St Georges Day

[Ruth]

So, i'm not wanting to start anyhting racsit or judgemental. We've had the thread about how we arent alowwed to celebrate it due to severe amounts of immigrants in the country blah blah blah....

This isn't about that.

I just want to ask what you'll all be doing to celebrate it. I dont give a damn what people think about me celebrating my countries heritage, I'm an un-judging tax-paying citizen and i love being British.

I've just downloaded 'Rule Britannia' and 'God save the Queen' to put onto CD for Friday, because we'll be driving down to Yorkshire for the weekend. My boyfriend tonight will be strapping his St Georges cross into the back of the car, waving caution to the wind.

Now, i'm no good at deep and meaningful posts like Elbonio, i don't want to make you hate our country for being full of illegal immigrants and our goverment for raping us with taxes, i just want you to be proud to have black cabs and crumpets and rainy summers days.

Tell me what it is you love about being British. Don't tell me how annoying it is pubs are allowed late license to celebrate St Paddys day for Ireland but denied late license to celebrate their own countries heritage on St Georges day. Talk to me people.

I hope i havent ranted on, i hope this had made sense, and i hope you enjoy being who you are and what you do. So what if we arent allowed to celebrate, we should be proud all the time. I am.

I love Britian, i love me and i love you.

kthxbye xxx

[Boffykins]

I love baguette shops. Not Subway, although they are good, but proper healthy Baguette shops. There's a road in Cardiff with about 5 of the things on it. Great stuff

[Zakalwe]

I like sauerkraut and French Mustard...

[ezt]

I have a couple of bottles of English wine and might have fish and chips for dinner, which I guess is pretty English :)

I'm proud to be both British and English but i do think that more should be done nationwide to celebrate St. Georges day!

As to what makes me feel proud....I dunno. It's hard to explain I think, but its just a mix of everything: the monarchy, the (ex) british empire, having our weird quirky ways like driving on the left, drinking 185million cups of tea a day and having weird Sunday opening hours. Actually, I think it's the quirkies that does it - its what makes us unique :)

[Mingtea]

English breakfast, cholesterol, real tea, London.

I love the way we managed to spawn a subhuman race of geordies.

and I love the way we can recognise allied troops in war.

[Zakalwe]

English wine! You're a very brave man. Way to take one for the team in the cause of patriotism.

[Mamacita]

Same as I do every year - post on my primary schools forums wishing everyone new and old a happy St Georges day cos guess what, my primary school was called...

St Georges :)

I love candles, and pasta bake, and Fatboylan for finding me that perfect someone :)

[Mingtea]

FatboyLAN - Connecting couples.

[Mamacita]

(and the rest)

[Say_Ten]

St. Georges Ale of course ;p

[Optimus]

/me shrugs

[Mingtea]

FISH, CHIPS AND MUSHY PEAS

[Cheez]

Originally posted by Optimus
/me shrugs Welsh git, our patron saint kills dragons like yours for sport! :p:

[KingDaveRa]

Same thing we do every night Pinky. Try to take over the world!

[Silk75]

In answer to what Rooth wrote, I consider myself to be foremost English then British then European.

In a way like the Scots consider themselves to be Scottish first, I consider myself to be English and am proud of my tolerant, fair and hard working nature.

Maybe I could recommend another tune for you to download Rooth?

Jerusalem - words by William Blake (1757-1827)

Excerpt of here...

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountain green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among those dark satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.

This will probably be familiar to you if you support England at Rugby, and is considered by many to be the best chance of an 'English' national anthemas opposed to a British National Anthem.

I will finish by saying that I am very proud of being English.

Thx

[Afty]

I'm most proud of being English because we're one of the most open, free, tolerant, intelligent and multicultural societies in the world.

We're so multicultural that we celebrate other countries patron saints more than our own! *grumble grumble*

[LordPhil]

Rule Britania :D

I would have celebrated by going to a traditional English pub and drinking a traditional English ale with some traditional food but as I've been forced to go tee-total for six months because of medical reasons, that plan has been hampered

[Silk75]

Yeah stuff it I am having a curry tonight, a chinese tomorrow, and an Italian on Saturday

:D

[andyf]

When is it ?

[Zenith]

I won't be doing anything for it.
It is a celebration of English-ness in the name of the English patron saint.
Being Welsh, it means nothing to me. Much like I wouldn't expect people outside of Wales to celebrate Dydd Dewi Sant (St. David's Day).

