Government admits spending £230 on promoting St George's Day

By john of gwent

I am indebted to the AFP news agency and to Google News for making this little gem available for public consumption.

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

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. The admission provoked outrage from at least one patriotic member of parliament.

"I think it is a shameful indictment and it needs to be changed," said deputy Andrew Rosindell, who is chairman of parliament's all-party Saint George's Day Group. "We must be the only country in the world that spends nothing or virtually nothing on celebrating its national day. It is a great pity. "I was expecting it to be low but not that low. Other countries in the world such as Australia and the United States spend a lot of time and effort in promoting their national days and we should be doing more.

"There needs to be a change in the culture of government in the way it approaches something like this."

Saint George's Day, which falls on April 23, is an annual non-event in England. It is generally punctuated by breweries trying to cash in and promote a party atmosphere; left-wingers saying that patriotism should be reclaimed from the racists; a variety of English eccentrics; and everyday folk wondering why the English just don't seem to bother. The fact that Saint George's Day is not a public holiday only adds to the general lack of interest.

I wonder how much Alex Salmond spends promoting November the 30th or how much Rhodri Morgan has earmarked for a nice game of golf on March 1st.