Thetownend.com

If it had not been for stfc11 mentioning it on his birthday thread, I would not have known and no doubt the same stands for most others on here.

And thinking about it most of us are more likely to know the date of the yanks independence day FFS.

What does that say about "Patriotism" of our once mighty nation?

I dont think there is any to be honest BR.
Just my opinion like. Why we cant have a bank holiday i will never know.

i didint know, but then again it doesnt involve me

I think that Guy Fawkes Night would make a better bank holiday. At least it represents an event we can all celebrate.

We arent allowed it offends the muslims.

and dragons

Kill the catholics!

Or an attempt at blowing up the houses of paliment. See it works both ways. Everybody can get involved.

Also it would be silly having a bank holiday around now. There's already two in may and it could end up being close to Easter lot's of years.

November would be much better.

That is indeed a good idea . I mean from the end of August we dont have a bank holiday till Xmas day. Would break up the work time then too.  8)

I remember reading about how prison guards where not allowed to wear/display the cross of St. George so as not to offend the "Ethnic" inmates.

Fuck that shite.

I was at a Thai airport the other day and when the national anthem was played I stood (As expected) along with everybody else. And I did it not only because I had to, but also out of respect for the King and the country of which I am a welcome guest.

If I don't like it then I can fuck off, and I should/will show the same respect to any other country that I am visiting.

So how is it different for "Ethnic" groups in the UK? It isn't different at all, if they don't like it then they should also fuck-off back to where they came from.

And for those who may stand up for assylum seekers saying that they have no choice in the matter, well maybe so but they could at least show some appreciation to their (More than) generous host.

Whoops, that little rant slipped out. But as somebody who is well travelled I stand by it.

I got a free tin of Cadburys heros today when I did a stationary order with Viking! special St Georges day promotion!

that will make me popular in the oriffice tomorrow!

Crazy rant. I think that stuff like National Anthems and offending immigrants are more a non-argument made up by the right wing papers than anything else.

On a side note, we treat asylum seekers appallingly in this country. And that's not in anyway to do with them having to hear the national anthem or flags or anything.

I doubt Asylum seekers get as treated as badly as our servicemen though by this joke of a government.

On what basis?  If I were fleeing genuine persecution and feared for my life, I'd be happy with food, water and a roof over my head in a fairly safe envirnoment

I agree CT, France treat their assylum seekers far far worse than we do by sticking them all in "concentration" camps, we have an excellent human rights policy in this country.

People are more bothered about having a bank holiday than patriotism.

Prison staff have been told to stop wearing Cross of St George tiepins because they could be "misinterpreted'' as a racist symbol.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/10/04/ngeorge04.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/10/04/ixhome.html

Maybe a 'Sarcastically' crazy rant Ben, and it may also be a non-argument made up by the right wing.

But I wasn't making it up, I remember the story well and a simple google search will tell you that it actually happened.

Spot on. - and for Bank Holiday read "another flimsy excuse to get hammered"

Which is exactly when St Edmunds day is.  He is the original Anglo-Saxon patron saint of England.  

Good shout.

That's where I disagree. We should be helping them set up lives here so they can work and support their families (if they have them).

At the moment far too many assylum seekers (including children) get detained and there's very much a presumed guilty method when deciding if they can stay or not. Not because many haven't come from bad situations but because with the negativity (especialy within the press) surrounding assylum figures, there's pressure to deport as many as possible.

The report recently released by the Independent Asylum Commission found the current system to "Inhumane and oppressive".

You can download the report from here (http://www.independentasylumcommission.org.uk/) or just read an executive summary here (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/asylum-review-executive-summary-801031.html)

It's actually quite an interesting read about what works and what doesn't in the system. I'd recommend it as a read whatever your views on what we should/shouldn't be doing for asylum seekers.

I'm not really in the mood for an asylum debate, so I'll  leave it here. It's something there's been threads on before and it always ends up going in circles.

Isn't that (Saint) Edward The Confessor who was the Patron saint of England before St. George?

I know its Wiki but it appears to be pretty accurate

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

Quote from Wiki on the Edward Confessor pages:

"The Roman Catholic Church regards Edward the Confessor as the patron saint of kings, difficult marriages and separated spouses. After the reign of Henry II, Edward was considered the patron saint of England until 1348 when he was replaced in this role by St. George. He remained the patron saint of the Royal Family."

So it is Edward the Confessor who was the old patron saint, not Edmund the Martyr?

You've confused me by linking to one article and quoting another. It's easily done :D

I like the Edward the Confessor idea....last of the Cerdicingas.

   Edmund Ironside....could have made an outstanding King, after seeing off the Cnut.

Edmund is the original, Eddie the Confessor came later. :)

Fair enough. I couldn't see where it said that Edmund was ever considered  the patron saint of England.

"Edward III replaced Edmund as a national saint by associating Saint George with the Order of the Garter."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Edmund#Patronage

(Edward III: Reign 25 January 1327 – 21 June 1377)

St George is a Norman imposition.

