England, Oh England!

I apologize for not posting for a while - I suffered writers' blo(g)ck. Now, it's like buses in London, you wait ages for one and then three or four come together!

I know I extol the virtues of living in the USA, and am very proud to do so. But I am English (at least for the moment). I've always been proud of my heritage, but there are crazy goings on in the "Sceptred Isle" (yes, I do know that technically England's not an island, but even Willy Shakes got that wrong). Did you know that there is no English Parliament? The Irish and the Welsh have their assemblies, the Scottish have their own Parliament, but does England? No, it has to share the Palace of Westminster.

Don't misunderstand me, I have nothing against the Scots, Irish or Welsh. I have friends of all these countries, but I have to agree with the following, from the website of the Queen's Royal Lancers:

Goodbye to my England, So long my old friend
Your days are numbered, being brought to an end
To be Scottish, Irish or Welsh, that's fine
But don't say you're English, that's way out of line.

The French and the Germans may call themselves such
So may Norwegians, the Swedes and the Dutch
You can say you are Russian or maybe a Dane
But don't say you're English ever again.

At Broadcasting House the word is taboo
In Brussels it's scrapped, in Parliament too
Even schools are affected, staff do as they're told
They must not teach children about England of old.

Writers like Shakespeare, Milton and Shaw
The pupils don't learn about them anymore
How about Agincourt, Hastings, Arnhem or Mons?
When England lost hosts of her very brave sons.

We are not Europeans, how can we be?
Europe is miles away over the sea
We're the English from England, let's all be proud
Stand up and be counted - Shout it out loud!

Let's tell our government and Brussels too
We're proud of our heritage and the Red, White and Blue
Fly the flag of Saint George or the Union Jack
Let the world know - WE WANT OUR ENGLAND BACK!

Despite a couple of glaring inaccuracies, I subscribe to the general theme. As we all know (or should do) the Union FLAG (not Jack) is the flag NOT of England but the Union - I have no problem with that. And Shaw English? That proves how low education has sunk. The man was born in Dublin for heaven's sake!

Oh! I do feel better for that - I'm sure my American friends will understand my frustrations.