Mark Valladares

Welcome to my day: 23 April 2018 – there’s never a dragon around when you want one…

By | Mon 23rd April 2018 - 8:06 am

It’s St George’s Day today, the anniversary of Queen Anne being crowned at Westminster Abbey (1702), and of the chartering of Connecticut as an English colony in 1662. And, coincidentally, on this day in 1516, Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria endorsed “The German Beer Purity Law”, which I think we could all support.

I’ve been spending the weekend celebrating a significant anniversary, and clearly you’ve all been outside enjoying the fine weather (except our Scottish colleagues, who’ve been at their Conference), or campaigning for elections, as we’ve got precious little in the kitty for publication today. So, I’ll be winging it rather today.

But coming back to St George’s Day, I find myself wondering what being English means to liberals, so we’ll have some thoughts on that, I suspect.

It was a tough week for Brexiteers in the Lords, as the forces of reason struck two potentially significant blows, and there will doubtless be more this week, with two more days of debate on the European Union Withdrawal Bill.

And, astonishingly, despite the shambles that of that press release in Brussels, we’re still members of the ALDE Party. This coming weekend, the ALDE Party Council will be meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria, and I’ll be previewing the event.

So, we’ll end with some poetry on England’s national day. In fact, it’s more of a song lyric, from Howard Blake’s 1974 “New National Songbook”;

The Germans live in Germany,
The Romans live in Rome.
The Russians live in Russia
But the English live at home…

Good morning and welcome to Monday…

Read more by .
This entry was posted in News.
Advert

2 Comments

  • Manfarang 23rd Apr '18 - 4:37pm

    Being English means you ignore St. George’s Day, after all he never set foot on English soil.

  • Simon Banks 15th Jun '18 - 5:54pm

    It has been rumoured that St Andrew did not visit Scotland.

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • Paul Holmes
    When I was an MP I remember being shown a block of Council flats in London. We stood on a first floor walkway and my guide pointed to one door that after RtBuy ...
  • Paul Holmes
    AlexB - Housing Associations already have the power to borrow money against their assets, which are of course not subject to the wholesale Right to Buy (at huge...
  • David McHardy
    There is no way out of the housing crisis without mass private building. Private building has stalled because it is unprofitable, as this article explains. This...
  • George Thomas
    "Of course, devolution cannot simply mean moving responsibilities without resources. Local leaders need meaningful fiscal powers, long-term funding settlements ...
  • George Thomas
    Greater devolution without greater funding is a poisoned chalice and that is what's being offered in Wales. That and sly digs at the Senedd. Then it leads t...