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I went along to the festivities in Trafalgar Square today (Monday). Was a nice event, thousands of people, stalls and live music. Did anyone else on here go - if so, what did you think? We had a discussion on here a while ago, which I started, where I said the event should be bigger than it is and should be more publicised also. Many other things in London are bigger and are more publicised (St Patrick's Day, Diwali events, etc). Good this happened though and it was quite a big event. I enjoyed it.

We don't really need to promote England because we know as Flanders and Swann told us that "The English, the English, the English are best" and we have an understated knowledge of what makes us the best. The Irish, the Scots etc have to trumpet it because of their insecurities...

Haha. Well said!

I do think though that Englishness, both the culture and language, are under threat so it is nice to have something that celebrates Englishness. You don't hear English spoken much in London anymore and I can't even rmemeber when I last had a neighbour who had English as their first language or who remotely gave a damn about the culture, heritage and traditions of this country. I of course have to like the fact that none of my neighbours remotely give a damn about the culture, heritage and traditions of this country or I will be the one who is vilified. You can be 20 generations English and have relatives who fought and died in wars for this country yet when you go for a job interview you are treated like someone who just arrived and are asked at the interview: "are you eligible to work in the UK?" I find this a very offensive question but I have to take it. You are viewed no differently to an Albanian asylum seeker who has just turned up. Being English in England has been hugely devalued in recent times, having a left-wing government for 13 years didn't help. Therefore it is nice to have a national day that celebrates Englishness.

Or it could be that the English have no sense of identity anymore because all the immigration has diluted your country to bugger all....

Like this

And the sad fact that anyone flying a Union Jack or Cross of St George is labelled racist rather than patriotic. On the US PGA Golf Tour they have a designated hole each week with a stars and stripes in place of the regular flag. Try that at Wentworth or Hoylake this year and be ready for the PC backlash.

There has always been a range of communities and cultures in London, I've lived here all my life and it started before I was born. I've always welcomed diversity and we had that until about 10-15 years ago. Now it has gone too far. It is not right that you should barely hear English spoken in London - you would expect to hear French spoken in Paris and German spoken in Berlin. Every bus you sit on and streets you walk down everyone speaks foreign languages, a few years ago there was some of that but a lot of English too. Politicans couldn't care less, it was all about votes for Labour - that is why they allowed the largest immigration into Britain for over 1,000 years. The public were never consulted, it was and is scandalous.

They are not as touchy about the flags these days as they were years ago, in the 70's and 80's anyone displaying a Union Flag or St George's Cross was rather stupidly viewed as far-right. Since the 1990's this has changed, we had a lot of flag waving with the whole Britpop music scene and with Cool Britannia and all that. Every two years, for a while, people hung St Georges Crosses out of their windows during either the World Cup or the Euros, this started in the late-90's and carried on for a bit. You don't get it as much now. I would love to see the flags out this summer for the World Cup. I don't know if it will happen, but it would not be frowned upon if it did and that is a good thing.

I wish David was here to put us right. We are lost without his leadership and superior knowledge.

Alas, he is talking all things porridge on another thread. !nuts!

David has lost the plot with his 'porridge' thread.

Walked past a pub in Soho this evening and the Dambusters theme was blaring out. Quite stirring really...