ENGLAND and St George

ENGLAND St George's Day 23 April

Shakespeare was born on 23 April 1564 and died on 23 April 1616...a true Englishman who was destined both to be born and to die on England's day - St George's Day. It was Shakespeare who honoured is own country by saying God for Harry, England and St George!

William Shakespeare - appropriately born on this Day of St George (the fact that St George was not actually English himself can be overlooked on this day! By the same token St Patrick of Ireland wasn't Irish either! He was actually Welsh! ;-)

Ralph Vaughan Williams composed the song "LINDEN LEA" which was based on the poem by the Dorset poet William Barnes, and the very quintessentially English song "Linden Lea" is assumed to be set in Dorset, in South West England. Linden Lea truly evokes the whole character of the picturesque rural English countryside and the gently pastoral English scene......however, singing Linden Lea in this YT clip to celebrate England's St George's Day is the choir of a very urban area church....that of St Mary's Church in Hendon, North West London...home not only to this particular church but also to the vast complex of the training establishment of London's Metropolitan Police Force among other things. It was at Hendon that the Royal Air Force first saw the light of day and Hendon Airfield became one of the UK's first ever military airfields/airports, being constructed in the very early years of the 20th century and was among the many RAF airfields on the "front line of aerial attacks" during WW2 in the Battle of Britain of 1940.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qZ1kYZUB5I&feature=related

LINDEN LEA

Within the woodlands, flow'ry gladed,
By the oak trees' mossy moot;
The shining grass blades, timber shaded,
Now do quiver under foot;
And birds do whistle overhead,
And water's bubbling in its bed;
And there for me,
The apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea.

When leaves, that lately were a-springing,
Now do fade within the copse,
And painted birds do hush their singing
Up upon the timber tops;
And brown leaved fruit's a-turning red,
In cloudless sunshine overhead,
With fruit for me,
The apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea.

Let other folk make money faster;
In the air of dark roomed towns;
But I don't dread a peevish master.
Though no man may heed my frowns
I be free to go abroad,
Or take again my home-ward road,
To where, for me,
The apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea.


England.......Wales' close neighbour to the east and Scotland's close neighbour south of the Border and the ancient Roman Hadrian's Wall (briefly shown in the TY clip below....let's honour the country on this St George's Day....England......the land that gave birth to the Language we now all speak and love with a passion.....music by that famous English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hpnRAs0mp4

Jerusalem - a strange name for a tune and lyric which is essentialy very English but the connection becomes clear in the words themselves, based on a poem by oe of England's famous poetic sons William Blake.

Of course "Jerusalem" is not only a song sung by members of the Women's Institutes of Great Britain at their meetings but it is unoffically declared to be England's National Anthem, and as a Scot who actually loves England! - yes honestly I do!! .... and has loads of great English mates and has a set of grandparents (one Scottish and one English born) now living in England and has a cousin who married an English girl in England as is currently living in England, too..and now I. too, am working down here in England for the foreseeable future - I am happy to honour England on St George's Day.

The annual Last Night of the Sir Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Season from the Royal Albert Hall in London with everyone singing "Jerusalem" - with snippets from the simultanaeous celebrations in other locations across the UK - including the one shown in the clip from Singleton Park, in Swansea - which is actually in Wales so therefore not technically "concerned" with England's sole "possession" - William Blake's "Jerusalem". The other "non England" locations were Belfast (N Ireland) and Glasgow (Scotland) with Manchester the only other English venue besides London itself but the whole concerts season from the RAH involve all four Home Countries.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ0oCmDXrVk&feature=related

To all my English mates - Happy St George's Day, guys. Don't just display the St George flag when the World Cup is on.... and England is still in the running! ;-)

Is that the former Damian in Edingburgh?

It's a pity nobody cares.

BNP genocide claims 'beyond belief'


http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090423...f-6323e80.html


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The Archbishop of York has branded suggestions by the British National Party that a "bloodless genocide" is taking place in Britain as "beyond belief". Skip related content
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Dr John Sentamu branded BNP's genocide suggestions as 'beyond belief'.

Nick Griffin, BNP chairman, spoke to the BBC to defend a party leaflet that said black and Asian Britons "do not exist", arguing that calling such people British denied indigenous people their own identity.

But Dr. John Sentamu, who was born in Uganda and is a vocal supporter of making St George's Day a public holiday to promote English unity, said it was not up to the BNP to define Englishness.

He said: "You don't have to be a member of the BNP to be clearly English, and it is quite a mistake to suggest that everybody who wants to affirm Englishness affirms that narrow thinking. This 'bloodless genocide'? I think that is just language which is beyond belief."

Mr Griffin spoke to the Report on Radio 4 to defend the party's Language and Concepts Discipline Manual, which says the term used for black and Asian British people should be "racial foreigners".

The leaflet was leaked to an anti-fascist group and seen by the BBC.

Commenting on its content, Mr Griffin told the BBC that although "in civic terms they are British, British also has a meaning as an ethnic description. These people are 'black residents' of the UK etc, and are no more British than an Englishman living in Hong Kong is Chinese," he said.

The manual describes the BNP's "ultimate aim" as the "lawful, humane and voluntary repatriation of the resident foreigners of the UK".

"We don't subscribe to the politically correct fiction that just because they happen to be born in Britain, a Pakistani is a Briton. They're not. They remain of Pakistani stock," he added.

