholme if it’s any consolation, nearly every national flag represents shameless corruption
The South African flag was made by a very accomplished herald who luckily chose those dark shades of green and yellow (I know that shades are not part of a heraldic blazon but that is how flags are designed today). They contribute to the distinctiveness of the flag that has made it quite iconic in the world. It is no small feat to combine six different colours in an aesthetically pleasing way. I am always happy to meet it when my local supermarket decorates the wine shelves with the flags of the countries of origin.
@@troelspeterroland6998 it is a beautiful flag. Ours (Australia) is a hotchpotch, with no uniquely Australian elements.
@@RJM56 Yes - it would have been more unique if New Zealand had changed theirs. :-)
Love that you used the tune of True Colors. Hilarious.
Thanks!
Berlusconi tried it with the Italian flag: The green turned into dark green, the white into ivory and the red into burgundy. But it fell flat because he wanted to change all flags by law and people did not like that. Also he had a shady deal with companies that made the flags. I believe that Macron did it not for political reasons and that is why he made no statements about it and also all the existing flags do not need to be changed. Eventually they will be replaced, when it is time to replace it.
to sell french brands. Or... because he plans to conquer europe, or because he started a war against the US and the Giscard blue, was actualy the american blue, or to nuge us into thinking he likes us for who we are... or WTF. As usual.
@@backintimealwyn5736 you mean "What The France" ?
We in Poland have two official flags, did you know that? First thing that comes to everyone's mind when they think of Polish flag is obviously white and red flag, but some of you might have seen one that has a coat of arms on the white strip in the middle. It's the state flag that can be used only by specific places such as embassies, airports and seaports. Fun (?) fact about it? A lot of people (me including) thinks that the one with coat of arms is just better and (me excluding) is using it on the special days (such as the Independence Day) even tho it is *illegal* to do so.
What is the official status for using the Polish underground flag?
I bet you guys also got your hands on the coat of arms flags by steeling them right from the authorities buildings, boosting your own polishness in the process.
Same thing in Germany.
We got a cooler flag with a Reichsadler on it that´s only for official buildings, but many people get that one anyway, cuz rule of cool.
Flag based anarchy over here. The horror. What about the children?
@@martialme84 ...do you mean Bundesadler?
Polish Americans commonly have the one with the arms.
2:40 My God is that the Art Attack theme? That takes me back!
Our politicians have parties when they think no one is looking.
I suspect the 1976 change was more mundane than matching the European shade of blue. On early colour systems the navy blue shade looks black, certainly the SECAM system used by France, A lot of the videos over at INA (they have a youtube channel) shows an almost black blue band.
The Saltire when used in Scotland alone is light blue, but the blue on the Union Flag is dark blue when the latter is meant to be the former.
The other videos didn't include a live view of the flag. Top-notch reporting Tim 👍
Thanks for telling me, I've never noticed that.
Whoa whoa wait what I'm French and these news didn't reach me before this video did, and now my puzzlement is maximal, how did I not hear about that
If there's anything we like more than pedantry, it's vexillological pedantry! I actually had noticed it before - and definitely like the more saturated colors over the slightly faded looking ones. Anything that makes your flag look dilapidated and sun-bleached should generally be avoided.
Unless the flag is actually dilapidated and sun-bleached?
But not vexatious vexillological pedantry. Nobody likes that.
I actually prefer to fly an old weatherbeaten and faded ensign from the taff rail on my yacht, heaven forbid anyone should think I'm some sort of newbie. I do have a smart one for special occasions though.
The clear colours look more modern and distinct though, as a flag should be. So I respectfully disagree.
i'm probably colorblind or just dont know the meaning of words but what exactly is saturated/faded when we're talking French flag? Which one which? I'm serious.
On the Scottish flag, or Saltire, the blue part is a lighter blue than the same parts of it within the Union Jack flag. It's always been that way. Since 2003 the lighter blue on the Saltire has been recommended by the Scottish Government to be Pantone 300, but it's not mandatory.
I love that True colors cover track hidden in there.
Did I hear piano covers of the theme from Yes, Minister and... Art Attack!?