The slaying of St. George by the Labour Party

On April 23rd I posted an article about it then being St. George's Day, the national day of England. I opined about how it was pleasing to see that it was now growing in popularity after some long years of decline and virtual neglect. So imagine my surprise today when I saw this article on the web highlighting how incredibly unimportant the day still seems to be to this increasingly tiresome UK Labour government (from the AFP news agency, June 11, 2008):

(Quote)
LONDON (AFP) - A minister has admitted that the government spent a mere 230 pounds promoting St George's Day over the last five years.

Culture Minister Margaret Hodge confessed that her department spent 116 pounds on promoting England's national day this year, two pounds more than in 2007 -- and absolutely nothing in the previous three years.

The admission provoked outrage from at least one patriotic member of parliament.

"I think it is a shameful indictment and it needs to be changed," said deputy Andrew Rosindell, who is chairman of parliament's all-party Saint George's Day Group.

"We must be the only country in the world that spends nothing or virtually nothing on celebrating its national day. It is a great pity.

"I was expecting it to be low but not that low. Other countries in the world such as Australia and the United States spend a lot of time and effort in promoting their national days and we should be doing more.

"There needs to be a change in the culture of government in the way it approaches something like this."

Saint George's Day, which falls on April 23, is an annual non-event in England.

It is generally punctuated by breweries trying to cash in and promote a party atmosphere; left-wingers saying that patriotism should be reclaimed from the racists; a variety of English eccentrics; and everyday folk wondering why the English just don't seem to bother.

The fact that Saint George's Day is not a public holiday only adds to the general lack of interest.
(End quote)

Good grief, what an utter disgrace! I don't think matters are much helped by the fact that so many members of the Labour government are actually Scottish - see this article in The Times from June 1st for proof, and a possible future resolution, of that exceedingly thorny issue.