I am writing to correct some errors, and to point out omissions, in the letter from David Williamson about the flying of the Union Flag and Saltire on Dunbar Town House.

He dismissed the Flag Protocol of the United Kingdom, which Dunbar Community Council has decided to follow, as no more than “guidance” from the Flag Institute, which is a charity.

He neglected to say that the institute is the largest of its kind in the world and that its guidance has been endorsed by the Flags and Heraldry Committee, an all-party group of the United Kingdom Parliament. Also, it has been adopted by various Government departments and the Armed Forces.

The derided protocol states: “Government and local authority buildings are encouraged to fly national flags every day of the year.” It advises that where there are two or more flagpoles “the senior national flag [the Union Flag] should be flown from the observer’s left”.

On the Lyon Court website, this guidance is echoed by the Lord Lyon King of Arms, who states that when the Union Flag and Saltire are flown together, it must be on separate poles, “the Union Flag being on the most important pole”.

It is this arrangement that has been put in place at Dunbar Town House.

Strangely for someone who wants to break up the UK, Mr Williamson preferred to quote advice from the College of Arms (the English Heraldic Executive) on the flying of the Union Flag. What he didn’t say was that he sourced this from a 2012 article in the Belfast Telegraph.

The flying of flags in Northern Ireland is controlled by statute, and the Garter King of Arms would be careful to adhere to that. For some reason, he didn’t point out that the same article carried a statement from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport that encouraged the flying of the Union Flag daily.

Mr Williamson demands that the DCC should revert to the policy of only flying the Union Flag on designated days, imposed by the previous SNP-led administration in East Lothian. He argues that people should be asked to express a view on the flying of the UK’s national flag in East Lothian.

Perhaps he has forgotten that in September last year our views on whether Scotland should become a separate state or remain as part of the UK were sought in a national referendum. I am happy to remind him of the result in East Lothian: to stay in the UK 62 per cent, to separate 38 per cent (turnout 87.6 per cent). To my mind, that is a resounding vote in favour of flying the Union Flag as well as the Saltire on public buildings throughout East Lothian.

Herbert Coutts Kirkhill House Dunbar