Mad Dogs and Englishmen!

Now assuming you are English, did you wake up this morning and remember it was St Georges Day? No nor me. We are incredibly underwhelmed in England by our national day, despite the efforts of a few to hold fetes etc, always highlighted by the BBC Midland News, ever desperate for a decent story, but by and large it seems to go by largely without celebration.




It seems to be part and parcel of the English languid approach to nationalism. There are more St Georges flags around when England play football than on our national day. There have been a number of theories put forward as to why this is, none of which totally convince. Some people have said its since England has become a multi cultural nation with more ethnic races who have no ties to our traditional saint (who wasn't English anyway). I think this is rubbish because I never recall St Georges Day having a very high profile when I was a child over 50 years ago either.

Maybe its because we have a sort of sense of general contentment about ourselves without having to go in for nationalist excess. That's the version I like anyway. I am happy that the English generally don't go for the overt kind of nationalism seen in the United States which can be so easily perverted to a political path by unscrupulous politicians when the Commander-in-Chief is also the President.

I'm told that St Georges Day is making a comeback, possibly because commercial interests are encouraging it, but maybe partly because of the devolution of Scotland and Wales, making the English think more about their Englishness than Britishness.

Anyway its all hypothesis. But despite the changes in the demographics of the nation there are still a few old English diehards left. I went for lunch at my local pub today which is where I realised it was St Georges Day, simply because one of the elderly regulars with whom I am on chatting terms and who usually shows up in his cardigan and flannels, turned up in a blue suit and panama hat, sporting a massive rose in his lapel and determinedly sat outside to advertise that he had remembered the day.

He was soon back in the lounge, complaining that the kids playing bowls were taking the mickey out of his hat. There aren't many of his ilk left, God bless 'em!