“I think you will find Bert, you rely on the govenment to tell you everything, how to act, how to respect other cultures or not with their laws (I am not a national racist and I find the accusation extremely offensive as I am of mixed european race from birth but lived and worked in Leicester all my life)... as they the elected are the front for the country that maybe you voted for or not but they are there for the rest of the world to judge us by, just because you are happy inside to be a proud brit this is not what is being portayed to the rest of the world. Could you imagine if the Irish govenment cancelled the day off for St Patricks? there would be hell to pay and rightly so. You say you have pride in your country but yet are happy with ignorance to what everyone else in the world thinks about it, the attitude of 'the govement cant tell me anything' may well keep you from being effected with the changing country, but without our govenment projecting the proud british traditions to the rest of the world who will care what you think inside. Other countries go all out to celebrate their national days to show the world who they are whilst our country doesnt know what event to follow are there are so many. I am not in any sense of the word a racist just a realist that see's the real british values and traditions diluting to nothing to the point like this article where they sell turkish / chinese food etc.. on St George's day. I have no problem with immigration nor living around multi cultures, but even though I am not 100% british I see the country changing so rapidly and losing all identity that I wonder where we will finish. This change however is not brought around just by different cultures and races being in Britain but also by parents who want there children to accept the country as it is now, and I doubt there will be much British pride taught at schools either. Yes the govenment cannot take the English way of life away that yourself and Matt have mentioned but it can stop it from being recognised outside the country. Which again I think is a shame.”

“But the fact is the govenment should be the ones to lead us into being proud to be british

Another person who doesn't understand the English national character. In this country, we don't rely on the government to tell us what we can and can't do or think. I don't need Gordon Brown's permission to be proud of my country, and I wonder why the racial nationalist types feel they do need this?”

“Matt, I'm not sure how knowledgable you are about St Patricks day, maybe your one of the volunteers who work tirelessly to organise the city centre festival, or maybe your a traditional musician hoping to instill a little bit of home or maybe your a one of the many church going Irish people that celebrate the fact that St Patrick brought Chritianity to Ireland. For the record, as an Irish woman I completely supprt the ceebration of St Georges day, as does every other Irish person I know. Having a day to be proud of is priceless. I like others have made Leicester my home and woulf like nothing more than the indiginous community to have the same opportunities to enjoy their culture. I support any eforts to celebrate Englishness, good on ya but Matt a piece of advice, stick to what you know and don't go making sweeping judgements about other communities - its just not nice.”

“Matt, not sure who daniel is? But the fact is the govenment should be the ones to lead us into being proud to be british what hope of that with a scottish guy running the country, why should it always be up to individuals to have to try and make a difference. Why havent we got a national holiday to celebrate this day? and as Phil has mentioned why suddenly now does the govenment take notice of this tradition this year, well because its desperate for the votes isnt it and on ts way out, it didnt care about the meaning of celebrating it before as there are so many other cultures to gain votes from here anyway, back to some points here though Bert, yes whilst the council may not pay out for the Caribbean Carnival it shuts all the roads and provides all the extra police services etc.. and they definately pay out for Diwali and maybe thats the reason hundreds flock Matt, maybe because they finance it. Like my first post said the problem is that whatever is was to be british is dead and thats why people arent bothered about celebrating it , cause they have never been taught to have british pride, not in schools, and with some of the comments here they never will be either. Shame really.”

“Exactly Bert, I wanted to make that point but thought my comment was already too long.

We live English culture everyday, going to the pub, going to watch City or Tigers, going for a walk in Bradgate Park or Watermead, having sunday roast with the family, villages playing each other at cricket, thousands of sunday league footballers kicking lumps out of each other week in week out, clubbing on a saturday night, caravaning in skegness, glastonbury/reading/leeds festivals, farm shows, alton towers, terrible weather, ice creams in abbey park, cub scouts, the parade welcoming home the troops a month or so back the list goes on..........

When the world cup was on we had the red and white flags on the car (you know the ones we're apparently banned from displaying), when it was christmas I watched proudly as my daughter narrated her NATIVITY play (you know that religious story that we're apparently no longer allowed to perform) .”

“No one is stopping it from happening, its just not something we've done before, it's not part of our culture

Spot on. People wanting a St George's Day celebration don't really understand English culture - they want to change it to some sort of racial nationalist fantasy. I live English culture all year round, I don't need an artificial festival.”

“DD (aka the artist formerly known as 'Daniel'

As usual you have misconstrued my comments, completely missing the point. If you read again I am in agreement that this event seemed shallow and didn't really celebrate 'being english'.

I also didn't say that because it's never been celebrated before, you shouldn't bother now. I was simply making the point that its not the fault of the council or any of the different cultures living in England that there is no 'unified' celebration of Englishness. No one is stopping it from happening, its just not something we've done before, it's not part of our culture at present so it will take a lot of thought, effort and a decent marketing campaign to put an event of that nature on the calender that people will actually attend in enough numbers to make it viable.

Anyway, to look at lee's comments from a different perspective, are the English really being marginalised, look at his examples of other cultures festivals: The Carribean carnival is essentially a music festival, so not comparable to St Georges day. Diwali as a religious festival is the equivalent of Christmas so again not comparable to St Georges day. He said you wouldn't have Morris dancers at a Diwali festival, well I don't recall seeing any Bollywood style dancing at the turning on of the christmas lights so I guess that evens that one out. As for St Patricks day, well what elements of irish culture are celebrated on that day - nothing- its just an excuse to drink - a marketing ploy by guiness. Almost the same as Mothers Day, or Valentines day etc.

On a more positive note, leaving aside what other 'groups' are doing, what would a St Georges day celebration entail, perhaps we should see the Mercury going out and actually asking people what being English means to them. It's there you might find the conflict because without a common religion to hold us all together the concept of Englishness is so wide what would you include/omit from a festival - remember people attend things like the carribean carnival because its fun, a party not because its a history lesson.

Anyway DD, over to you, you're good at complaining but what about channelling that energy into proposing what your ideal celebration of Englishness would entail (that's not sarcasm I genuinely would like to see exactly what you want from the day, and how you would get them attending in droves.)”

“Leicester has one of the biggest Caribbean carnivals in the UK not because of council funding, but because a few people got off their arses and organised an event which got bigger and bigger. Lee Ingram's main contribution to the city's cultural life seems to be complaining that things aren't handed to him on a plate. Frankly, Lee Ingram's "identity" isn't one I (as a white Englishman) want any part of.”

“I'm reminded here of a time a few years ago that I bumped in to a bloke coming out of a bar on Market Street on my way home from work one St George's day. Turned out when we got talking that he was from Nigeria and this was the first time he'd experienced St George's day in this country and with genuine earnestness, he asked me why everyone hadn't got the day off and why there wasn't drinking, music and dancing in the streets. I did my best to explain that national pride is something that seems to be frowned upon here. I shook his hand and he went off laughing and shaking his head. I went off the other way realising that he actually had a point !”

“I can understand the frustration felt by Lee, who I know is a very passionate campaigner for the English identity and English rights, but after years of our goverment's promotion of britishness over Englishness to the very point of denial of the existence of english ethnicity at least it's a start.
And although I'm a little cynical as to why all of a sudden there's an explosion of New Labour backed St Georges day celebrations up and down the country (nothing to do with EU elections I suppose) at least it's a step in the right direction.
Let's not forget most English people aren't aware that it'sactually took court rulings to Establish that the English exist as an ethnic group in our own country. (You couldn't make it up could you!)”