Saint George's Day - Geneva Bar, Scunthorpe

Friday, 23 April 2004

Geneva Folks, St. Georges

England is a strange place: it has been around as a country a lot longer than most and most people in the world have an impression of it as a country. Bowler hats, cream teas, red buses and pillar boxes. Losing at cricket, queuing and apologising. Rain and greyness. Football hooligans. Many pre-conceptions, which don't always - if ever - tie up with reality. But - if enough people believe an idea (even if it is flawed) - is that idea true, by default?? Are we what others think of us?

When the last of the Romans left in the 500-600s, they were replaced by a motley bunch of Angles, Danes, Saxons and Friesians. In something akin to the settlement and the westward spread in the United States during the 'Cowboy era', these farming and seafaring people populated our country with their ideas, technologies and blood (DNA).

Geneva Bar, Scunthorpe

Well over a thousand years later, the people living on the east coast still look and think in pretty much the same way as those early settlers. Down to earth, no nonsense and a belief that it is every man's - and woman's - right to do what they damn well like - as long as it doesn't affect us.

So, what is 'England'? How can we celebrate a society that has been a unified whole for well over a thousand years? Is it the physical images? Is it our language? Is it our culture?

The folks at the Geneva Bar in Scunthorpe (top right) took the time to dress in period costume and enjoy the spring sunshine. Top marks to them: they were the only establishment I could find that did. Yet, come St Patrick's Day and the whole town is painted green.

St. George

Don't get me wrong: I have nothing against St. Patrick's or anything relating to Ireland. The question is - what colour do we paint the town on St. George's Day? White? Red? The culture and influence of England has spread so far and to such a great depth throughout the rest of the world that it is hard to even see that it is there anymore.

Yet it is there. Modern parliamentary democracy based on the rule of law is seen as a birthright - way back in Anglo Saxon times when the first parliaments were being set-up it would have not seemed so self-evident that this was the way that the world was going to be run.

The fact that we live in a world ruled by and created by industry. Those workers in the mills in the Manchester and Birmingham and in the mines of Cornwall and the east coast could not have guessed what would become of their inventiveness.

And, most importantly, the idea that every individual matters. Saying that something is 'unfair' is taken seriously. A land or nation is important, but what is more important is the independence of the individual and the tolerance of other views. The fact that we in England cannot and do not have fixed images of our identity - and the we have doubts sometimes about our country.

England isn't perfect: it's an unfinished project. The striving to accommodate others' views in a peaceful, prosperous and pleasant land is our greatest achievement and should be celebrated. Saint George - wherever you are - we drink to you ... ;-)

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