Happy St George’s Day to all my English readers 
To the rest of you, it’s the English national day – a bit of a non-event really; we don’t get a day off and no one does much to celebrate, or at least not in these parts. I suppose we do get the opportunity to feel proud of our country and smug about our achievements, but some would say we do that anyway. And why not? We’re bloody fantastic! To anyone who quibbles I simply say: Shakespeare*, Isaac Newton, Horatio Nelson, Led Zeppelin and Tim Berners Lee, I could go on . . .
Anyhoo, here’s a song from New Model Army to mark the occasion. I was going to post My Country by them but could only find low quality videos, so instead here’s 51st State, which works really well when you consider the events of the last few years.
Oh, and don’t ask me why St. George is our patron saint, I dunno – he allegedly killed a dragon, but that seems unlikely and even if it were true, I’m not sure I approve of people being rewarded for wiping out rare and exotic wildlife. Apparently he (if he did exist) came from Turkey, and is also the saint of Georgia, which fits much better. Really, we’d be better off with someone called something like St Englebert, then we could have Please Release Me as a national anthem – yes, it would be terrible, but so is the one we have now. In fact, while I’m on the subject, why do we sing about our monarch? Why aren’t we like normal countries who all sing about how great it is to live there?
* It’s his birthday today too
Jack Yan
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