Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Happy St George's Day
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Permalink Reply by HoL Site Admin
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I've no beef with patriotism of the inclusive kind, but sadly we need to admit that the flag of St George has become tainted by association with the far right. Flying or displaying it cannot escape those connections. So, Gordon forgive me, but I've replaced your image of a tattered flag suggestive of heroic struggle with a less controversial image, of which I'm sure you'll approve. I've also reproduced below a large excerpt from an article in The Week from a few years back which briefly examines the fate of our national day, the St George flag's origins and considers the controversy that surrounds it.
The English have always had a complicated relationship with their patron saint.
Unlike St Andrew’s Day in Scotland and St Patrick’s Day in Ireland, St George’s Day is not a bank holiday in England.
Believed to be the day the Turkish-born knight martyred himself, in 1415 the 23 April became a national feast day in England, “but after the union with Scotland in the 18th century it ceased to become a national holiday”, says the Nottingham Post.
While the saint’s day flags of other UK nations are a source of great national pride, for the English the red and white cross remains hugely divisive.
Since the 1970s it has been closely associated with the far-right and only really appears en masse in public at times of major sporting occasions. In fact, until fairly recently, it was illegal to fly a national flag without permission from a local council.
So why is the St George’s Cross so controversial?
Why St George?
Chosen as England’s patron saint in 1350 by King Edward III, St George never actually set foot on British shores.
Popular among European Knights for his bravery, the Daily Mirror says “some have even suggested that not being English actually gave George an advantage over other saints, as it meant that he wasn't associated with any particular region of the country. There would be no regional rivalry, and so everyone in England could unite behind St George.”
St George is also the patron Saint of Catalonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, Germany, Greece, Moscow, Istanbul and Genoa, although not all have adopted his red and white banner.
Why is it so controversial to fly the St George’s Cross?
The Union Flag and the St George’s Cross “have been tainted by association with the far-right”, says The Independent’s David Barnett. “Nobody seems surprised any more to see some bull-headed idiot draped in the flag and performing a Nazi salute,” he adds.
In 2012 a survey carried out by the think tank British Future as part of a report into how people around the UK viewed their national identity, revealed almost a quarter (24%) of the English said they considered their flag to be racist, compared to just 10% of Scots and 7% of Welsh.
The report blamed the “extreme street hooligans of the English Defence League” for “toxifying” the St George’s Cross, although it says politicians should also take responsibility for failing to “speak up for the inclusive patriotism of the English majority”.
In the run-up to the 2015 election, Labour MP Emily Thornberry was forced to resign as shadow attorney general after being attacked for posting a picture of a house in Rochester draped with three England flags on social media.
Her tweet was deemed to be snobby and disrespectful, especially to the working class that Labour was desperately trying to court.
Since then, the cross of St George and the Union Jack have assumed even greater significance in the national debate around Brexit and Britain's place in the world.
“There will always be those who think that the red of England on the St George flag and the Union Jack makes for a blood-stained cloth too ingrained by history to ever be a positive thing, and that flying either standard makes you complicit in everything that has ever been bad about England and Britain,” writes Barnett.
On the other hand, “there will always be people for whom the British flag is a symbol of the greatness of this country and that to not display it with pride suggests a failing of patriotism that is unforgivable”, he says.
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Permalink Reply by Liz
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There's a fascinating podcast this week about St George on the Gone Medieval podcast with the splendid Amy Jeffs here
G K Chesterton gave us this little ditty which, given Chesterton's politics, should be taken with a pinch of salt
Eleanor Parker on her blog shares a medieval carol about Saint George who was associated with the Virgin Read it here
George, of course, was a relative newcomer to England with Edward the Confessor taking the role of patron saint up until the 100 Years War. Edward the Third was in debt to Genoese bankers and replaced the gentle Edward with the more aggressive George who was their patron. Gibbon, author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire dismissed George as a dishonest "bacon contractor, loathed by Christian and pagan alike" so the ambiguity with which he was viewed is nothing new.
His status as a soldier saint, instantly recognisable, meant he survived the purge of the Reformation although he took a new more martial role rather than the knight of the Virgin. His legend has spawned some beautiful art - I am fond of the Ucello at the National Gallery
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P.S Happy Shakespeare's Birthday (who, of course, wrote the line "Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'" in Henry V) and 250 years since the birth of the mighty J.M.W. Turner who, as far as I know, never painted Saint George.
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Permalink Reply by Martin (Woodside)
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Happy St George's day to all from me.
I first learned about his foreign origins and adoption around 1968 on Blue Peter. Unfortunately there are those (maybe some of the 24%) who despise their country anyway and peddle this as new information. Interesting on the idea that the saint having no association with any region gave him an advantage. Brilliant poem by GK Chesterton, I don't remember reading that one before but it is reminiscent of The Rolling English Road, a satire on why our country lanes don't run in straight lines.
Not forgetting - 'If I should die think only this of me........'
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