St George's Day - in the courts

Subject: St George's Day - in the courts
From: The Shambles
Date: 16 Nov 05 - 11:36 AM

Press Release

A Judicial Review hearing has been listed at 10.30am on Monday 28th
November
at the Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London to decide:-

Is St George's day special in England?

The case is being brought by Tony Bennett the licensee of the Otter
Public
House,Norwich, against Norwich Magistrates Court, which ruled that it
wasn't
and therefore refused an extension to celebrate the 23rd April this
year.
Tony's Counsel is NEIL ADDISON of
NEW BAILEY   CHAMBERS
The Corn Exchange
Fenwick Street
Liverpool L2 7QS
Tel. [phone]
Fax. [phone]
DX. 14193 Liverpool

Tony's solicitor is Robin Tilbrook of Tilbook's, Quires Green,
Willingale,
Essex, CM5 0QP
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Tony's counsel says:-
"As I see the issue in the case is a simple request that the High
Court make
a Declaration that the Magistrates Court acted irrationally and made a
perverse decision when it decided as follows:-

"the Bench does not consider the 23rd April special because there
were no
national celebrations"   AND

"the function for which Mr Bennett applies for a special order of
exemption
is not part of any national or local celebrations organised primarily
by
third parties instead it is organised by Mr Bennett."


Our argument is clearly that St Georges day is a special day in
England
(just as St David's Day is special day in Wales), there are national
celebrations
and therefore the decision by the Magistrates was not one that any
reasonable tribunal, properly directed, could have arrived at. In
consequence any
functions organised by Mr Bennett should have been regarded as part
of those
national celebrations and not considered in isolation."

For more information please contact:-
Robin Tilbrook,
Tilbook's solicitors,
Quires Green,
Willingale, Essex, CM5 0QP
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]


John Adams
Programme Leader - BSc(Hons) Professional Broadcast Techniques
School of Media Music and Performance
Adelphi, Peru St,
Salford, Greater Manchester M3 6EQ

0161 295 6057
07811 881 705

Subject: RE: St George's Day - in the courts
From: Little Musgrave
Date: 16 Nov 05 - 02:59 PM

At least St David, St Patrick and St Andrew have some reputed connection with their respected countries.So far as I can tell St George has no connection with England, and in fact was from the middle east, malta or somewhere else on the eastern mediterranean. As a non-catholic country, do saints actually count at all?

Subject: RE: St George's Day - in the courts
From: el_punkoid_nouveau
Date: 16 Nov 05 - 03:07 PM

I hope you win this case - it is about bloody time the English stopped being scared of celebrating ourselves!

epn

Subject: RE: St George's Day - in the courts
From: jacqui.c
Date: 16 Nov 05 - 03:30 PM

I agree EPN.

I don't give a monkey's where St George came from or whether or not he existed. That day just give an opportunity for the English to celebrate their own national identity, in the same way as the rest of the UK components do. It has nothing at all to do with religion either.

Subject: RE: St George's Day - in the courts
From: Hopfolk
Date: 16 Nov 05 - 03:34 PM

Musgrave
The English flag represents the cross of Dragon's blood drawn upon his shield by St.George. If you go back far enough, we're pretty much all immigrants here.
So it's a kind of "Flag day", which is enough for me.

Next thing you'll be saying that Lions aren't representative of English wildlife :-P

John

Subject: RE: St George's Day - in the courts
From: Hopfolk
Date: 16 Nov 05 - 03:42 PM

A link with more info, if you're interested

http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintg05.htm

Oh, it says that St.Patrick was kidnapped from the British mainland too.

Subject: RE: St George's Day - in the courts
From: Little Musgrave
Date: 16 Nov 05 - 03:52 PM

The lions are from Anjou in france, from the coat of arms of Henry II. I agree that we are very much a mongrel nation, and all the better for it. I think that there are a great many aspects of 'englishness' that are worthy of celebrating, and I love this country, and many of the poeple in it. St George represents all that is wrong with 'englishness' the St george cross is synonymous with the crusades, surely one of the most reprehensible episodes is western european history, st george is an unrepresentative choice of saint foisted on us by a feudal monarchy that still seems to want to rule in the manner of their medieval forefathers, and is a saint whose history has been subject to revisionism from the victorians.
Indeed, let's find a symbol of englishness that we can all celebrate, I would suggest Watt Tyler, who led the peasant's Revolt, tho I'm sure readers will have their own suggestions.

Subject: RE: St George's Day - in the courts
From: Micca
Date: 16 Nov 05 - 03:58 PM

They celebrate St Georges day EVERY year in Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK for more info
Here
and Here
and Here as well


I simply Googled "Salisbury St Georges day" and I got 1,820,000 hits

Subject: RE: St George's Day - in the courts
From: BB
Date: 16 Nov 05 - 05:16 PM

This (see below) came through to me the other day - and I voted. I wonder whether this petition would give power to their elbow. John, is there an e-mail address for either the Counsel or the Solicitor in this case?

Barbara

Greetings all

Please get this round your friends and to all your other email links!

You may be interested to see this & vote.

There is a chance the public can make St Georges Day a public holiday (After this year) Click on the link below to vote, the site needs at least 500,000 votes for the government to take it seriously and give us another holiday, and I know you are up for that!

Copy and paste the address into the web to vote and pass on to everyone!

http://www.stgeorgesday.com/voting.asp

Subject: RE: St George's Day - in the courts
From: JohnB
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 10:24 AM

St George's Day was celebrated in CANADA, by a bunch of expatriot Brits (English, Scottish, and Irish) and fellow Canadians. We celebrated with Morris Dancing and a Concert in the evening at a Pub in "Cambridge" (Ontario) called the "Golden Kiwi" yes the landlord comes from New Zealand. No religion was involved and we all had a bloody good time.
JohnB

Subject: RE: St George's Day - in the courts
From: IanC
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 10:31 AM

Er ... LM ...

what would be the reputed collection between St Andrew the fisherman and Scotland?

Subject: RE: St George's Day - in the courts
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 11:59 AM

St George's cross is the flag of the lamb (in our church, 13. century it is hewn in stone holding its flag with the red cross on white).
A patron saint mustn't be necessarily be of his patronized nation's origin; the patron saint of Germany, St Michael, has his barracks way, way up there ...
An what a bloody nonsense it is to call "last orders" at 23hundred sharp! That's just the time when frolicking begins!