New Zealand is considering changing its flag. And perhaps the most striking thing about the proposal is that it seems to have created as much excitement and angst overseas as it has at home.

Britain’s Daily Telegraph published an overwrought opinion piece in which editorial writer Christopher Howse adopted the patronising tone — all too familiar to New Zealanders, and probably Australians too — of an Englishman lecturing the feckless colonials on their foolishness.