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England is festooned with flags and bunting; the red cross is worn on chests, heads and bags, even socks. It isn't clear, though, what version of Englishness is being celebrated with St George's Day today. Is it little Englishness or expansive Englishness? Is it an ethnic definition or does it include all who live within this geographical entity?
There is an England that pitches itself resentfully against others - the Scots, Europeans, migrants - and another England that embraces difference more ardently than any other tribe in Europe. For St George was a Christian Palestinian with Roman blood. Indeed, African battalions brought over by the Romans were posted at Hadrian's Wall. In 1764, a gentleman's magazine noted there were 20,000 black people in London. Within 50 years they had been absorbed into the population.
Such blending holds only terror for those who believe St George had blue eyes and England was forever Stanley Baldwin's idyllic green land tended by hearts of oak. Thankfully, from Daniel Defoe to the present, other true-born Englishmen and women have relished the mix that made them.
The pride of England is raised by contradictory traditions; it is about argument. Perhaps argumentativeness is a particularly English characteristic - and it is alive and kicking today. Reactionaries and racists who used to control St George's Day and its meaning have lost ground to those who are happy that England is an open and cosmopolitan nation, with more mixed blood and cultural hybridity than the other three nations of the UK. At the same time, though, the BNP is gaining support and hostility to the EU and immigration is rising. Many native Englanders now prefer that label to British - too messy, too diverse, too full of bloody foreigners.
So I am happy to join in today but will I be accepted or rejected? Is the sight of a young Sikh boy sporting a red cross an insult or an honour for England? That is the question. My daughter, who has my colouring and whose father is English, is the answer. The future is hers and in England or at least London. So I wish us all a very merry day and raise a glass - to England and the swarthy St George.
Reader views (13)
"African battalions brought over by the Romans were posted at Hadrian's Wall" & "In 1764...there were 20,000 black people in London".
Possibly, but given the diet of those times, and with the very poor ability of black people to naturally synthesize vitamin D from sunlight, they wouldn't have lasted very long this far north.
- Croyboy, Croydon, 25/04/2009 11:54
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With a temporary fervour this year for retaining the British National Anthem and the English St Georges Day together with a St George Day English meal complete with a 140 years old special recipe for a Clifton (Bristol) Puffin (Apple Turnover )my local daily WDP were not a bit interested when at 89 years of age I let them know of my full support this year which happens to be my 66th Anniversary of getting hit as a Grenadier by a shell in both feet on Hill 143 in Tunisia on St Georges Day 1943 which , with the Spring Equinox being that year almost as late as it can be Easter (Good Friday) , coincided with St Georges Day. BBC TV also were too busy to be interested. I shared the good lunch at Clifton Sausage Restaurant yesterday and that was that but would welcome contact with any other existing Grenadiers 5th Btn which was decimated later in Italy and disbanded.
edi.
re`s Day
- John Morris, Worle Weston Super Mare UK, 24/04/2009 06:57
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Isn't time we English were issued with different passports to those individuals who have neither our ancestry or lifestyles? They do not celebrate our past triumphs or enjoy remembering them, but live in the UK taking all the benefits while decrying the reasons they have them. Those of us whose fathers stormed up the beaches of Normandy nowadays must be thinking that knowing what we know now about the UK, would they have gone so willingly?
- Jonathan Montmorency, cooden, uk, 23/04/2009 16:03
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Stephen Gash, Carlisle England
Human beings need roots and need to sense a feeling of belonging. The politicians will hate me for saying this as it does not fit in with their big 'dream'.
Because certain incomers do not feel this sense of belonging they criticise those that do as though we are doing something wrong and unfair.
I know this as I lived overseas for many years yet never felt I belonged. I used my common sense and came home (to england) and am so glad I did.
This is a great country and the english are good people despite certain peoples' attempts to blacken our name and make us all out to be monsters.
The truth is globalisation and multiculturism have not worked, but of course the politicians (of the UK)will not take responsibility for this. Therefore I'm afraid the english have become the scapegoat in this massive experiment.
As you say though, apartheid is alive and well in modern day Britain.
- Tom W, London, 23/04/2009 15:12
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I am English not British. I will never be British. Like millions I have fought long and hard against the narrow Anglo-Saxon definition of Englishness.
