£230 spent on Saint Georges Day over the last 5 years!

[cimt]

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

This is disgraceful. They take no interest in our own national holidays no more. Bloody disgraceful!

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/2008061...o-5b839a9.html

[LondonRoad]

That's £230 more than they spent on the prevention of cruelty to Dragons.

Maybe we should name our national holiday after something better

[MovedGoalPosts]

Anyone actually think it's a good thing that, for a change, the government hasn't been spreading taxpayer's money around like confetti?

[Raistlin]

<raises hand>

Me

[Russ]

How much did they spend promoting St David's Day?

[punky]

OK, OK... If we spend a few grand on St. David's day each year, can we have free prescriptions too?

[BBKing]

St. George's Day isn't a national holiday and why is it the government's role to promote national holidays anyway? This isn't a banana republic where we all get prodded out to salute the Great Leader and neither do I want it to be.

George Orwell puts it rather better when discussing the British character back in the 1940s:

All the culture that is most truly native centres round things which even when they are communal are not official�the pub, the football match, the back garden, the fireside and the ‘nice cup of tea’. The liberty of the individual is still believed in, almost as in the nineteenth century. But this has nothing to do with economic liberty, the right to exploit others for profit. It is the liberty to have a home of your own, to do what you like in your spare time, to choose your own amusements instead of having them chosen for you from above. The most hateful of all names in an English ear is Nosey Parker. It is obvious, of course, that even this purely private liberty is a lost cause. Like all other modern people, the English are in process of being numbered, labelled, conscripted, ‘co-ordinated’. But the pull of their impulses is in the other direction, and the kind of regimentation that can be imposed on them will be modified in consequence.

http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/ess...d-unicorn1.htm and it's well worth reading.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by punky

OK, OK... If we spend a few grand on St. David's day each year, can we have free prescriptions to?

You've got your own government to give you that

Don't forget the free hospital parking too

Well considering that St George's day is the birthday of Shakespeare I'd rather celebrate the birth of the Bard myself.

Yeah nothing should be spent promoting St Georges day in fact when it comes to the English can they please shut up keep paying the majority of the tax and get the least benefit for it thank you. Thats how this government would like it and personally i am getting a little sick and tired of it.

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by Rob

Anyone actually think it's a good thing that, for a change, the government hasn't been spreading taxpayer's money around like confetti?

If we didn't spend it on St Patricks day then yes. But surely we shoud celebrate our own heritage before that of our neighbours?

[Charlie_Bubble]

Wonder how much Red Ken spent on St Patrick's day celebrations in London. Labour are a joke and the general public, particularly English people are the punchline!

It's not about celebrating Irish Heritage, it's about people liking to get drunk as well as well the whole Irish theme there is. No one cares about Saint Georges Day because there is no festival or theme to it. So who cares? What are you meant to do on Saint Georges Day?

[Charlie_Bubble]

Originally Posted by Damien

It's not about celebrating Irish Heritage, it's about people liking to get drunk as well as well the whole Irish theme there is. No one cares about Saint Georges Day because there is no festival or theme to it. So who cares? What are you meant to do on Saint Georges Day?

Yes, because you can't see people getting drunk any night of the week in any major UK town can you, they need an excuse for it. Nothing like this government for stupidity, 24 hour opening one year, then a year later having to run expensive ad campaigns to point out to people drinking too much will kill them.