St Georges Day

 

Subject: St George’s Day

Today we celebrate St George slewing the dragon, (or so the legend goes)  but it’s also
day when we are confused to be seen to fly our flag fearing it is seen as the emblem of a right wing, anti foreigner trope which in our cuddly, friendly, humanity loving society (sic) is completely de rigueur. The Scots, the Welsh and the Irish have no inhibitions when celebrating their saints day,  but we do. There is sometimes embarrassment when the St George flag is raised by a neighbours or overtly plastered on the side of a van since we think it proclaims a certain type of boastful, revengeful individual who doesn’t fit our proclaimed humanitarian belief.
The flag  in this case could project a history of swashbuckling indifference to Johnny Foreigner as we foraged around the world setting up outposts in distant lands and ignoring the protestations of the locals, stamping our authority and proclaimed new found territory, as ours.
The Irish and the Scots have maintained an  intense opposition to any English encroachment and historically there were plenty of incursions, whilst the Welsh, with a more placid temperament coalesced although there is now a growing body of Welsh opinion for more Welsh nationalism and looser ties with England.
The English were always seen as having too high opinion of themselves. This was engendered by the deep class divide within England, encouraged by the exclusivity of an entrenched monarchal establishment engaged in doing all it can to maintain that exclusive divide. A private schooling system which is so skewed  towards a class of people who, not only have money but operate within the closed ranks of a quasi aristocratic society which ticks many opaque boxes such as the art of etiquette and the stigma of accent indicating a social slight of hand which signify your background and upbringing. Exclusivity designed to divide and rule is a terrible inditement of a country,  witness the fact that the majority of prime ministers and senior civil servants come from only two schools and who’s pupils also sit on the Boards of the important industries within the country. This focus of power, no longer ancestral but exclusive none the less excludes talent from other backgrounds and leads to lazy assumptions based on rank and noblesse oblige of the right to be granted a post in the corridors of power irrespective of talent for it. At the heart of our country lies this almost incestuous club who have secreted all the power and whose obsession is in retaining that power.  We are stuck in a second rate establishment where true leadership based on meritocracy is almost impossible.
The lofty expectations we used to have of our leaders is destroyed by the sight of the current political party which governs us by emphasising the ‘old school tie‘ syndrome, and is clearly stuck in the past without any sort of rapport or interest in the bulk of it’s people.
We are in a mess not so much because we can’t turn things around but because we have lost the faith of the worlds financial establishment to do so. Our exit from Europe in a jingoistic assumption that we still commanded the power to go it alone has been a dagger through the nations heart and it’s doubtful if we can recover anything like our past glory.
And so returning to St George. A myth, a legend, an assumption of exclusivity which flatters to deceive and symbolically flutters damply on a flagpole like the nations spirit.

Rule Britannia now has a less triumphant ring to it every year with the one exception, the diehards at the Last Night of the Proms at the Albert Hall but even here, self effacing tinkering is at work to change the format as we become more and more embarrassed as to what we actually stand for.