Archive for April 2013

Inter-faith group wants to “reclaim” St George’s Day

April 23, 2013 Religion, St George 5 comments

I got a call from BBC Radio Shropshire yesterday asking me to go on the radio this morning and talk about St George’s Day – I was more than happy to of course.

Other than being St George’s Day, the motivation behind the debate they were having was a press release put out yesterday by an inter-faith group that wants to “reclaim St George’s Day”.  Here’s their press release:

Time to reclaim St George’s Day for all English

St George should be a figure of national unity and pride. That’s why we, a coalition of English faith groups and campaigners, are reclaiming England’s patron saint and demanding he becomes representative of all English peoples.

We demand him back from those who promote racism and extremism, and from those who say that St George can only represent a single ethnic group.

We want to promote a new, relaxed and confident, English national identity. A place where a hijab is as welcome as bangers and mash, and no-one is attacked for their race, religion (or lack thereof) or any other belief.

That is why this St George’s Day we are reclaiming St George.

As patron saint for England, St George is there for everyone living in England. Too often he has been hijacked and used as a symbol of triumphalism and division by those on the extreme Right. St George needs to take his rightful place as a national symbol of inclusivity rather than a symbol of hatred.

Although the English national flag, bearing the Cross of St George, was carried by the Crusaders, St George actually lived before the birth of Islam and should not be associated with any hatred of Muslims. He is respected by many people in the Middle East because of his origins there.

Therefore on St George’s Day, we call upon all people of goodwill to join us in:
• standing up against the hijacking of a national hero by those who promote Islamophobia, antisemitism and other forms of discrimination
• opposing the modern dragons of hatred and intolerance
• saying: As the diverse people of England, we are comfortable with difference, and each other. St George’s Day is a time for highlighting harmony and peaceful national pride.

Signatories:

Al-Khoei Foundation www.al-khoei.org
Baptist Union of Great Britain www.baptist.org.uk
Christian Muslim Forum www.christianmuslimforum.org
City Sikhs Network www.citysikhs.org.uk
Faith Matters www.faith-matters.org
HOPE not hate www.hopenothate.org.uk
Islamic Society of Britain www.isb.org.uk
Joseph Interfaith Foundation www.josephinterfaithfoundation.org
London Baptist Association www.londonbaptist.org.uk
London Boroughs Faith Network
Majlis-e-Ulama Europe
Muslim Council of Britain www.mcb.org.uk
Radical Middle Way www.radicalmiddleway.org
Religions for Peace UK www.religionsforpeace.org.uk
St Philip’s Centre www.stphilipscentre.co.uk
Three Faiths Forum (3FF) www.3ff.org.uk
Woman’s Voice www.womansvoice.info

Firstly I have to say I’m pleased this inter-faith group have taken an interest in St George’s Day – it’s a day for all the people of England, not just white, Christian Anglo-Saxon’s (not that there are many of those left here after a thousand years or so).  I’m not much happier for religious groups to try to take ownership of St George’s Day than I am with the likes of the EDL or English Democrats though.  I know saint’s are, by their very nature, a religious thing but unless you’re in one of the more orthodox countries a patron saint’s day is a civic occasion more than a religious one.

I’m also not happy with the way the group tries to claim that St George’s Day is associated with the “far right”, racists and other -ists.  The only undesirable groups that habitually use the English flag are the English Democrats and the English Defence League, neither of which are any more representative of the English people than Abu Hamza or Amjid Choudhary are of the Muslim population.  The traditional peddlers of intolerance and prejudice are the British National Party and the National Front, both of which use the British flag and don’t even claim to be English groups.  They are both active in all four member states of the UK.

At the weekend the Stone Cross St George’s Day parade attracted over 15,000 people and there wasn’t a preacher of hate to be seen, just thousands of English people of all nationalities, colours and religions getting together to celebrate their country’s national day.  Similar events were held all over the country and I’ve seen no reports of trouble at any of them in the news so where are these racists and “far right” groups that have supposedly taken ownership of St George’s Day?  They simply don’t exist.

I wholeheartedly support the objective of this inter-faith group to celebrate St George’s Day properly and to use it as a way of bringing together all the people of England but I wish they wouldn’t resort to such lazy attention seeking phrases like “reclaiming [insert English symbol here] from the far right” because it just devalues their argument.

Happy St George’s Day

April 23, 2013 St George One comment

Still no public holiday or official recognition of our national day

St George is Cross

English Democrats admit committing electoral fraud

April 18, 2013 EDP 4 comments

Steve Uncles, the political brian behind the English Democrats, has admitted that the party have committed electoral fraud in Kent.

