It usually meets with a majority in favour, but there are detractors who believe only red, white and blue are acceptable as Rangers colours.
Quite apart from the fact that change strips frequently depart from official club colours, there is a feeling that those who want orange in our change strip are uber-Prods unenlightened, and reluctant to move on.
My own belief is that our change strip should be orange on a permanent basis, much in the same way as our first-choice jersey is blue.
Before explaining why this should be, we should look at the present Rangers colours. Over many a long year our official colours have been blue and white - not blue, white and red although all three colours may now be registered with the football authorities.
Red and black have been used in our socks for some considerable time, but not consistently, and although red is greeted with enthusiasm from Rangers fans, black is almost forgotten until, that is, Rangers run out of the Ibrox tunnel wearing anything other than the now traditional red and black socks. It should also be noted, that amongst traditionalist supporters, red on the club jersey is a less than welcome sight.
The colours for the socks were chosen, it is widely believed, as a tribute to the burgh of Govan, and Govan High School still uses red and black in its uniform. Reputedly, and I have no confirmation of this, ships from the burgh once had red and black adorning their funnels, however, although this Govan connection sounds convincing, it may not be entirely accurate. There is one very good reason for red in the Rangers strip, and it has little to do with Govan.
The appearance of the Rangers strip is undoubtedly enhanced by the red and black socks as it gives what would be an ordinary strip a unique look. Plain blue or white socks cannot do what the red and black combination brings to the outfit, so although we are using what were once secondary colours in our club socks, they complete the appearance of our kit admirably by giving it some distinction.
Orange is a distinctive colour too, and there is little doubt that orange is popularly perceived to have an association with Protestantism in Scotland. It would certainly be foolish to deny that Rangers has enjoyed massive support from many thousands of supporters who come from a Protestant background.
It matters little if our support is now made up of atheists, agnostics, believers and other assorted religious brethren, our club owes a debt of gratitude to Protestantism in the west of Scotland and Northern Ireland, for it is the people of this heritage who have delivered Rangers into the 21st century.
Our future is unknown, and no-one can be sure which direction our club will take in the years, decades and hopefully, centuries to come, but there should be a public recognition of this key aspect in the history of our club, and a permanent orange change strip would certainly succeed in achieving that.
Those who fear a hostile press if an orange jersey was chosen, and there can be little doubt that hostility would arrive in no small measure, can reassure themselves that a proper PR department at Rangers would have little difficulty in dismissing our detractors as anti-Rangers, and even anti-Protestant, bigots. In the land of one Scotland, many cultures, opposition to the colour of a football jersey which has been chosen to celebrate the link between Rangers and the Protestant community could not be sustained provided of course our club was prepared, quite justifiably, to defend its stance.
It would take a year or two for the dust to settle, but settle it would, and eventually Rangers would be able to progress, less controversially, into the future.
By addressing the issues our club faces with integrity, and proclaiming unequivocally who we are and what we are, and by defending ourselves vigorously as and when required, we will reap a greater reward than by caving in to our enemies. By denying our team the right to have an orange strip, the green light has been given to our detractors that attacking and undermining our club can achieve the results they desire.
The fundamental issue in the whole debate about Rangers and the many sectarian accusations that come our way is honesty.
If Rangers employed only Catholics, and the fans sang only songs which had not the merest hint of sectarianism within, if we pandered to our enemies‘ wishes on each and every occasion the next demand was put on the table, our future would still never be free of public vilification at the hands of the growing fascistic tendency in Scotland.
Perhaps the uber-prods have recognised this reality and recognised that the time has come to bring some honesty to the debate. Irrational criticism of Rangers will not subside until we square up to our detractors and out them as the dictatorial bigots many of them undoubtedly are, and this will not be achieved by acquiescence.
The grand delusion that we can move on and discard the baggage of which our detractors speak (two terms I find abhorrent), without aggressively and robustly mounting a defence of club and support, is a failure to develop the spine required to face down the shoddy argument emanating from Holyrood and our national press, and is no solution to the problems which beset us.
Our future will be forever tarnished until we defend Rangers aggressively. The onslaught of abuse, much of a sectarian motivation, which comes our way, will not cease by pandering to the whims of journalists or politicians whose parochialism is as obvious as their intellectual boundaries.
Those who believe that there is, somewhere, a hiding place for us when there is nowhere left to run, are very much mistaken. The time to stop running has arrived. On the contrary, the time has come to go on the march.
Before concluding this piece I want to touch on the last four words in its title - the secret of red. There have been many suggestions as to why Rangers incorporate this colour in the club strip, and predictably, the most outrageous amongst them have come from the other side, however I believe that there is a two word answer as to why red was incorporated into the Rangers kit.
I‘ll share those words with you now RED LION.
If the time comes when our club is requested to stand down red from our strip, as it surely will if a dignified silence is the best we can muster in the face of organised hostility, I hope our defence of this proposed exclusion will be a powerful one and by the looks of our dreadful new kit, that day may be just around the corner.
The new Rangers strip, which I have just seen for the first time, includes socks which to all intents and purposes, are black. Having already suggested why red is a Rangers colour, it is appropriate to explain the significance of black in the Rangers strip.
It has no significance.
Number_Eight