Clue us Yankees in, would you, Keith?
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UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]-->Gladly Jim. Do you want the long or the short version? This is the short version. April 23rd is St George's Day, the patron Saint of England. The fact that he is a Saint in around 17 other countries is by the by. St Patrick, Patron Saint of Ireland, for example was Welsh.
What matters I suppose, is that many of us were brought up to be "British" rather than "English" - Britain being the Act of Union between Scotland and England and Great Britain being the amalgamation of England Wales Scotland and Northern Ireland.
It is an area which many Americans find confusing and not without good reason, thus they have always equated the national flag of England with the flag of Great Britain.
This is fine until we entered the period of "National Awareness" a phenomena largely highlighted by the contemporary Balkan Wars and events in Chechneya.
Suddenly everyone wanted to celebrate their national heritage, despite the irony of EEC efforts to combine us into a Federal Europe.
More recently of course came the issue of Welsh devolution, Scottish Independence plus the receded threat of civil war in Northern Ireland, where a majority of the population wanted to maintain union with Great Britain whilst the remainder loosely wanted the region to become politically reunited with Eire (I am purposely not getting involved with any religious or political issue - just the simple fact of a percentage for and against)
OK that roughly brings us up to date. St Georges Day has never really been celebrated because, as previously stated, we English were happily morphed into "British" for many centuries and had no awareness of what exactly being "English" actually was.
Our erstwhile national "Partners" which make up the Union (as in United Kingdom) and many other nation's on this Earth however, including, I have to say, but not limited to, Americans, Australians, South Africans, French etc., seemed in no doubt that the "Bastard English" were (and still are) responsible for probably 99% of the world's ills including events that transpired long before England was a nation.
Ironically, Germany has a soft spot for us which is not unexpected as probably 50% of our 'mongrel' make-up could be said to be either Germanic or Norse in make-up.
These events have not been assisted by the rise of the world "blame culture" which seeks to place blame everywhere for past events out of context on other nations and people.
So, basically, the English are an isolated people in a pariah state with no sense of "being." For example, we do not even have a national dress unlike the Scottish Irish & Welsh.
What's to be done? There has been a resurgance of "Englishness" in recent years and a movement to heavily promote St Georges Day. It hasn't worked at least only in fits and starts, and one of the reasons is that the English Flag is viewed as a racist symbol in many quarters. Ironic to contemplate that whereas the English flag symbolises repression but the Scottish flag equates to "freedom".
This news item goes some way to illustrate the dilemma we face:
BBC News - Sussex Police defend handling of Brighton nationalist march
So, there we are. A "Nation" without an anchor. I for one am proud of being English, even at the point of violence against my person which I could certainly expect in parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland.
So, I am proudly celebrating St Georges Day in the hope that eventually, England can become a nation in it's own right once more, having given the world so many positive things over the past 10 centuries.
There is is from my personal and hardly educated viewpoint Jim, but doubtless you will also hear desperate tales about the "Bastard English" from other sources before this day is done.
Sunder Katwala: It's time for an English national anthem from England's rugby team Comment
I'll bet it wasn't the answer you were expecting Jim!
Ian, it was her mother, and I swear I never kissed her...:shocked: