It's that time of year that once more when your proud to be English. Now it's not easy as everybody tries to ban anything patriotic and we are beaten down to an inch of our lives for daring to show any pride towards our own country....yet if you are from one of the other countries from the UK (Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland) our councils will help you celebrate your day, they will even put on a parade or a show just to make sure your day goes that little bit better. They even ban flags flying anywhere if you don't have a licence on health and safety grounds.
So today my flag has been flying with pride in the front garden and sod the council because today it is great to be English,......tomorrow may be a little different and I will take down and fold up my flag until next year.
Now it's time to go and drink my little bottle of cheap French beer I have left!
I've never heard of a country where flying the flag is discouraged! But yours looks lovely.
ReplyDeleteThey ban citizens flying flags???? WHY?
ReplyDeleteHappy St. George's Day. I hope, in heaven, that St. Andrew, St. Patrick, and St. Lllywyllwywnynyynnnlllllwynlywnnllllll (or whatever his name is....you now, the one from Wales) are buying St. George a pint of best bitter (well, maybe not St. Andrew, you know how the Scottish are).
ReplyDeletebk - not actually my flag just one I borrowed from the net.
ReplyDeletePastor larry - We welcome everyone from around the world with open arms except our own who we discourage for some reason!
Steve - You will find the Welsh is Saint David, although personally I hope he is using his sword to get his own way up there. As for the Scots your right there is no chance there!
Stu you should check out a major discussion that went on re this very subject on Lone Groover's blog a few week ago (St Patricks day I think it was). Some very interesting viewpoints.
ReplyDeletehttp://thelonegroover.blogspot.com/2009/03/this-is-englandjust-dont-tell-anyone.html
Lou - I checked it out...wow that one got heated at times!
ReplyDeleteSteady on now, Mr-Stu! It’s perfectly true that fervent shows of nationalism are frowned upon (I’m not one to indulge in them myself) in England, but flag-flying has hardly been banned. All C-of-E churches will fly them as a matter of course, despite the fact that the Protestant Church declared the veneration of saints as anathema when they split with the RC church. So will places like town halls – at the discretion of the mayor or councillors.
ReplyDeleteResistance to excessive displays of nationalism is largely a relic of WW2 – I’m sure I don’t need to explain why – that still persists to an extent, though not as much as it did when I was a child. There are other reasons too: plenty of Brits don’t think that they have to make overt displays of nationalism (such as celebrating a saint’s day or flying a flag) to show that they’re proud of their country. It’s long been regarded (rightly or wrongly) that reserve is a British trait. Another is the association with football hooligans and extreme-right groups.
But mainly it’s inertia. I’m not the only one who doesn’t see the point, and/or cannot be bothered to have a day to celebrate our nationality. There’s been something of a revival in the last decade or so, but I can tell you that when I was a child in the sixties and seventies hardly any young person knew when St Georges Day was (I certainly didn’t), or regarded it as a national duty to celebrate it. The general attitude was that it was foreigners with feelings of insecurity or lack of identity that had big national celebrations – relatively newly independent countries or republics, or ones that wanted autonomy being the most obvious.
I suspect you might feel differently if you were required by law to fly an English flag from your house, swear an oath of allegiance to the state, sing a national anthem every day, tattoo a St George’s Cross onto your forehead or whatever.
But I’m not here to start an argument, or even a discussion. Just to make it clear to your other readers that it isn’t actually a treasonable offence to celebrate St George’s Day.
Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy your celebrations – and no hard feelings over our difference of opinion, I hope.
No, I have heard of places where private citizens flying national colors on non-celebration days is frowned upon. Why, I don't know. Most places in the States, you can't walk a block and not see the Stars and Stripes flying at a business or in someone's yard.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, what are you doing drinking French beer on an English holiday? Put a crowbar in your wallet and pony up for a pint of Bass!
Have been following this issue with a mix of horror, sadness and disbelief on another forum with heavy English presence.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid, I looked up SO much to Britain, seat of the Empire and bastion of good language, good manners, fine clothing (shitty food tho) and just impeccable good taste.
Then my daughter found a Beatles Manuscript in the same room as the Rosetta stone. Aaack!!!
Good on you for maintainng your patriotism. There are debates about Australia day too but at the end of the day - I love being Australian and if thats the day to celebrate it, then Im going to come hell or highwater.
ReplyDeleteI still have to hang my flag up (my mate brought it back from a trip to England). I'll raise an ale to the day.
ReplyDeleteSimon - No hard feelings at all every individual is allowed his/her opinion about things and there is a so called freedom of speech, except when somebody is taken to court about it that is, but other than that I think it gives people a sense of pride and something that makes them happy in these days of doom and gloom. It's also better than people using it as a false banner like the BNP or the football hooligans to fight under.
ReplyDeleteYD - The beer was a bit of sarcasm I threw in there, nothing better than a bottle of Spitfire ale on such a fine day.
Fin - You should tell your daughter to put them on ebay she will make a fortune from them!
Polly - It is just a feel good day a sense of pride and as an individual if you want to celebrate then do and if not then that is your option. It just gives you a sense of pride and that is so hard to come around these days.
bangarrr - cheers mate
Wearing the flag as a cape and bullying weak or foreign-looking types into kissing it - as has happened on Australia Day at the Big Day Out and such - is very objectionable. And flags of all nations have been used both as tools of oppression by extremists and propagandists as well as instilling pride. But that said, there's no way this should prevent normal, well adjusted people from feeling comfortable flying the flag - indeed it should mean the rest of us fly the flag more often in order to ensure it doesn't become captured as the iconography of bigots and idiots, as you point out.
ReplyDeleteEngland, Australia and the US have very different positions on the flag - the US tends to be more flag-waving, you English do seem (from here) vaguely embarrassed by such displays of overt nationalism - for many reasons - and Australia seems somewhere in the middle, a bit confused, our debate being complicated by the large amount of someone else's flag in the corner of ours.
Hopefully it'll be St George's day at the Sydney Football stadium today for the Anzac Day NRL game. (Traditional match for the Dragons against the hated foe, the Sydney Roosters.)
Go Dragons!
ReplyDeleteDr Yobbo - You are so right on your comments as long as the flag is not misused and used in the right ways then I see no problem, I don't see it as a weapon to fly in someones face to say I am better than them because I come from a certain country, but to fly it and be proud of it.
ReplyDeletePolly - Go Dragons!!!! Whoever they are...yayyyyyy