Cry God for Keir, England and St George
Keir Starmer held a St George’s Day reception at Downing St on 22nd April and once again made a call for the national flag (in this case presumably the St George’s Cross) to be reclaimed from the far right. We have been here before, several times, and the far right are still parading the flag around.
Labour supporters in Scotland and Wales may be distinctly unimpressed. Labour does not organise in the Six Counties of Northern Ireland, which Starmer may vaguely recall.
As a socialist of course my flag stays red
Why the right want St George, who wherever he was born, was certainly not English, is perhaps obvious. He was a military saint and he was a Christian. Plus he has been around as an icon for a long time in English history.
Shakespeare’s Henry V contains the still oft repeated phrase ‘Cry God for Harry, England and St George. As a military and a religious man St George fitted the ideology of the Crusades well
We can agree then that if the reasons for George becoming an English saint, along with being the saint of numbers of other countries, are a little obscure, given the length of time he has been at it he at least has squatting rights to the title.
St George was a soldier in the Roman Army of Emperor Diocletian and was persecuted and killed for refusing to give up his Christian faith.
Given that the Romans had occupied Britain, and that there was some Christianity in the country some kind of connection can be seen.
That said the slaying of the dragon was not a reflection of some ancient English rivalry against Wales but mythic.
In 2025 St George’s Day is little more than a chance for businesses to make some money out of flag shagging. There are no ceremonies associated with it. However in the English traditional calendar, long before flag shaggers, it was a feast day. If Starmer is actually proposing that 23rd April should be a public holiday- so far he isn’t- he may have hit on a fairly popular idea.
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