St George's Day

[emmelinemay]

A government minister has admitted that the government spent a mere 230 pounds promoting St George's Day over the last five years.

Comments

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

When will people learn that the only way to kill off the racist appropriation of the flag is for right minded citizens (of every race and original nationality) to take it back?

Also surely they MUST have spent more than that? :/

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

I reckon make it a proper bank holiday.

More people in the UK celebrate St Partick's day, and I bet most of them have never even been to Ireland let alone have Irish ancestry. People celebrate it because it is promoted heavily by a booze company, and it's a holiday in Ireland.

Make our day a holiday, get a big drinks sponsor, and boom, hello national pride.

I mean national pride as in 'yay for england' not as in 'darkies go home'. It's funny, I remember pre euro 1996, anyone with a St G's flag on display was racist. Then when England was doing so well, EVERYONE had one. We started to claim it back from the far right.

[medusa-nw.livejournal.com]

But how much did they spend on St Patrick's Day and whatever the Scottish and Welsh equivalents are (I am foreign and too lazy to look them up ;-p)? If they didn't spend anything on that either, yet they are celebrated far more extensively, doesn't that say something about the English, rather than the government?

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure St Patrick's Day is mainly promoted by Guinness...

[annomalley.livejournal.com]

Is large amounts of national pride ever a good thing though? I just don't get it. The way I see it, nationality is an accident of birth, why should anyone be proud of an accident? Marginally pleased about it I can see, and hey, I chose to come and live here so there must be something right about this country - it's certainly a much more comfortable part of the world than many others. But "marginally pleased" doesn't wave flags.

[gaius-octavian.livejournal.com]

Red Ken also spent a bunch of taxpayer's money on it, IIRC.

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

I, personally, think that's a good idea - I think we should support St G's day.

Although a drink company would be better, like with Guinness.

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

Oh, wait, he spent money on St P's day?

Bleugrh.

[dan-lane.livejournal.com]

but what drinks company would want the potential PR nightmare of being associated with St G's day?.... perhaps Lambrini?

[medusa-nw.livejournal.com]

Well, there was the parade, but whether that was privately sponsored I don't know.

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

Hmm. What's british, and not minging?

The most obvious option would be real ales, but they fail in the not minging category. Mind you, I think Guinness is vile too.

[gaius-octavian.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's what I meant. And Diwali, and Chinese New Year... Everything apart from St George's day, it seems.

[quercus.livejournal.com]

How do we "take it back" though, when we never did much with it in the first place?

I can't remember St George's day in the '70s pre-footie and pre-lager - it just didn't happen in my experience, and that's for someone from a fairly jingoistic school.

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

Hmm.

See, I'm all for promoting festivals for London's incredibly diverse population, but to leave out British/English ones is a shame.

We get a bit of that in the sector I work in - it's really important to promote other cultures' festivals and holy days, but we get all coy around Christmas, warning people not to 'offend people' by celebrating or having nativity scenes etc.

Have them all, or have none, that's what I reckon.

(Don't mention the Great Christmas Card debate. OMG.)

[http://users.livejournal.com/eddy_/]

What I don't understand is how they managed to spend only £170 to promote a national holiday. I mean, someone must have been given the job of promoting it to have had anything spent on it, so what was it spent on exactly? Two dosen posters and dry cleaning for those two old flags that someone dug up when they were cleaning out the store cupboard the other week?

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

I think she meant take back the meaning of the flag, rather than St G's day itself.

The flag was a symbol of the far right for so long. My personal theory is that Euro '96 made the St G's flag more acceptable!!

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

PIMMS! Actually I haven't a clue if Pimms is actually English BUT it is nice.

[http://users.livejournal.com/eddy_/]

I seem to recall a report a year or two ago of a council demanding that the cross of St George be taken down (on St Georges day) because they didn't want to offend their rather large Muslim population.

[yaruar.livejournal.com]

although at least st patrick was a british born saint with a strong link to the country. what is the incentive of celebrating a turkish born roman soldier?

it's not as if we don't have enough to choose from

http://www.britannia.com/bios/saints/

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

Yes I mean the flag rather that St G's day.

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

BUT HE KILLED A DRAGON

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

PERFECT!

[gaius-octavian.livejournal.com]

Lots of things are "an accident of birth". If you're tall you can play basketball, doesn't mean your love for the game is somehow less worthy, or that you shouldn't be proud of your ability to play.

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty proud of London, and I've only lived here for 11 years. Come to that, I'm pretty proud to live in hackney, and I've only been there for a year and a half!!

It's a bit harder to be proud of England, when so much of it sucks. But I think national pride (as in YAY ENGLAND, not the racist sort) is actually really important.

It's certainly a shame that you can't talk about national pride without having to add a qualifier in about it being not racist ir xenophobic.

Guy - are we *agreeing* on something????????

[quercus.livejournal.com]

St Bilbo's day !