However, all we have been rewarded with is having multicultural Britishness being rammed down our throats. The English flag and Englishness have uniquely been branded 'racist'. That the Scottish flag is also the flag of the Ku Klux Klan, to reflect its Scottish roots, is quietly forgotten. No, every year when St George's Day comes around we get the usual "St George was a Palestinian" (when he isn't Turkish). So what? St Andrew was a wandering Jew, but that doesn't get a mention. Perversely, although St George wasn't English, flying his flag and celebrating St George's Day is 'racist' and 'extreme'.
British multicultural diversity is, in reality, exclusivity, with the English being excluded. Only in English schools is 'Britishness' being force-fed. In Scotland and Wales, Scottishness and Welshness are encouraged.
The English re-adopted the Cross of St George to get away from the racism tainting the Union Jack, but that didn't stop the lying Anglophobes attacking the English. Even Searchlight acknowledged this re-adoption as a good sign, but the Anti-English BBC still chooses to call football violence 'the English disease'.
Apartheid is in full swing in the UK, and it is against the English. Ask English students and elderly folk, for a start. Fairness isn't a British characteristic, it is an English one.
- Stephen Gash, Carlisle England, 23/04/2009 14:36
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Hostility to immigration may well be rising, but perhaps the difference between today and the past is that it is not linked to racism. Complaints recently have often been about immigrants from East Europe who are white, and the Staythorpe protest was about Spanish workers.
The nature of the protests is also not racial, because the issue is economic, i.e. they are working cheaper and undercutting British workers, it not a protest for social reasons, i.e don't want people with a different skin colour working in the UK.
- Manny Goldstein, London, UK, 23/04/2009 14:27
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I love England, the land, the people, the humour, the commerce, the history its all world class. But anyone who knows anything about England will see the irony of celebrating a catholic saint's day given one of the most important events to benefit England was giving the Catholic church the shove by dear old Henry. Most of us these days are so interbred British is more suitable a label but tell that to the celts !!!
- Stuz Graz, Wimbledon, England, 23/04/2009 14:00
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What a fab set of comments, far better than those on the other article about celebrating ST GEorge's day - which sadly seems to showcase that other english trait - whinging.
Here's to celebrating St George and England in all its glory.
- Jc, se1, 23/04/2009 13:38
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Of course you are welcome at any celebration of St George's Day, Yasmin, and at any other English celebration. My father, a Scotsman who spent most of his working life in England, told me that he had no complaint against the English, who had always made him welcome.
And it's not 'little England' that you have to fear. The 'Little Englanders' were 19th century Radical members of the Liberal Party who opposed the expansion of the British empire. They did not wish to rule over other peoples. Today, Little Englanders oppose the EU because they do not wish to be ruled over by other peoples either. It is the Greater Englanders who caused all the trouble! They invented the UK.
England has always been inclusive. I heard the historian, Michael Wood, say on Radio 4 this morning that when Athelstan proclaimed the English nation state in 927 AD it had the allegiance not only of Anglo-Saxon Danes but also of Danes and Norwegians within its borders.
The trouble is that the British govt (run largely by Greater Englanders and Scots Unionists)does not want us to be English. The Dept of Culture Media & Sport has spent a measly £116 promoting St George's Day. Give the Minister a rocket!
- Ian Campbell, W Horsley Surrey England and Tiree Scotland, 23/04/2009 13:37
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It's just England - yesterday, today and tomorrow. A country that has always been a melting pot of people who have been happy to be absorbed into our beloved England. St George's day is for all those people regardless of race creed or colour whose first love and loyalty is to England, their home, whether going back generations or newly arrived.
- Peter, Grundisburgh, 23/04/2009 12:45
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The english have absolutely no problem with people settling here who wish to integrate. What we have a problem with is people settling here and then wanting us to change our laws and culture to suit them.
- Tom W, London, 23/04/2009 12:17
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Let's all enjoy ST. GEORGE'S DAY, & every day! God bless us everyone!
- Ann Bavage, STOCKTON-on-TEES CLEVELAND, 23/04/2009 12:12
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Personally, with or without St Georges Day, I love England, it's diversity, it's people and it's awsome countryside. Long Live England!
- Liam, Yorkshire, UK, 23/04/2009 11:54
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