In article , Richard Brooks
writes
AFAIK it also goes for the Union Jack so nowadays lots of people seem to be
in distress.

Small nit-pick, it's only a Union Jack if flown from the jack-staff of a
vessel, otherwise it's a Union Flag.

If you look at a proper Union Jack, you'll see the diagonal bars

Presumably the red bars and not the white?

are
vertically offset (one pair lower than the horizontally opposite pair) and
if hung against a wall, it's "left hand down" with the diagonal pair
slightly lower on the left hand side or the pair nearest the flag pole
lowest if hung properly from a pole.

I always worked off the broader white diagonal band goes top-left on the
flag pole, but that falls down if it's seen from the other side.

Some countries print the flag with the diagonals balanced so it might be a
factor of "well, we might be in trouble but who knows ?"

Yes, the Union Flags I have (printed in the US, Belgium and Taiwan by
the way) all have the correct format, although a recent holiday in
Mallorca showed an awful lot of very dodgy representations of the flag
on beach towels, shorts and the like.

--
John