We forgot to mention, some people might like the European Community flag
and some people want the "UN", and some want "earth", and some want "universe", and some want "no country - we're all in a dream sequence inside the matrix" and some want "a petri dish in a lab experiment of another larger world"... :)
Etienne, let's not go around in circles here. No one is denying anybody their ethnic identity or their political indepence. If Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland are countries BY and IN themselves, then what makes up the UK? The world accepts the term UK as the proper political representation of the area in question. I suggest consulting the list of member countries of the United Nations and you will find that these kingdoms are represented under UK. You will not find an ambassador, or an embassy, for Scotland or Wales even if, as you said, they operated with a certain level of autonomy. BTW, American states are operated independently from Washington DC. States decide issues like the death penalty, driving age, holidays, and so on. The American system is very much decentralized. Washington does not call most of the shots in most of the states in America, but we are all represented under the flag of the United States of America.
I'm not saying they are countries in the pure sense of the term but they are something between a province (or state) and an independant country somehow, at least the way I understand it, but I am no scholar on the subject. The way people from there have talked to me about it is that, for example Wales, is a country under the UK. I don't think there is any parallel situation in the world but it is quite an ambiguous one in my opinion.
I just checked and the constitution is common for the United Kingdom. It seems to me that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would be more than provinces by recognition, but in practice would be quite similar...
The UK and Great Britain are not quite the same thing. Great Britain consists of England, Scotland and Wales (and surrounding small islands). It does not include Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom includes Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The Republic of Ireland is a completely independent country.
The Falkland Islands. Does anybody know what happens for them? Are they under the UK flag?
I'm a born and raised Londoner, we see ourselves as UK and Ireland. Don't mention Northern Ireland as a seperate entitiy, that's still a sore point for all concerned.
You should fold Great Britain and Northern Ireland groups into UK - IMHO
Your flag is correct but you may need to jazz up the union jack icon though; focus on the red and blue, the white is causing it to wash out.
Here's a tip... the union jack is two flags in one. It's the St. Georges cross (red cross on white) and the Scotish Flah (white X on blue). Wales and Northern Ireland are still ruled by the houses of partliment in England however there's a progressive program of devolving a lot of the power to a locally elected government.
We forgot to mention, some people might like the European Community flag
The answer is remarkably simple. Ignore the various comments regarding out of date concepts and ideas. Offer the flags of the four constituent countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland so that members who take a pride in their nationality can so express that pride, and offer the Union Jack, signifying exactly that, the Union, for those members who prefer to show a broader affinity.
I suspect few, if any, 'normal' folk will show anything but supreme disinterest in the European Union flag, representing, as it does, a shambolic mis-match of ideas, failed politicians and non-elected and non-representative self serving egotists.
As per Kingarther's comments, the passport carries the official name: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. From this we can deduce that (sorry Captain Trips) that Northern Ireland is within the UK, but not Great Britain. Rowrulz and Daemon Panda had it right.
So, the choices available are these: 1) just have UK, and scrap England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland as individual countries; 2) just have GB and NI, and scrap England, Scotland, and Wales; 3) have GB and the three constituent countries, and NI, and the UK. The latter of these makes most sense to me, particularly as lots of people in GB get irate at being conflated. UK and Ireland doesn't make any sense at all, really.
Erik, I think you've got the right thing going on.
As you can see, I really care, having put Vatican City down... 
We forgot to mention, some people might like the European Community flag
The answer is remarkably simple. Ignore the various comments regarding out of date concepts and ideas. Offer the flags of the four constituent countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland so that members who take a pride in their nationality can so express that pride, and offer the Union Jack, signifying exactly that, the Union, for those members who prefer to show a broader affinity.
By that logic I should be able to get a Quebec flag then?
Those UK islands and mainland would not appriciate it - you would lose a lot of support :)
I like the idea of breaking it into sporting countries, like Rugby. Everyone's happy with that classification.
But the flags are for "which country do you come from" not what nation are you proud to be from. Or flags should be put for a lot of different nations in this case, no?
These guys were commenting on chess.com forums while I was still PiPing in my pampers
this was once ded...
Etienne, let's not go around in circles here. No one is denying anybody their ethnic identity or their political indepence. If Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland are countries BY and IN themselves, then what makes up the UK? The world accepts the term UK as the proper political representation of the area in question. I suggest consulting the list of member countries of the United Nations and you will find that these kingdoms are represented under UK. You will not find an ambassador, or an embassy, for Scotland or Wales even if, as you said, they operated with a certain level of autonomy. BTW, American states are operated independently from Washington DC. States decide issues like the death penalty, driving age, holidays, and so on. The American system is very much decentralized. Washington does not call most of the shots in most of the states in America, but we are all represented under the flag of the United States of America.