If this sounds negative, it isn't supposed to be. Displays of patriotism are not the same as nationalism, despite what some commentators think. Patriotism is pride in your country, it's culture and it's heritage.

BE PROUD of your country! :)

[Elbonio]

deep meaningful posts? wtf?!!!?? :D


some of the things i like about this country...


English breakfast
Our chocolate + sweets (variety + quality)
Our television - the BBC, our comedies are the best in the world
the british sense of humour
our obsession with the weather
the NHS + social security system (best in the world)
our highly trained, highly professional army + secret services (our intelligence services are second to none)
John Simpson
Alton Towers
The premier league
McVities
One of the best water + national grid systems in the world
A decent system of government
a relatively stable economy + a high standard of living
square crisps

[andyf]

I'm gonna go play some British Bulldogs on Lytham Green, drink some Boddingtons, piss in someone's drain then stagger back home for some Fish and Chips. All while spouting slang from my schooldays.

[Optimus]

Originally posted by Elbonio
One of the best water + national grid systems in the world
A decent system of government
erm, aren't they expecting US-style rolling blackouts in the London, Manchester and Birmingham area in about 5-10 years because our power system is in such a decrepit state?

and as for the government... *cough*

and Chris, Zenith agrees with me :)

[Elbonio]

Originally posted by Optimus
erm, aren't they expecting US-style rolling blackouts in the London, Manchester and Birmingham area in about 5-10 years because our power system is in such a decrepit state?


AFAIK we have one of the most up to date systems in europe? according to the discovery channel anyway

Originally posted by Optimus

and as for the government... *cough*



compared with places like South Africa i'd say it's pretty good ;)


at least we can vote :p:

[Techie]

Originally posted by Mingtea
and I love the way we can recognise allied troops in war.

*cough* dig at america *cough*

[Mamacita]

Ahhh but Zen come on, St George means a lot in Wales too. We have pubs, hotels, schools, caslte and the like all named it.

On the castles front Master James of St. George (commissioned by Edward) built and oversaw a high percentage of our castles. That's why I celebrate the English saint.

Also he's a saint, a matyr, a soldier, I see no reason not to honour him if there is such an occasion :)

[Skoffin]

Originally posted by Elbonio

compared with places like South Africa i'd say it's pretty good ;)
at least we can vote :p:

I don't remember voting for anyone in the House of Lords ;)

[ezt]

Originally posted by Zakalwe
English wine! You're a very brave man. Way to take one for the team in the cause of patriotism.

haha it's actually really nice, and pretty cheap as well. Quite sweet but good to drink at the same time. Much better than i'd have expected!

[KingDaveRa]

Originally posted by Elbonio
AFAIK we have one of the most up to date systems in europe? according to the discovery channel anyway


What we have, is a system groaning under post-privatisation stress.

Blame Thatcher for this one.

When the system was nationalised, we had a massive over generation. This was good for the simple reason that power demand spikes. This over generation could absorb the spikes. Power was plentiful.

When the systems were privatised, the energy generating companies looked at the costs versus the profits and found they weren't making a lot of money. They were generating far more power than was needed (some 30%) so they slowly began to close down and 'mothball' existing power generation plants. At the same time, a halt was being placed on new nuclear plant being built. Over the years, the amount of extra power being produced has dropped so something like 5%. This barely copes with the spikes. More often than not, the National Grid have to switch around power to accommodate these spikes.

The future is bleak too.

More reliance is being placed on gas as a way of generating fuel. Its cleaner than coal, and the British reserves of coal and gas are drying up. We aren't extracting very much coal any more (blame Thatcher again) so we will rely on external supplies. If these external supplies go off, the whole system will spike and die, and we'll lose massive regions of power. Business gas customers are considered 'interruptable'. The reason being that it is far easier to ask your business customer to cut their supply, than send thousands of engineers out to millions of homes to disconnect gas.

Unless something is done to the UK power system, we will be seriously in the dark.

[Afty]

Blame the greens. Nuclear power is by far the cleanest, safest and most efficient way of generating power, but instead of halting their campaigns after the 60s/70s when they had a positive effect on the design and safety features of nuclear reactors, they kept on going.

Radiation and Nuclear are bad words now, and it's going to cost us dear in the long run.

I would be interested to see a graph of price per BTU of electrical energy delivered to British homes over the last 50 years versus inflation and national median income. Fascinating stuff.