We in Great Britain seem to have a rather uneasy relationship with our national flag.

While many nations embrace their symbolic standard - America springs to mind, but this mindset is not exclusive to the US - there are sectors of the British populace for who the Union Flag is associated with the racists and thugs who hijacked it in the Seventies and Eighties.

But those who have given the familiar red-white-and-blue standard a bad name in the past are not representative of Britain today.

It is quite right that the flag should be something to be proud of, and never a source of shame.

But whether Shipley MP Philip Davies' suggestion that mosques should fly the Union Flag as a show of unity with Britain is a useful one is up for debate.

Challenging anyone to "prove" their commitment to any cause can often have a negative result.

And the question must be asked why Mr Davies has singled out mosques for his suggestion.

It is perhaps not very helpful to put the onus on being loyally British solely upon Muslims at this time.

If, as Mr Davies says, mosques should fly the flag, then why not synagogues, or Hindu temples, or even Catholic churches which look to Rome for their spiritual guidance.

Perhaps more energies should be directed towards making Britain a place with which all its inhabitants voluntarily and willingly wish to be associated.