It's St George's Day but England is more divided than ever
We don't have a solution to division, but could we at least have a national holiday, writes William Mata
It has long been my prediction that St George’s Day will become a national holiday.
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The UK has fewer national holidays than many of its European neighbours and, unlike Scotland and Ireland, England does not have its patron saint’s day as a day off.
Perhaps April 23 falls too close to Easter and May Day. But with some diary jigging it feels like only a matter of time until a struggling government decides (in a pre-election sweetener) to make St George’s Day a national holiday.
It would be a vote-winner, an easy morale boost, or at least something of a legacy to leave behind.
You wouldn’t want to be the government that took away a bank holiday, after all.
But for 2026 at least, St George’s Day is not a bank holiday, and the English are struggling to know how to celebrate.
Hanging up the national flag might be forgiven on the patron saint day, but after the shenanigans of last year, doing so now carries a risk of association with Operation Raise the Colours and the far right.
Should the government put on events to celebrate? Well, actually, it is and has already. A family festival was held at Trafalgar Square last weekend and was just one such effort to seize the narrative.
There was a diverse range of performers and what looked to just about be a gathering that could be called a crowd.
There were and will be similar events around the country, and as government-approved organised fun goes, they were and will be less of a cringe than Theresa May’s festival of Brexit.
Perhaps heartfelt St George’s Day celebrations are there if you look for them, but this year, more than ever, they feel like a small act of unity against a tide of division.
One poll found that 76 per cent of people think that the UK is more divided than at the time of the Brexit vote.
More than half responded to an Ipsos survey that now think differences in people’s political views are so divisive that it is dangerous for society.
Ten years ago, the Conservative and Labour parties resembled what you might expect, and not being beaten in polls by the more radical takes offered by Zack Polanski and Nigel Farage on either side.
There even seems to be division over division, with Sir Keir Starmer saying Britain risks being an “island of strangers” in a speech about immigration, and then saying he regretted it.
The problem is there, but how can it be solved?
The situation seems to have been acknowledged for what it is by an unlikely duo in punk poet Billy Bragg and former Tory minister Sajid Javid.
The pair are behind a project to present “the story of England 2026 in 50 objects” - an exhibition in London’s East End, which features a film screening as well as the objects themselves, which include playing cards, tea towels and t-shirts.
Bragg told LBC News: "I think Englishness is a bit of an abstract idea. It very often gets lost somewhere in among Britishness. And as a result from that, we don't really have a strong communal sense of who we are. And it's left. You know, when the flags were put on lampposts last summer, the question about who put them there and why and what they meant, people struggled to make an answer of that and many people thought it was quite negative. Well, I think there's a lot of positive things in England if we only come."
I think most would agree with that, as they would prefer to live in a country where we get along. Can this be achieved in an exhibition containing cards, tea towels and t-shirts? Well… Maybe. But, until a solution to a national unity crisis is found, I would probably rather celebrate St George’s Day by having a day off.
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William Mata is a writer and SEO editor for LBC.
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