SAINT GEORGE'S DAY

I guess most of us aren’t much bothered that it's St George's Day tomorrow. Unlike the Scots, the Welsh, but more especially the Irish, who proudly celebrate their national days, the English are largely oblivious to April 23. While Celts take great delight in wrapping themselves in their national flags, the English aren't even always sure if they have one in particular beyond the Union Jack...? Well, that’s the way it used to be no more than twenty years ago...

It’s now trendy 'again' to be English, or that’s how ‘the market’ hopes it were and tries its best to make it so, for it's impossible not to be aware Saint George is here..!

However, just as it used to be that most of us have never felt it necessary to make a song and dance about being English, I suspect most still feel the same today regardless of any recent efforts by government and media alike to bring our identities in line with those of our immediate neighbours… I suspect the main reason for this indifference is actually based on the uneasiness surrounding the fact that unfortunately, since Scotland and Wales have achieved some semblance of self rule, just as the Union Jack was usurped by nationalist and their skinhead devotees beforehand, England and its emblem have now been hijacked by modern-day racist groups and their ‘charva’ following.

There remain more aspects to love about England than to hate however which for me anyway are to a great extent based firmly on the multicultural factors to have emerged since the middle of the twentieth century.., and until the bigots who currently wrap themselves in the beautiful Saint George Cross simply crawl back from whence they came, then I won’t be bothering with April the twenty third.