Happy St Georges Day everyone. Fly the red and white flag with pride and reclaim it from the skinheads.
Unfortunately St George's Day seems to have been overlooked for too long. The reason you state above is apparently one of them. Although skinheads don't exist in the way they were delineated in the 70's and the early 80's, the Cross of St George is still evidently associated with them and/or other nationalistic right wing movements. Shame really. Every other country enjoys a national day of celebration. Australia Day, Canada Day, The Fourth of July and the related celebrations of Saints by the Home Countries. If the powers that be feel that St Georges Day has been hi jacked, they should as you say reclaim it or come up with a more modern suitable alternative. Happy St Georges Day Col.
The cross of St George was the symbol of Aquitaine, a part of the Anglo-French territories claimed by the Plantagenets. Probably became identified with England under Edward III, a man who would never have spoken a word of English in polite society, as part of the propaganda claim for this lost land. St Cuthbert, St Edmund or St Edward the Confessor would all be more logical 'English' patron saints, but I like St George as a representative of this mongrel nation. We don't take St George's day very seriously as worshipping saints is a peculiarly Catholic practice, and since the Reformation we have preferred to worship false idols unadorned with distractions like saints and virgins. The fact that we don"t do anything special is therefore much more English than making a fuss about it. To take it really seriously and to be English to the core we should ignore it entirely.
