Re: Ken Livingstone and St Georges Day

On 2006-04-23, John of Aix <j.murphy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Steve wrote:
copied to London Tonight, Evening Standard, The Mayor



Is Ken Livingstone embarrased to be English?

I only ask, because despite the fact that London still has a large
number of English people as it's residents, Ken as Mayor seems to
have totally ignored that fact.

Trafalgar Square was redeveloped as a square for the people, a square
for Londoners. So far I have seen the square packed with people for
Diwali, packed with people for Chinese new year, packed with people
for some Russian thing a few months ago, that was sealed off with
fencing to stop people getting in, and absoulutely heaving with
people for St Patrick's Day last month.

Today is St Georges Day!!!

Ken gave us a big screen in Leicester Square showing a handful of
Charlie Chaplin films. Now I have nothing against Charlie Chaplin,
but why does Ken continue to ignore us English people. Nothing in
Trafalgar Square, not even a St George's flag was flown!

Excuse me Ken, but I pay your wages, I pay your taxes, I pay your
fares, I pay your congestion charge, I am English, I was born
English, I continue to be English, I am proud to be English, but you
are making it an embarrasment to be English. How about actually doing
something for the English for once. I've no objection to you
celbrating the other cultures with my money, but I do object to you
doing so when you can't be arsed to do anything for me.

You're right of course but why is this the situation? I don't mean the
lack of events organised by Mr Livingstone, but the lack of celebration
generally of St George's Day. Not within a thousand miles of St
Patrick's day for instance. This is not a new phenomenon, if anything
the day is more marked nowadays than when I was a child (50s) even
though the monarchy was strong then and there were few immigrants to
confuse the issue. But it was considered good form to be British rather
than English, and so I think it rather fell by the wayside.
But I often wonder if there isn't less celebration of the patron saint
than for those of the others in the British Isles because English
identity is less well affirmed. For centuries now England has gone out
into the world, ran it more or less for a while, and so its borders and
nationhood go beyond its shores in a way. It also has a language that is
spoken everywhere and has traditions that come from everywhere, whereas
the other countries are much more 'introvert' in this respect, with
their own special, and localised languages and mainly home grown
traditions. They know where they are with all that, a well defined
framework of what makes their nation, and so can pin on a daffodil, a
bit of shamrock or a thistle and have a party. I feel that is much more
difficult for the English to know what they are celebrating and that is
perhaps one of the reasons it isn't a bigger affair generally..

Perhaps "the English" celebrate and affirm their "Englishness" in other
ways than public 'patriotism', and on the basis of something other than a
'patron saint'. Think of village cricket, the FA Cup Final, Derby Day,
last night at The Proms, Guy Fawkes Night, any Bank Holiday, and all those
trim lawns and net curtains.

Being embarrassed about being English is part of it too.

--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~
.

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