I'm not an English nationalist. Partly because I'm not a nationalist of any kind and in my metro-sexual, jet-setting, post-modern, tepidly Euro-positive way, I find the whole thing a bit 19th century. Oh yes, and I quite like Britain, for all its absurdities and problems. And if I lived in England rather than the UK, the voice of 'Middle England' would become stronger and reading the Daily Mail would soon become compulsory...
So like most Englishmen, I've never felt particularly compelled to celebrate St George's Day, and when foreigners ask me what we do to celebrate our national day, I've generally shrugged and said 'drink a pint of Guiness, or some Castlemaine XXXX, or something'.
For a minute, however, I changed my mind. I certainly didn't want to start having to run around the streets waving the flag, singing God Save the Queen and blaming everything on immigrants, but any excuse for another holiday seemed to be a good one.
But then I read this, and I've just changed my mind back. It appears that St George's Day might replace the May Day Bank Holiday, rather than be an additional one. That's no good. Admittedly, if St George's Day was in October or something, I might support this idea as part of my celebration reorientation, but as it isn't, then forget it. And anyway, I don't really want to be agreeing with Conservative MPs who dress their bulldogs in Union Jack waistcoats ...
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2 comments:
He's not just the saint of England, you know. Check it out grumblesta:
http://farmerversusfox.blogspot.com/2004/05/my-favorite-saint.html
- Alex
That man is now my MP thanks to a border change a couple of months back. Actually border changes is something he's quite keen on. He also has suggested that Havering should be 're-patriated' back into Essex proper.
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