\u201cHappy St George\u2019s Day!,\u201d roars the Daily Express\u2019s Paul Baldwin today, in a feature celebrating England\u2019s saint (St George\u2019s Day has actually been put back to April 28 this year due to a quirk in the Christian calendar, but there you go).<\/p>\n
In an article headlined \u201cTop 9 reasons you should be proud to be English this St George\u2019s Day\u201d, Baldwin lays out why readers should \u201cshove the belligerent bad-mouthing of Britain to one side\u201d \u2013 despite St George being England\u2019s patron saint, not Britain\u2019s \u2013 and celebrate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vice-like grip the crazies have held Britain in for far too long seems to be finally easing,\u201d goes on Baldwin, making the same elementary geographic mistake twice in two paragraphs. \u201cEven our serving Prime Minister finally accepts women don\u2019t have willys\u201d. Putting that complete non-sequitur to one side, though, how to mark it?<\/p>\n
Well, there\u2019s \u201cour national football teams\u201d, says Baldin, admitting \u201cit\u2019s been a while for all four teams\u201d, despite three of those teams \u2013 Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland \u2013 not celebrating St George\u2019s Day, what with him being England\u2019s patron saint. Or why not spend the day studying \u201cthe fascinating, incredible backstory of these Isles\u201d, despite the British Isles being a purely geographical term meaning the four nations of the UK, the Isle of Man and the Republic of Ireland?<\/p>\n
Or you could explore England\u2019s \u201cbeautiful countryside\u201d, such as Baldwin\u2019s suggestions of \u201cthe fearsome beauty of Glencoe in the Highlands\u201d (approximately 180 miles from the English border) or, er, \u201cthe rugged handsomeness of Wales\u2019 topography\u201d. Or what about the scientists this green and pleasant land has given the world? Such as Alexander Fleming (Scottish), John Logie Baird (Scottish) or James Watson (American)?<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the Daily Express readers\u2019 favourite, the Second World War. \u201cWithout the unbelievable courage, grit, and resilience of ordinary British men and women the Swastika would now be flying across Europe,\u201d says Baldwin, once again confusing Britain and England.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And finally, there\u2019s the ever-English \u201cBritish Values\u201d. \u201cWe respect all faiths, all belief systems, and are happy to let each other live out life as we wish,\u201d gushes Baldwin in what may come as news to any Muslim reader unfortunate enough to chance upon the Express.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Oh, and St George himself? Turkish. Happy St George\u2019s Day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHappy St George\u2019s Day!,\u201d roars the Daily Express\u2019s Paul Baldwin today, in a feature celebrating England\u2019s saint (St…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,4884,2452,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-44106","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-media","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114387875565122522","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}