"You can't say that especially large numbers of people can come from the rest of the world and assume an English identity without denying the English their own identity, and I would say that's wrong. In a very subtle way, it's a sort of bloodless genocide."

My opening post, with all its contents, were nothing more than a greeting to all English people, of whatever colour and creed, on their national day, with an urge to take pride in their own country separate from the rest of us in the United Kingdom. Nothing more, and nothing less, and with absolutely no connection whatseover with any political group, least of all the odious British National Party.

It is time that the English people identified the flag of St George with everything that is good and positive about England and every thing that England stands for and disassociate it completely from the BNP and everything that organisation stands for. It is a total travesty that the BNP has hi-jacked both the Cross of St George flag and the Union Flag purely for its own perverted ends.

This is a Language Forum and this part of it is dedicated to the English Language, one of the greatest "exports" England has seen being spread across the entire globe.

That is the only reason I set up this thread on England's day....St George's Day. On top of that it is a day very significant in English literary history simply because of the William Shakespeare connection - the date of both his birth and his death - the Bard of Avon is surely another fantastic gift England has given to the whole English speaking world......the greatest paywright and wordsmith of our Language the world has ever seen or most probably ever will see again.

It is time the English took pride in the Cross of St George just as both the Scots and the Welsh have always taken pride in the Cross of St Andrew and the Red Dragon emblem...or Y Ddraig Goch as they call it.

I am a proud Scot now proud to be down here in England among all my cool English friends. The BNP means nothing to any of us - not at all...and I'm sorryto see its name being introduced into this thread and sullying it completely.

Correction.....opening sentence....."was nothing more"......

Damian London E14

Damian, I feel you are being edgy about the language intertwined with policitcal issues! There is no need for that at all!

But I am actually quite intertested to know what you think of the distinction or connection between BNP and UKIP! @-@

Damian from Edinburgh and Robin Michael have both together put me off Scotland for good. Please tell me not all Scots are like that?

Dumbfounded - if you want to find out for yourself what Scots are like all you have to do is to visit Scotland sometime. If you don't like what you see you can always make use of your return ticket home at any time of your choosing.

The difference between - No 1 - the BNP (British National Party) and - No 2 - UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party)?

There's a world of difference.

In a nutshell:

No 1 - Racist, pure and simple. Policies very similar to those of another lot of thugs who goosestepped their way across much of Continental Europe seventy or so years ago led by some twat with a weird moustache and a reputedly small member. BNP objective: an all white Britain, following the deportation and repatriation of all those not of pure native born British stock and who don't possess a fair skin colour. Racial cleansing in other words.

No 2 - All these guys want is a complete break away from Continental Europe and a total withdrawal from the European Union. NOthing more, nothing less.

However, the UK is a free democracy (many people believe it to be too much so as it is very much taken advantage of by various factions) and however vile and objectionable some of the policies of these groups are to many people, they have a right to exist on the political stage of this country. Thankfully the vast majority of the British electorate don't even give them the time of day and never will.

Damian London SW15 Sat Apr 25, 2009 1:47 pm GMT
Dumbfounded - if you want to find out for yourself what Scots are like all you have to do is to visit Scotland sometime. If you don't like what you see you can always make use of your return ticket home at any time of your choosing.

The difference between - No 1 - the BNP (British National Party) and - No 2 - UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party)?

There's a world of difference.

In a nutshell:

No 1 - Racist, pure and simple. Policies very similar to those of another lot of thugs who goosestepped their way across much of Continental Europe seventy or so years ago led by some twat with a weird moustache and a reputedly small member. BNP objective: an all white Britain, following the deportation and repatriation of all those not of pure native born British stock and who don't possess a fair skin colour. Racial cleansing in other words.

No 2 - All these guys want is a complete break away from Continental Europe and a total withdrawal from the European Union. NOthing more, nothing less.

However, the UK is a free democracy (many people believe it to be too much so as it is very much taken advantage of by various factions) and however vile and objectionable some of the policies of these groups are to many people, they have a right to exist on the political stage of this country. Thankfully the vast majority of the British electorate don't even give them the time of day and never will.
===========================
Thanks, Damian!
But I suspect there is overlapping somewhere apart from the apparent differences btw the two?

I would like to make a comment to 'Dumbfounded' too.

Every now and again, I go to the Pub. Tonight, I was in the Gents and a drunken gentleman asked the assembled company what they thought of "Henrik Larsson". Nobody seemed to know who Henrik Larsson was.

Damian of London SW15 will know who Henrik Larsson is, even though Damian has been living in Edimburgo, Escocia.

To cut a long story short, I am not very keen on Scotland. Scotland is full of small rivalries.

Being in the Pub was mildly interesting. A sort of theatre, with strange people under the influence of alcohol. The problem is, that rather like this Forum, something that starts off good humoured can quickly degenerate into something ugly.

Damien - wonderful post's geezer - and coming from a proud Scot too!! I am dumbfounded!!!

You have said exactly what was on my mind sunshine!! This country has sooo much to be proud of and soo much to celebrate that it is an absolute joke.

Just think what this world would be like without England!!!! Oh, maybe there are a few skeletons in the cupboard but every country has a few dark patches no??.

Arguably, there isn't a country on Earth that has had a greater influence on this planet than England. Good or bad.

England made the modern world FULL STOP!!



Laters.

<<England made the modern world FULL STOP!! >>


Yes, England, not Scotland.

Too much pride is a sin.

<<Too much pride is a sin. >>

And not enough is political correctness and eventual oblivion.