Happy St George's Day
 

Jumping the gun a bit (23rd is obviously the day in subject), but to all PPruners who are of English extraction, I, a fellow Englishman wish you all a happy and prosperous day. Even the Salmond is paying a visit tomorrow in respect of our National day. Good on him. I will be off to do what is traditional for Englishmen on St George's Day tomorrow, collect dandelion heads for Dandelion wine, always a good vintage from 23 April. I will certainly celebrate with a proper, pint of something brown, Hook Norton is particularly refreshing after the Dandelion hunt, maybe followed by a nice English Whisky (appropriately named of course). Happy St George's day to all, I'm sure there's life left in the old country yet. For those not so blessed, I always hoist a pint to St Andrew, St Patrick and St David at the appropriate time.

Smudge:ok:

Smudge

Happy St Georgios Day to you as well! From a saint that UKIP would ban from entering to work in England and the wider UK!

Facts about St Georgios:
I am patriotic about England, but it beats the hell out of me why we picked old Georgios! The first English Saint was St Alban - he also has a sign of a yellow diagonal cross with a dark blue background.

http://www.blueberet.org/StAlbans%20cross-Small.gif

LJ

PS. St George is patron saint not only of England but also of Aragon, Catalonia, England, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Palestine, and Portugal, as well as the cities of Amersfoort, Beirut, Bteghrine, Cáceres, Ferrara, Freiburg, Genoa, Ljubljana, Gozo, Pomorie, Qormi, Lod and Moscow.

St George is also patron saint of scouts, soldiers, archers, cavalry and chivalry, farmers and field workers, riders and saddlers, and he helps those suffering from leprosy, plague and syphilis.

Isn't StD the patron saint of sink estates?

No mate, that's St Wayne of Mandela House :ok:

Isn't StD the patron saint of sink estates?

Well I got it, Willard, and I liked it too!:D

Jack

Leon,

Thanks for all that I'm sure, but without trying to be xenophobic, I will stick to my own St George, who slayed dragons and did all the good stuff. In the words of a far better man than me ;

"There is a forgotten, nay almost forbidden word, which means more to me than any other. That word is England."
(Sir Winston Churchill)

I'm sure that the NHS found that the foreign St Georgios was not required after the introduction of the condom, and a woman's ability to cross her legs. Whatever UKIP might or might not like is of no consequence to me, today is a day for Englishmen, it's been so in England for a long time despite many European derived rewrites of history. Have a great day.

Smudge:ok:

Well said Smudge.

Unfortunately, the flag of St George has been associated for many years with ultra right wing nationalist skinheads, EDL hooligans and those obsessed with yob-ball matches which feature an 'English' team.....

A report in today's Torygraph states that 24% of 'the English' now consider the flag to be a racist symbol. Who these 24% actually are, it does not say......:hmm:

A similar issue exists in the USA, where the 'rebel flag' Southern Cross Confederate battle flag is now viewed by a significant proportion of the population as a white supremacist symbol with racial hatred overtones.

It is a sign of how much is so tragically wrong with British/English society, and the political correctness cult that has taken over every aspect of life, that displaying the flag of England has come to symbolise racism and polarisation rather than national pride.

In other countries, it is a symbol of pride, the possible exception being our old South African flag which is seen as a symbol of 'racism'.

http://www.pprune.org/data:image/jpe...AAAAAAAAAAAP/Z

Its a shame that in a world where we should be more enlightened and tolerant of differences, the PC brigade have to work to achieve conflict where there was none before. I for one would never regard the standard of St George as anything other then the national standard of England, of course, as Beagle says, some, on both sides of political debate abuse our flag for their own reasons. I didn't serve my time in the RAF to be told that celebrating my national day and being proud of my country, is being racist. Any who feel that way need to think out their own motives first, they often find that its they who are the racists. Anyway, time to collect those dandelion heads, have a good day all.

Smudge :ok:

We have the same debate here in Aus re the Eureka Flag, hijacked by the Unions.

So regardless of who has "hijacked" the St George flag, it is still the standard of St George / the national standard of England.

Down here in Cornwall we have our own patron saint. Not for us some obscure Turk, we go for an even more obscure Irishman, St Piran, who floated across to Cornwall on a mill-stone! Oh and our dragon slayer isn't St George, but St Michael, who slew his dragon in the sky above Helston

St Pirans Day

I've been out early looking for the odd Dragon this morning ... But it looks like the only "slaying" I'll be doing this fine English morning will be the grass banks of Coffman Towers ... Possibly followed by a pint :ok:

Happy St George's everyone ...

Coff.

Yes, Happy St George's Day to all those who hold England dear. And as a Taff, I recommend you say foxtrot oscar to any and all detractors. Without their signs and symbols our countries are empty real estate. Enjoy them and protect them.