Loads of England flags up in the office today. Great to see  :D  8)

I shall be off down the pub shortly to drink some ale in a liitle pub in shepherd bush called the British Queen.  The irony of that is that is that's owned and patronised by pretty much every Paddy in W12, even the fucking pikey scum that live under the A40.

just seems an excuse for a piss-up, i mean i dont know much about the history of it st georges day but im sure it wasnt to do with going out and getting hammered (if it is then i apologies)

All the saints days are shit.....most irish,welsh,scots are like us and dont know who there saints were....its just a chance to have a piss up....nothin wrong with that if thats what makes you happy,ile wait untill saturday when weve put the gills down!

Maybe I'm reading this wrong but, despite what the headline might say, that article seems to say that the Prison Authorities stopped them wearing the tiepins because there's a blanket ban on the wearing of all badges and insignia.

OK the initial complaint might have referred to the flag, but basically this is the same as the daft cow that couldn't accept that she wasn't allowed to wear her crucifix over her uniform at Heathrow, when the dress code said no jewellery.

Oh and I do hope you haven't taken up two threads with posts moaning the fuck on about not being allowed to celebrate St George's day! Because face it the only thing stopping you really is that you can't be arsed.

Yes I know it's not a bank holiday but then neither is St Patrick's over here and it doesn't seem to stop the Paddys does it?

And I've lived in England nearly all my life and my parents stuck a daffodil to my school uniform every fucking March 1st that I can remember when I was a kid, and my Mum's Welsh society in Swindon organises some do every year.

Anyway plenty of people do seem to be celebrating the day up here judging by the number of flags on cars and cabs and pubs I've seen today, and I've not spotted a single PC protest springing up to complain about them.

If you wanted a St George's day piss up you should have actually got around to organising one when it was mentioned in a thread on here about a month or so ago. Nobody would have arrested you for it if you had.

St george weren't even english anyway. pah

I had fun with flags today.

and Guinness for the irony.

Errrrm

It mentions nothing about a "Blanket ban" whatosever! Only that the cross of St. george was banned. It is possible that some 'selective' journalism was used here but there are many articles from different sources on the exact same subject and regardless, the whole fucking point of this thread is about St. Georges day and the lack of patriotism.

I haven't taken up 2 threads at all, the first thread, if you had read it, is actually somebody's birthday thread and the fact that I/we can't be arsed with it all is the point of this whole fucking thread innit. As for not organising a piss, again the entrie fucking point of this thread is about the sheer apathy towards St. Georges day by both myself and others.

Perhaps you should pop over to the other St. Georges day thread and say a happy belated birthday to stfc11. And then consider actually reading a fucking thread before deciding upon it's contents innit.

Ooh, get her!
Fair point though BR  :wink:

Uh oh, I think BR may have just started a long-rant-fest with Lumps. That's forum suicide. Lump's always wins these arguments/debates.

I personally dont feel like Ive had enough fun with flags recently

don't you mean wags?

Lumps is ace.

I've just been reading a copy of the Wakefield prison report in question. Fascinating stuff. Interesting how the media pick out bits of things. They do actually cut off a quote mid-sentance and of course it's taken out of context from the rest of the section about Race Relations.

You can read it here if anybody really cares that much.

http://inspectorates.homeoffice.gov.uk/hmiprisons/inspect_reports/hmp-yoi-inspections.html/FinaldraftWakefield.pdf

i think its this country's strength that we don't get all excited by nationalism. america's flag-waving patriotism borders on the naive and child-like.

I wore an England hat at work yesterday and it was ripped off my head by the HR manager because it was highly inappropriate. Ridiculous! Although I filed a complaint under the discrimination act. HAHA!

Are you allowed to wear hats to work?

I'll never forget the time a forum member was asked to leave revolutions because of an england hat. They even said that if it was anyother hat it would be ok, but as its football related it will need to be removed!

The bastards never did get back to me when I wrote to complain.  :x

I've probably got your back up accidentally here, 'cause the second part of my post wasn't aimed at you but at everyone posting in the threads bemoaning the lack of St Georges day celebrations, and there were plenty of them.

And as for the Wakefield prison stuff, the quote given in the link you pasted reads:

"Prison Service orders made clear that unauthorised badges and pins should not be worn.'' As one of her recommendations, she adds: "Staff should not wear unauthorised pins.''

which sounds to me like a ban on wearing pins and badges on uniforms.

No worries.

I skimmed through the report that Ben posted, and at 66 pages I may well have missed something.

The paragraph about the pins does suggest that pins are banned in general, but it also refers directly to the cross of St. George, and that "there was clear scope for misinterpretation.

If it was simply a "No jewellry" issue then fair enough, but why not just say just that.

I s'pose that the paragraph itself is open to misinterpretation. It is paragraph 2.92 should you be interested.

I think it's a bit cheeky how the telegraph cut the end off the sentence in their quote.



But yeah it's still an interesting thing to put in a report. I still think it was a bit of a non-news article in that they were trying to make a story out of nothing. I can see some weight to the argument that it's inappropriate for prison guards in a position of authority to be wearing symbols that could be interpreted to be show support of some prisoners over those of others. Especially when you read the the paragraph in relation to some of there other failings in the race relations section of the report.

I still think it's a case of trying to make a "Political Correctness gone mad" story where there wasn't really one there. Although I'm sure there are more extreme examples of interesting press interpretation.

Well some of you may be pleased to know that my form had to deliver their assembly this week...at one point during it a St George Cross is projected on to a huge screen whilst Jerusalem plays in the background.  There was also no mention of dragons.