Happy St George's Day folks!
In keeping with Nanny's strict rules, Nanny hates the English, St George's Day is not a holiday in England.
Sometimes she even tries to ban people celebrating it privately. This year a St George's Day parade in Ilkeston has been cancelled, after organisers claimed they were told to pay £20,000 for a police presence.
Richard Dawson, of Ilkeston St George's Day Association, said that he had been forced to cancel the event as the bill would have taken money from good causes.
Derbyshire Police counter claim that they had no problem with the daytime parade, but claimed that there were security problems involving a "Right-wing element" during the evening entertainment last year.
They also disputed the cost figure quoted by Mr Dawson:
"The total cost that would have been put to him
in terms of policing would be no more than £2,500,
which would pay for six officers for an eight-hour period."
A spokesman for Erewash council said that Mr Dawson's 2006 event breached a temporary licence, and led to complaints from residents.
"The event last year went over the set time limit."
The above story indicates that there are some "differences of opinion" as to the facts on this one. I would be grateful if anyone can post some details on the above, so that we can see a clearer picture.
However, here are a few reasons to be proud to be English:
1 We gave the world the English language, the language of choice for international business discussions.
2 We gave the world parliamentary democracy.
3 We were the first country in the modern world to abolish slavery.
4 We gave the world America (no smart arsed comments please:)).
5 We gave the world cricket and football.
Please feel free to add to the list.
Happy St George's Day!
Ken,
ReplyDeleteI'd like to add the following items to your list:
- Roast Beef with Yorkshire pudding.
- Some of the finest ales in the world (Fullers ESB, Worthington White Shield, Theakston's Old Peculiar etc etc).
- Stilton cheese
- Fine classical music (Vaughn Williams, Elgar, Holst)
...and it was an Englishman (Tim Berners-Lee) who invented the Internet.
Hurray for the English!
Happy St Georges Day!
Alan G
And the English invented tolerance :- for long queues (also invented by the English)
ReplyDeletetolerance for pushy foreigners.
" for bad teeth.
" politicians (none assasinated for ages)
etc.
Alan; sorry to be peadntic, but Berners-Lee didn't invent the internet - that was the Americans (specifically ARPA).
ReplyDeleteWhat Berners-Lee did do was make the thing easy to use by coming up with the web interface. Prior to that you actually had to know something existed and where it was otherwise you couldn't get it.
Apparently St. George, whoever he was, was never anywhere near these isles and it's all a papist ruse to retain influence over the non-catholics.
ReplyDeleteAnyway - the lists:
Ken's;
See where you are coming from but I'm not entirely sure the direction is all positive. Serious doubts about the last part of number 5.
Alan G's;
I rather suspect that most of the world wound not understand or have experienced any of the list except the result of Mr. Berners-Lee (although we all know that Albert Gore really invented the inter-web-net and therefore should suspect that Berners-Lee may be guilty of identity theft ...)
cramerj's list of negatives seems accurate but, again, I'm not sure that many of them have taken off world wide. (Nor that the last one is anything to be proud of come to think of it! ;-) )
I have some sympathy for anon's point. Typical of the US to have a solution in need of a problem and then flip it to become a problem in need of a solution.
Apparently St. George, whoever he was, was never anywhere near these isles and it's all a papist ruse to retain influence over the non-catholics.
ReplyDeleteAnyway - the lists:
Ken's;
See where you are coming from but I'm not entirely sure the direction is all positive. Serious doubts about the last part of number 5.
Alan G's;
I rather suspect that most of the world wound not understand or have experienced any of the list except the result of Mr. Berners-Lee (although we all know that Albert Gore really invented the inter-web-net and therefore should suspect that Berners-Lee may be guilty of identity theft ...)
cramerj's list of negatives seems accurate but, again, I'm not sure that many of them have taken off world wide. (Nor that the last one is anything to be proud of come to think of it! ;-) )
I have some sympathy for anon's point. Typical of the US to have a solution in need of a problem and then flip it to become a problem in need of a solution.
Darn - blogger's posting process, having insisted several times that I entered the word verification incorrectly (which I didn't), then went into no verification mode and ultimately multiple posted.
ReplyDeleteMy apologies for that - the message is not worthy of multiple posts ...