Chuffed to see that the flags will fly in Downing Street today to celebrate St George's Day...Yes, I know that's the Union Flag, I'm flying...it's right that the flag of our nation, the United Kingdom, takes precedence over the flag of St George!
Personally, I prefer the Union Flag, of which the red cross of St George is a part. Sadly, over the past generation, we've allowed the flag of England to be hi-jacked by hard-right extremists.
For too long, it's become a symbol of hate, all too often a associated with trouble, skinheads, football hooligans, thugs and the BNP rather than tolerance and all that is the real Englishness in the 21st Century.
(And if the BNP are supposed to be the British National Party, why is it they associate so closely with the flag of St George and not the British flag?)
Seeing decent people grab back the flag of St George from the nutters who try to steal it for their own ends is both welcome and long overdue...!
I'm proud to be English, proud to be a Brit and proud to be a European.Well-worth celebrating hope rather than hate.
