Rule Britannia

Some ministers (Ruth Kelly, shudder) have proposed the idea of a bank holiday celebrating Britishness! As you, Dear Constant Reader, can imagine this makes Jae very happy. For anything to do with 1) working less and 2) promoting Britishness makes me smile!

Sadly, as always with the English, there are some boring, misguided people going on about how we should have St Georges Day off instead. Here is why we shouldn't:

1) St George is the patron saint of England. Wouldn't it be nice for everyone in our country to celebrate together rather than focus on just one, annoying, nation?
2) St George was from modern day Turkey. Now I have nothing against Turkish people, but really he hasn't done much for us in the past so why the bugger should we have a day devoted to him??? Not exactly pride in one's country there!
3) All this Saintly business is very Catholic in my opinion. I haven't got much against Catholics (except a friendly disagreement over everything they believe) but again... Christianity isn't really that important to most people these days. I'd rather not have to celebrate a day for a Christian Saint. After all Jesus already has several days devoted to him, so the Christians aren't exactly needing another one!
4) The island of Great Britain has been here thousands of years. The cult of St George hasn't.
5) Britain once ruled the largest empire ever known to humankind. Sure we did some awful things during that time, but we also achieved wonderful things. Time we remembered our past glories and dreamt of future greatness. And it wasn't England alone who ruled the world. It was the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish too. i.e. THE BRITISH!
6) I love Britain. So ner!

I say we name it Britannia Day, and have it as part of a long weekend with one of the two May bank holidays either celebrating VE Day or the Dunkirk Evacuation. Those were our finest hours after all! Or on Winston Churchills Birthday. Oh Winston, we love you!

And no it shouldn't be on the day of the signing of the Magna Carta... I think people who ask for that are missing the whole point of the Britishness part of the day.