[Closed] Mayor halves St Patrick's budget

Glad to hear it. The marketing departmenr of Guinness will be most upset however.

I presume the view is that the tourist dollars more than pay the city back.

Don't see why it can't be sponsored by Guinness or Paddy Power or somebody though.

London doesn't contribute to the Notting Hill Carnival (apart from policing and clean-up) though, does it?

St Paddy's day was one of Mayor Ken's favourite minority group charities so I'm surprised that Boris has reduced it's funding. Perhaps he'll spend the savings on a proper celebration of St George's day

Particularly when St. George doesn't get a look in.

Well unless I'm missing something, the english don't celebrate St. George's Day like the the irish celebrate St Patrick's day.

I can't remember hearing about big parades in New York on St. George's Day - and Ken Livingstone definitely wasn't mayor of New York.

And the claim that "St. George doesn't get a look in" is of course complete bollox. Ken Livingstone did his best to promote St. George's Day.

[url= http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/culture/stgeorge.jsp ]For the 5th year running London celebrated St George’s Day with a series of free events[/url]

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St Paddy's day was one of Mayor Ken's favourite minority group charities so I'm surprised that Boris has reduced it's funding

I completely agree with that - I'm absolutely certain that Boris Johnson's decision is driven by spite.

There will be a lot less merriment in London under Boris 8)

What would people like to do to mark St George's Day, out of interest?

Ernie, any time anyone tries to celebrate being English, the accusations of being racist creep out. That's got to change. As to the Irish, there's the whole marketing dpeartment of Guinness pushing it, I'd love to see an English beer company take the same stand! (as Brains and Felinfoel do in Wales)

The way I see it, unless every Saints Day that is celebrated by the population of London received the same amount of money, then it seems daft to splurge money at the Irish. (Even more so given the need to make cost savings all over the place to make things more efficient.)

I love the fact that London is som wonderfully diverse, but giving money to one group and not the other is more divisive than inclusive, if you ask me.

As mentioned above, Notting Hill is only policed and cleaned up by the taxpayer, the rest is up to the organisers.

I think that trying to organise a celebration for St George's Day is doomed to failure.

If people celebrated it anyway, then I certainly wouldn't object to some kind of parade and/or huge piss-up.

But to put on a big event and just hope people come is the same sort of logic that landed us with the Millennium Dome.

Ernie, any time anyone tries to celebrate being English, the accusations of being racist creep out.

Really - did Ken Livingstone get accused of racism for putting on St George's Day celebrations in London ?

How shocking.

I think its partly the fact that in england we arent particularly religious, whereas the irish love a good parade
i mean who gives a monkeys about saints?? this isnt the dark ages,
more to the point we are officially a prodestant country and saints are a lot more catholic afaik
and besides st george was Palestinian !!
[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George ]wikipedia says[/url]

[i]Ernie, any time anyone tries to celebrate being English, the accusations of being racist creep out. That's got to change.[/i]
that is a problem, partly because i suspect many far-right thinking nutjobs would take such a day as an excuse to spout off a load of inflamatory racist bollox

honestly though do we need an to invent an england day?

[i]St. George is the patron saint of Aragon, Catalonia, England, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, and Russia, as well as the cities of Amersfoort, Beirut, Bteghrine, Cáceres, Ferrara, Freiburg, Genoa, Ljubljana, Gozo, Pomorie, Qormi, Lod and Moscow, Scouting, as well as a wide range of professions, organisations and disease sufferers[/i]

he gets around for sure!

We should scrap George's day and have Boris day instead. I'm sure it would be a lot more fun, and quintessentially British.

[i]We should scrap George's day and have Boris day instead. I'm sure it would be a lot more fun, and quintessentially British.[/i]

Best suggestion so far.

What would people like to do to mark St George's Day, out of interest?

I think we could have some really exciting flower and veg showing, relive school days by getting brutally buggered by Higgins of the upper sixth, endlessly crow on about the second world war, wear big blue rosettes with a pic of Maggie on them, be really careful not to bump into each other as we queue for hours for some crap food and above all else, spend all day moaning about the weather.

Personally, I'd rather get Guinessed up on Paddy's Day then go for a curry. Seems like a typically English thing to do as far as I'm concerned

So how would 'Boris Day' be celebrated then ?

With all the hilarity and frivolity which one associates with a 'quintessentially' English public school ?

eg. singing Jerusalem, bumming each other, and setting fire to a tramp ?

ha ha ....... beaten to the bumming suggestion by trailmonkey.

That'll teach me to loiter on threads before posting 🙄

"edit" is your friend in such situations 😉

ernie_lynch - Member
So how would 'Boris Day' be celebrated then ?

With all the hilarity and frivolity which one associates with a 'quintessentially' English public school ?

eg. singing Jerusalem, bumming each other, and [b]setting fire to a tramp ?[/b]

That'll keep TJ safely tucked up in Edinburgh...

On St George's Day in Whitton we have a street party, bands marching, food being cooked and served fresh andd hot, motorcycles rumbling down the High Street, a really nice day out.
Ken Deadstone was a pri... sorry - a boring person with no personality and a fear of Jon Gaunt. Long live Boris!

Since some of us are being forced to enjoy the 17th with soft drinks, I have no sympathy whatsoever.

And some of us have the 17th off as a bank holiday (well not sure you get a day off the dole but the GF is off anyway)

some of us have the 17th off as a bank holiday

Don't let Boris Johnson find out.