[Mobius]

Depends.

If you're proud of your artists(like Shakespeare, Beckett, Turner, Joyce, etc. etc.)no one can accuse you, but...if you're so proud of the Dominions in a very jingoistic way your pride can be easily considered racism.

I'd like to mention the Italian pride...we're proud of our artists and we really love the Romans and the Greeks for their monuments. We DON'T like their and our errors, we consider things(like the above mentioned Art)that have nothing to do with...bad episodes.

[karajorma]

I've never seen much point in trying to revive St. George's Day. It's not like he's particularly associated with the English or England anyway beyond the fact that the flag is named after him.

St George's day is celebrated by several nations, kingdoms, counties, and cities, of which Saint George is the patron saint, including England, the old kingdoms and counties of the Crown of Aragon in Spain - Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia; Portugal, Georgia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Macedonia, and the city of Moscow in Russia.

See?

If you want to pick a national day (and I fully agree that we should) let's pick something good.

I'd suggest 25 October as the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt or 26 August for the Battle of Crecy. If you can't get the English to unite behind the idea of remembering kicking the **** out of the French we might as well give up on national identity and petition for the Welsh to annex us.

[captain-custard]

Depends.

If you're proud of your artists(like Shakespeare, Beckett, Turner, Joyce, etc. etc.)no one can accuse you, but...if you're so proud of the Dominions in a very jingoistic way your pride can be easily considered racism.

I'd like to mention the Italian pride...we're proud of our artists and we really love the Romans and the Greeks for their monuments. We DON'T like their and our errors, we consider things(like the above mentioned Art)that have nothing to do with...bad episodes.

mmmmm; joyce was irish ............ beckett spent most of his life in france and im not to sure he was english either.....

if we have something to be proud of as english ppl then how about we were one of the 1st countries to abolish slavery (.... not for moral reasons though !!!!!!!!)

i personally celebrate our multicultural roots, the true european language......... and until we can celebrate the death of Thatcher i will leave it at that ....

[Mobius]

Kicking the sh*t out of the French? See, that's racism!

mmmmm; joyce was irish ............ beckett spent most of his life in france and im not to sure he was english either.....

if we have something to be proud of as english ppl then how about we were one of the 1st countries to abolish slavery (.... not for moral reasons though !!!!!!!!)

i personally celebrate our multicultural roots, the true european language......... and until we can celebrate the death of Thatcher i will leave it at that ....

I was generalizing(GB&Ireland instead of England).

Well England got rid off death penalty in 1970-1972(I don't remember the exact date), Italy did it about 100 years before(Mussolini reintroduced it for 20 years, that was a dark page of History). In addition, it's a country that spends too much in armaments: it's a matter of opinions wheter or not it's a good thing.

[Colonol Dekker]

  Too much????


Not enough more like, but that's a different arguement in the pipeline....

Kicking the sh*t out of the French? See, that's racism!

 

[Mobius]

We proudly remember the battles against Austria, "the oppressor", but we do that with a completely different style, by respecting the old enemy.

[Colonol Dekker]

I meant

it's a country that spends too much in armaments:

when i said "not enough ??"

Anyhoo, St Georges Day is over for another year,.............and i'm 26 tomorrow WHoohOo/__!!!

Now i'm nealry in my 27th year the glimmer has left the world and i'm nearly collecting my pension...

[Flipside]

@Mobius

The rivalry between the French and English is much the same way, we don't hate each other at all, but we have about 7-800 years of history, during most of which we were trying to invade each other, the Spanish and Dutch were also involved but you can rest assured that whilst both the English and the French will frequently poke fun at each other for various battles throughout history, it is done more out of 'poking fun' than racism on either side, it's kind of like a Scottish football supporter deliberately supporting the other side whenever England are playing, it just winds up those who are overly nationalistic.

Edit: And that's ignoring the fact that I don't think it's possible for the English or French or, indeed, most of Europe to be racist to each other, because we are all the same race, we've been inter-mixed for so long that most notable figures have their roots in several countries. It's kind of like saying that a Californian who says he hates Floridians is a racist, he isn't, he might be a bigot, but he isn't racist.

[Nuke]

those pesky floridians, messing with out elections, grrrr!

i'm one of those people who figures that racism is embedded deep in the primal brain of pretty much every critter with a brain. such critters had to b e judgmental of other species. is it food, is it a threat? its just one of those basic instincts. you may use your higher brain functions to counter that instinct, but it cannot be switched off. in that respect everyone is racist.

on the subject of slavery, if you look far enough into the past you will find that every race has practiced it and every race has been enslaved. slavery still goes on in some places. i find every time someone of a different race uses slavery to explain why all white people are racists. they never consider that it was those same people who abolished slavery in the first place. the civil war was one of the most bloody conflicts of all history and how many white union soldiers had to die to end slavery. civil rights may have taken longer to gain, and less blood, but you got em. i don't know how it all wend down in the uk.

but i am tired of white people not having any pride for who they are or where they come from. no other race seems to have so forgotten their ancient past, their ancestors, and their old folkways, as much as white people. watching white teens dress up the way black teens do, listen to mostly black music, and thinking that being white is evil. that is nothing but self racism. and all this government enforced counter racism is something i do not tolerate. people seem to think that national pride == nazism. anybody who thinks that should take a look at themselves and see if they hate what they see.

[Colonol Dekker]

but i am tired of white people not having any pride for who they are or where they come from. no other race seems to have so forgotten their ancient past, their ancestors,

It's not that we've forgotten in England, It's just that we seem to get persecuted whilest inbound settlers (i don't want to use the term immigrants for fear of backlash, see how "socially conditioned we are over here!) are allowed to openly celebrate without fear of repercussion.

[karajorma]

Yeah but that's just ****ing stupid. There's absolutely nothing wrong with celebrating being English as long as you don't feel the need to be racist or exclusionary about it.

I've always been proud of being English. Admittedly I can get away with saying that since I'm not white and thus no one is going to think I'm a member of the BNP for saying it. The problem is that the only other people who do say it then follow it with racist nonsense. We need more people both ethnically and non-ethnically English to say that they're proud of their country so that we can take back that stupid stereotype and be able to participate in a little friendly patriotism at times when we aren't in a major sporting competition.