Kent County Council and Kent Police are already investigating what were believed to be fraudulent nomination papers backed up by fraudulent entries on the electoral register.  A tweet on his English Passport Twitter account confirms that they have submitted fraudulent nomination papers and by extension, that the entries on the electoral register used to verify the fraudulent nominations are also fraudulent.

English Pisspot Electoral Fraud Admission

From Steve Uncles’ Twitter account

Here’s what Kent County Council has to say on the use of assumed names on nomination papers (emphasis mine):

The nomination paper must include the candidate’s full name, with the surname first. The name should be as it is appears on the electoral register. Do not use any title or prefix such as Mr, Mrs, Dr. The format should be: Miller, Andrew John. Commonly used surname(s) and forename(s) are now permitted providing that they are not likely to mislead or confuse electors, and are not obscene or offensive. A candidate can only state a commonly used name on the nomination paper if they actually commonly use a name which is different from their full name as follows: Miller, Andrew John (commonly known as Andy).

The maximum penalty for committing electoral fraud is 6 months in prison.

The Maggie protesters are doing it wrong

April 17, 2013 General 3 comments
Rubbish on the streets of London pre-Thatcher

Progress

Maggie’s funeral was on the telly today while I was cooking my lunch and it occurred to me that these kids protesting about her time in power before they were born are going about it all wrong.

If they really want to make a statement they need to converge on London, pile up bags of rubbish in the street and stop everyone from working for more than 3 days a week.  They could maybe spend all their benefits on junk and then take out some payday loans to pay their bills.

That’ll send a clear message to everyone how badly they yearn for a return to the golden age of pre-Thatcher socialist England.

Telford & Wrekin cancel St George’s Day

April 14, 2013 St George, Telford 3 comments

Anyone looking forward to this year’s St George’s Day celebrations in the Town Park is going to be disappointed – it’s been cancelled.

According to Telford & Wrekin Council’s Arts & Culture Service Manager, the number of events the council puts on has been scaled back due to budget constraints and St George’s Day has been cancelled.  Instead, they want to start an annual festival in the park during the summer.

The Stone Cross St George’s Day parade in West Brom regularly attracts over 25,000 people who parade through the town and finish up in Dartmouth Park for music, entertainment and a market.  The parade attracts people from all over the country and provides an enormous boost to the local economy.

Since the council moved from the civic offices to Addenbrooke House, they don’t even fly our national flag any more and now they’ve decided that our national day isn’t important enough to celebrate.  There are six flag poles on the entrance to Ironmasters Way where there the council’s new offices are so there is no shortage of opportunities to fly the flag and if there is money for a summer festival, there is money for St George’s Day.

The Stone Cross St George’s Day parade is organised by local residents and funded from donations after Sandwell Council, like Telford & Wrekin, decided that our national day wasn’t worth celebrating.  If that’s the only way our patron saint’s day will be celebrated in Telford & Wrekin then we will have to organise future events ourselves.  If you’d like to be involved in organising a St George’s Day event for next year then please get in touch.

RIP Margaret Thatcher

April 8, 2013 General 9 comments

Margaret ThatcherMargaret Thatcher died peacefully this morning after suffering a stroke.

Baroness Thatcher was a controversial character, loved by the right and viciously hated by the left.  She started off well but during the later years of her term in office the line between strong leader and stubborn dictator were blurred.

While there will be partying in the streets by left wing politicians and trade unionists, most will be saddened by her death.  I grew up in a household that suffered by Thatcher’s later policies and she was certainly far from popular in our family but as time has gone on it is clear that her successors all, without exception, pale in comparison.  I would rather endure a decade under Thatcher of old than a year under these LibLabCon cretins.

British government gives 11% of English EU funding to Scotland, Wales & NI

April 2, 2013 Apartheid, Federal Europe, Traitors 3 comments

When David Cameron secured his “historic” reduction of the increase in the EU budget it was on the condition that the UK ended up paying more whilst everyone else’s bill went down.

Thief

One of the mechanisms for making us pay more was a reduction in the amount of our money the EU gives us back as structural funding.  Predictably, the British government has found a way to make England feel a disproportionate amount of the pain of the increased membership costs of being in the EU by skimming 11% off the money allocated in the EU budget to England and sharing it out between Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to cushion them from the effects of the reduced structural funding.  As the only net contributor to the British Treasury, England is already responsible for paying a disproportionate amount of the cost of being in the EU making it doubly unfair for the hard working English taxpayer.

The Local Government Association have criticised the plans to deprive England of desperately needed structural funding and have predictably called for “devolution” of power and funding to local authorities.  The LGA is just one of the organisations that respond to the discrimination against the English with calls for the balkanisation of England and local government reorganisation as a weak and ineffectual English equivalent to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh and Northern Irish Assemblies.

This is yet more proof that the English just can’t trust the British to protect their interests or even just treat them fairly.  We need an English Parliament now more than ever.