CG

Well said, CG. If we're going to insist on strict nationality requirements for our heroes, Richard the Lion Heart and his frog family are out, we didn't achieve imperial greatness until we hired a German king. Even King Arthur was probably a fellow Taff. Happy St George's Day!

Happy St George's day Smuj and everyone else. :)

Concur with all the above but just as important - Smuj - ENGLISH WHISKY???

You have to tell us more! :ooh:

Party Animal,

Actually did the tour here a year or so ago ;

English Whisky at St.George's Distillery, Roudham, Norfolk for fine single malt whisky - English Whisky

And very nice product they make too. Curiously, the chap who took our tour round was an American :eek:

If you are in that area well worth a visit.

Smudge:ok:

The Chapter 9 from there is particularly nice but does it give you a bad head the next day!

Mind you between two of us we did finish the bottle one celebratory evening.

Regardless of our modern ways of giving those who runeth away from the battlefield the right to heard, Happy St George's Day to all!

England oh England a country so great
a land so fair and so true
there'll never be any colours like
the red, the white and the blue.


ANGELIC UPSTARTS....ENGLAND


c 1981

where does the blue come from?


Happy St George's Day, my English PPruner friends.

After a little more research it appears that St Edmund is the true patron saint of England but those nasty Normans changed it 5-600 years ago :cool:

More info here... Saint Edmund for England

For those who cannot distinguish between "British" and "English" (or whose appreciation of our language and National Heritage is too lackadaisical to understand the difference ...)

:ugh::ugh:

If that's in response to my query Haraka, it still doesn't answer where the blue fits in with the English (not British, you'll note) flag/sense of identity.

Anyhow, I'm not too fussed to be honest - was just being facetious.

As I said, happy St George's Day one and all.

Edited to add: It seems we're on the same page this time Haraka, and that you're responding to an earlier post...I think.

"I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'"


Happy St Georges Day

Melmothtw,

I totally take your point , re-reading your original quote -bloody English cheek!

As a Cornish man I never saw any incorporation of our white cross on a black background either.

Yes, as a Welshman the transposition of English/British is a minor source of irritation (for the Cornish as well, I presume), but will let that ride on St George's day.

Agreed.
It's their day after all :).....

Cornishmen 'Know the reason why' nice touch to see 'Baner Peran' on the Royal Barge though.

"Me a le gans Dew Ollgallojak del vedhaf len ha perthy omryans gwyr dhe hy braster an vyternes elisabet, hy Erys ha Sewyoryon, herwyth an laha. Ytho Dew re'm gweressa."

Proud to have served St George most of my life.

"As a Cornish man I never saw any incorporation of our white cross on a black background either."


Nor the French with white cross on white background!

I see that the EU has now recognised "The Cornish" as a minority group. Which prompts the question - who are the Cornish?

I was born in Surrey, but live in Cornwall. I can trace my Cornish ancestry back to the 16th Century on my mother's side, but on my father's side it is all Irish. So what am I - English?, Cornish?, Irish?

The fact is most British people (Cornish included) are mongrels, and all this spurious national or regional "pride" is entirely down to accident of birth. Flags are ok as a bit of fun, but once we start taking them seriously we are part way down the road followed by totalitarian states.

Up until relatively recently, the Cornish were known as the West Welsh. Welcome to the tribe Tankertrashnav.

Geography and the compass not being a Welsh strong point I presume ;)

That would be true Roland, other than the fact that it was the English that called them that. :D

My father was a Devon man; he always said that Devon was a county with Cornwall to the West....and England to the east!

Well there you go Mel, I've never heard that before. Every day is a school day. All my time living in Cornwall obviously wasted. I blame St Austell Ale and Newquay Steam!!

Pretty low key affair really, and soon gone.
 

Saw a taxi go past with some made in China St G. flags flying on it. That was it.
Flying the St G. flag has the look of the nutter about it, I'm afraid to say.
Must be my age and demo-graph bolloxs and social standing and upbringing and background and service history..but I now nearly always think people who bang on about ******* flags and flag days and fly little flags are nutters....

What a shame that Hangarshuffle seems to have mixed up a celebration of an English national day with support for extreme political thinking. 23rd of April has no political connotation, and, the ships he sailed in all flew an ensign respected worldwide. Have your rant by all means mate, but please, don't decry those who still have some belief in our country.

Posted 23 Jan 2013;

"I'll start of then. I never took any sort of oath of allegiance to the crown or the UK people as a rating. In the RN, even the national anthem is never sung, ever. Its hard to feel any sort of real loyalty, in some ways other than to your own branch, shipmates or indeed the RN at times. Yet we were constantly used to represent GB, and do her bidding.
So no - I never felt as sense of allegiance to the UK, and yes, I think things have moved on to the extent in the world that control seems to be slipping away from sovereign nations own making."

Your own words Hangarshuffle, and, you are fully entitled to your opinion, but don't tell me that I'm not entitled to mine. However you spent 23 April, I hope you had a good day.

Smudge :ok: