Happy St George's Day, everyone!

Albear wrote:

Photek wrote:Not drinking for january.
Grow beard longer.
Try to represent myself on here better cos people's opinions of me are way off, my own fault of course.

Theres always next year.

Cora, Let it go man.

Dual wrote:

Falsey wrote:

Dan. wrote:

Falsey wrote:I think the reason its 'ok' for other UK nations to be openly proud is because they tend to have a history of being the oppressed, rather than the oppressors.

I know what you mean, but national pride is many things to many people. I know folk who are proud of being Scottish and the role they play within the UK; I know folk who are proud of being Scottish because they're not English. I'm proud of being English - not of our 'monarch', national anthem, or colonial past, but of so many other things. Our welfare state. Our vast diversity and how well we integrate people from literally hundreds of other countries. Our heroes of '66 Our national parks, beaches and castles and wild hillsides. Our sometimes bizarre and inexplicable landmarks. The way our politicians have to refer to one another as 'my right honourable friend' even when they're at each other's throats.

Aye, I see what you are getting at. As I said myself, I am happy to live here, I think its a good place.

You arent going to catch me wrapped in a St G cross flag stamping down the road to Rule Britannia.

traitor if u dont like it strawberry float off
Like if u agree

Photek wrote:

Albear wrote:

Photek wrote:Not drinking for january.
Grow beard longer.
Try to represent myself on here better cos people's opinions of me are way off, my own fault of course.

Theres always next year.

Cora, Let it go man.

Let what go?

EDIT: Ah actually, I give up. I've been trying to give you the benefit of the doubt and debate what you're saying but every reply you've made seems to either ignore most of the pertinent points of my post, paint me out to be insulting you when I haven't, or just straight up misrepresented what I've said. You've broken my spirit and smashed my resolve, and now I must leave forever.

I like our castles.

Castles are cool.

Happy St George's Day! A little late now but it has been another glorious day.You can't beat England in the spring/summer for me. So many fine females around and so little time..

Another quality Photek thread derailment. Cheers guys, it was an entertaining read.

Has he been banned from the this thread until 2017?

chalkitdown wrote:Another quality Photek thread derailment. Cheers guys, it was an entertaining read.

Has he been banned from the this thread until 2017?

I look forward to his posts in the Cromwell Day thread.

The Grassy knoll wrote:Happy St George's Day! A little late now but it has been another glorious day.You can't beat England in the spring/summer for me. So many fine females around and so little time..

You know what - it's the thought that counts and yours was a good one. Happy St George's Day Evening!

I had forgotten it was St. George's Day today until this thread reminded me.

Britain has many things to be proud of - it is for my money the nation that has contributed the most to science, literature, industry, liberalism, and democracy, the single country without whose achievements the world would be worst off. We also have many things to be ashamed of. To play a game that Christopher Hitchens was fond of, we can list many without leaving the letter 'I': our colonial treatment of India, of Ireland, and of what is now Iraq were at times simply appalling. Because I am not a 19th century politician I do not feel personal responsibility for these crimes, but rather I would like to see them acknowledged and learned from: something that as a nation we are quite good at doing. More apologies are needed - more colonial street names need to be removed! - but we do not deny our darker moments and I think we are making real progress in coming to terms with them.

But again, for me, this is British history and British culture. Britain has been unified for so long and become so admixed I struggle to find any significant element of recent English history or any trait of our current English culture, good or bad, that should be celebrated or remembered on a solely English day. For me, it doesn't matter that (e.g.) a particular scientist was born in England or Scotland or Wales - what matters is that he contributed to an incredibly impressive body of British scientific work in a British culture of free enquiry and open discourse.

To address Photek's concerns about Mr. Cromwell, I assure you that - for better or worse - he is remembered by the average Englishman only as a fundamentalist religious nut who briefly banned Christmas; any Englishman who cares enough to dig into his history will be as disgusted by his treatment of Catholics as you are. I have never heard anyone, anywhere, glorify Cromwell or his actions.

I hadn't even realised it was today. Huh.

Semi-seriously, I understand both sides of the nationalism side of things.

On the one hand, England has a wonderful history of exploring the world, bringing some of the best art, literature and technology to the world. Not to mention our wonderful history of oppressing everyone who isn't us (don't hate us coz u ain't us).

On the other, there is something distasteful about celebrating being the 'normal' which, let's face it, is what celebrating being English in England is. I've been abroad and celebrating my Britishness there was absolutely nothing - it was positively encouraged. But that's because celebrating what makes you different makes sense - especially where what makes you different is something that historically might have made you a victim of oppression. Celebrating being English in England, where being English has never been anything other than a bonus, is a bit weird.

twitter.com/JackWilshere/status/591241607380393984

strawberry floating hell.

Skarjo wrote:Semi-seriously, I understand both sides of the nationalism side of things.

On the one hand, England has a wonderful history of exploring the world, bringing some of the best art, literature and technology to the world. Not to mention our wonderful history of oppressing everyone who isn't us (don't hate us coz u ain't us).

On the other, there is something distasteful about celebrating being the 'normal' which, let's face it, is what celebrating being English in England is. I've been abroad and celebrating my Britishness there was absolutely nothing - it was positively encouraged. But that's because celebrating what makes you different makes sense - especially where what makes you different is something that historically might have made you a victim of oppression. Celebrating being English in England, where being English has never been anything other than a bonus, is a bit weird.

Oh well, cheer up: St George is a true multicultural icon, enjoyed by many nations around the world (23 countries, plus countless organisations) - he's not just ours.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patronages_of_Saint_George

Cal wrote:Oh well, cheer up: St George is a true multicultural icon

Ah, so that's why St George's Day is a failed experiment.

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/st-georg ... m-2015-101

This really cheered me up on the whole 'English' thing.

Mafro wrote:

twitter.com/JackWilshere/status/591241607380393984

strawberry floating hell.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/opinion/football-opinion/mole-jack-wilshere-how-arsenal-3330420

Falsey wrote:http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/st-georges-day-and-patriotism-2015-101

This really cheered me up on the whole 'English' thing.

Imagine: imagine being so in love with your country that your base reaction to Kenny Miller scoring a goal against it is to rip your England shirt off to reveal that your skin is literally more patriotic than a £44 Umbro shirt that is essentially a repurposed England flag.

I'm proud to be English as England is one of the greatest countries in the world.

However I don't celebrate St George's Day due to the Christian propaganda that lead to it's creation and the dragon slaying bollocks.