I think we view or national flags a little differently.
Whether we should, or shouldn't is one of those debates that needs an evening over a few beers to really thrash out, but sadly, for quite a few years the union flag was 'adopted' by some of the extreme right wing (and fairly rascist) politcal movements.
This lead to many otherwise perfectly sane and sensibly patriotic people avoiding overt use of the union flag for fear of being associated with the racist nutters.
This is, of course, wrong on so many levels, but national identity within the British Isles is complex - e.g. a few members of the British football team didn't sing the national anthem 'cos they were Welsh. 'WTF?' you may well exclaim, but then one verse (not sung much these days) of the 'British' national anthem contains the words:
"Lord, grant that Marshal Wade
May by thy mighty aid
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush and like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush.
God save the King."
.. that the Welsh footballers didn't sing it was mentioned in the media, but it wasn't much of a big deal.
As I said, it is complicated and confusing even for us Brits.
... of course, my country's flag is now:
... well kind of..... where is live now is Wales, but heavily populated by Mancs and Scousers (ie. English), so I think the threat of a horrible death in a whicker man is somewhat less likely than I feared.
[added]
We can't even agree on whether to call it the 'union flag' or the 'union jack' - both are defensible, but you will get plenty of pub know-it-alls telling you that is is only called the 'Union Jack' when flown on a ship.... don't get me started on that one....