Si hoc legere scis, nimium eruditionis habes

And we have no plans at all to make the rivers run any colour other than the ones they are supposed to be and beer is sacrosanct! Let's face it, nobody bothers with the day. I've heard them talking about Shakespeare's birthday being today and enjoyed the catty debate between Sir Roy Strong and Professor HisNameEscapesMe [it was early] over whether the Cobb portrait is actually Will or some other dead white guy. But nobody has said "It's St George's Day. Wear your rose with pride!"

This is a bit sad. But understandable. Taking a pride in being English is so easy to twist into an assumption that one is sneering at everyone else. You can wear a "Glad to be Irish" tee shirt and nobody thinks anything of it but any statement that you're proud to be English invites accusations that you're proud of the Highland clearances, the Irish potato famine, the sacking of Orleans and - oh God - almost anything to do with Africa, India or China. Which is a daft thing to say because every country has it's murky history of things that make you rage or cringe or weep and all we can do is say we're sorry and try not to do it again.

But ACTUALLY there are things we are proud of: ( Read more... )

okay /national pride, I'll go back to being slightly apologetic