Dear Larry,
Those red-yellow-black bands had absolutely NOTHING to do with national flag colors. Raliegh didn't do much in european exports back then - that was much of the reason why they later sponsored the Euro pro team that was so successful.
The colors on the seat tube were related to a bike club they sponsored in the U.K. Or it might have been a small racing team. I remember seeing a reference to the exact deal a long time ago. It might take me awhile to remember just where . . . IIRC there was some sort of tie-in with sponsorship by Carlton, before Raliegh took over.
I have a very old Raliegh jersey in those same colors - white body, red sleeves, black and yellow bands across the chest. For the sponsored riders there was lettering in yellow for Raliegh. I'll try and send you a photo. They looked the same as the jerseys that my old club, the Century Road Club of America (John Howard, John Allis, Bobby Phillips) used, except our jerseys used blue instead of red. We used to use the red ones for when we had two teams in the same event or when a rider was trying to "ringer" by riding in a lower category to win some dough (i.e. a Cat 2 rider in a three or four race).
Keep the rant going !
Mike Fabian
San Francisco