00:00trying to sow division. Now, with the Prime Minister also referencing, of course, the Southport
00:05riots, some have called this politicisation of this sacred day as shameful and divisive,
00:12while others say it's an essential national conversation. Well, let's discuss this now
00:16further with the former Army Reservist, Michael Delaney, and I'm also joined by Nigel Nelson.
00:23Michael, let's first start with you. How have you received Sir Keir Starmer's comments today,
00:28St. George's Day? Is it really a time to play politics? It's absolutely not, and to be honest,
00:34I have to say I'm not that surprised at his tone today. You know, St. George's Day is a day that
00:40we celebrate being English, distinctly English, and I think the Prime Minister is petrified of being
00:46specific. He's petrified of saying that being English is a distinctive thing, and he's talking
00:52about these values like unity and diversity, real vagaries, to be honest, because he's terrified of
00:59not including absolutely everyone in the St. George's Day celebration.
01:03Is it fair? Look, we've had an expansive and exhaustive and in-depth analysis of Southport,
01:11of the riots, of the far right, of what that meant. We've had that conversation.
01:16Is today the day to resurrect that conversation? Absolutely not. I think today of all days is
01:23not the way to bring that one back up. If anything, it's probably the last day that you
01:29would bring it up. We've already had a very thorough inquest into that, and, you know,
01:35people have been arrested. People are in jail now for that. People that committed crimes have
01:39been arrested, and I think that his attempt to tie all these bad behaviours to the flag
01:46just totally misses the point of what St. George's Day is about. If we did that with every symbol,
01:51we've got work to do. Michael, do you think there's any way on God's green earth that
01:58Sir Keir Starmer, or indeed any other politician, let's be frank, would have the guts or even the
02:03temerity to talk about Scottish nationalism on St. Andrew's Day, to talk about the problems
02:09of nationalism in Ireland or Wales, or indeed Afghanistan, anywhere else on the planet apart
02:16from the English? What is it about the St. George's flag, about Englishness, which seems to be
02:21an open season, it's an open ticket for politicians to have a pop? Yeah, I think this comes with the
02:27backdrop of some serious sort of national browbeating that we've seen in recent years.
02:32English patriotism, to be clear, is understated. We're discreet about our national pride. I think
02:41there is a bit of a difference because Scotland, Ireland and Wales are technically minorities in
02:46these isles, right? I think that's the reason that they might seem a bit more proud, but this is the
02:52point. Englishness is a distinct identity, and he's just missed the point with this one completely.
02:59Do you feel there's something else going on here though, Mike? And it's this, Scottish nationalism,
03:04Welsh, Irish, is seen as something noble, something laudable, something separatist and something worth
03:10fighting for. Yeah. English nationalism, it's short-hand for racism. Yeah. Yeah, well this is tragic,
03:16isn't it? Because if you really sort of look at the achievements that have come out of the English
03:22state since its inception, which of course is debatable, I suppose you're talking about
03:27technicalities, but let's talk about, you know, since the, since 1348, since we've had this flag,
03:33right, instituted by Edward III, does a lot for English national pride and our identity. And,
03:40you know, we've got habeas corpus, we've got the rule of law, parliamentary democracy,
03:45all these things that have come out of England as achievements, and he hasn't really mentioned any of
03:50them. Mm-hmm.
Comments