Patriotism, Nationalism...and St George's Day

St George’s Day passed on 23 April and I don’t recall seeing one English flag, or even reading about it in the free paper, the Metro (though that’s probably not surprising as it’s a rather “progressive” PC paper).

Not that I heard it, but the Jeremy Vine show on BBC Radio 2 today featured a debate on whether St. George’s Day is relevant in a multicultural society. Apparently the conclusion seemed to be that such a national day would be too Anglo-Saxon and did not celebrate the diversity of England.

So why are the English so afraid of celebrating their own day? Are the powers that be worried that we’ll turn into a bunch of rampant nationalists. What is the difference between nationalism and patriotism anyway- is nationalism just a stronger form of patriotism? Are they both bad? Can you be nationalistic without being patriotic?

Anyway, St Georges Day is also celebrated in Bulgaria, Georgia (of course that’s former Soviet Georgia, not the US) and Serbia. Maybe we should be looking to these nations for a bit of inspiration to celebrate our national day, or just to try and re-discover our identity?

Czechmate

Returned to Czech Rep properly for the first time since 2002. It’s always been a place that I’ve been intending to go back to, though I’ve never got round to it. Baring a night in Brno and a day trip to Pilsen, I’d never really made it outside Prague until now. There are some real gems around. Cesky Krumlov was a real stunner, but even Tabor-not even in a lot of general guidebooks in this part of the world was really nice. Made Ceske Budejovice our base for the first couple of days and finished the last night and day in Prague. Prague is still amazingly cheap – considering it’s one of the most visited capitals in Europe – and many bars (even those close to the old town) are still cheaper or at least comparable to some of the more eastern cities….but I’d say Czech Republic is still an ex-Eastern bloc country though, although it’s very pretty there’s still plenty of Soviet-era industry and architecture around.

Shiz was particularly pleased to get the Budvar Budweiser brewery tour in, though it was all in German as we went round with an old-peoples coach party. It was that or nothing.

Czechoslovakia wasn't trashed in the war like Poland and Russia, so all cities still have an old town. And although the The Czechoslovak communists were austere, they weren't nutters and built most of the rabbit-hutches on the outskirts of towns rather than demolishing the town centres like the Romanians did. All in all an excellent trip.