Kate Robey:

St George's Day has been and gone. People put up flags, dressed up as St George, played lots of lovely English music (Elgar is a favourite of mine), and generally had a happy time. Well, most people. 

In the run up to St George's day there has been a lot of discussion over English and British culture, and how it is defined. It has started to feel like there's a right and wrong over how it can be defined, to me. I had a chat with a chap earlier in the week over this very topic, and I asked him to list me how he specifically defined English culture, and from his list, I think I could find one similarity over how I view English culture, which I think was fish and chips (even though the Jewish immigrant Joseph Malin was the first to open up a fish and chip shop in this country). I could list all the things I consider to be English culture, but I don't really want to. To me, it's not a set thing. 

Instead I'm going to talk about the things that I don't think are anything to do with English culture. First up, we have the British National Party, who say they are fighting to protect our culture, even if that means booting out a load of people from our country. Watching the interview between Griffin and Paxman tonight once again confirmed to me (although it doesn't need confirming anymore) that this 'party' do not really care about this country, or its citizens. These people want to get all Muslims out of this country. They do not like Islam whatsoever, and repeatedly lie about the true nature of Islam. Reading this, you might think I'm a Muslim, but I'm not, I'm a Christian. Nick Griffin said only the other day that he wasn't anti-Muslim, but that he was anti-Islam. That just doesn't make sense to me. You're against a religion, but you're not against its followers who practise that religion? 

So next up, I shall talk briefly about the English Defence League. The English Defence League claim to be protesting Islamic Extremism, and they allegedly welcome all faiths in protesting peacefully together. 

So, when you first listen to what they have to say, you might think, yeah okay that sounds reasonable enough. Nobody wants Islamic extremism here, so yes, they have a valid point. However, delve a little deeper (and it doesn't take much digging) you find that there's a little more to it than that. 
The English Defence League protest against the burkha in this country, citing security reasons, not assimilating into 'our way of life', and also the oppression over women. 
They also protest against halal meat, in particular recently KFC restaurants. There's a lovely youtube video doing the rounds of a few EDL members going into a restaurant, intimidating the manager in there, and warning her they'll be back next weekend with many more people. This manager has absolutely no control over company policy whatsoever, she just does her job and probably for not a lot of money, so why is it they think they will get answers from her?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h2NtLWqNns 
And the other big issue to them is Mosques in this country, the building of, and seemingly just the mere existence of any Mosques, because of the chances of Islamic extremism rising out of them. 

So basically, in a nutshell the English Defence League are happy with you being Muslim as long as you don't want to wear what you want, don't want to eat what you want, and don't want to use a place of worship that is specific to your religion. 

Everyone is entitled to a point of view but not when it starts to persecute a section of society, and that is what I think the BNP and EDL are doing. If you've seen any footage of an EDL protest, you'll notice there's nothing that peaceful about it (as they claim), and instead seems to be a lot of football chanting going on, although the words have been adapted accordingly. Since when did chanting 'Allah, Allah, who the f*ck is Allah' help to combat extremism in this country? How does that invite people from all faiths to join in protesting against extremism, when you're deliberately offending a particular faith by being so rude about Allah? And on top of that, Allah is the same God that Christians and Jews worship, so they're not just offending one religion, but three in one fell swoop. 
Unfortunately though, it's not the chanting at protests that is the worst thing about the EDL. We've seen numerous bouts of violence, we've seen destruction of city centres, and we've also seen just how much these demonstrations cost the taxpayer and country in general. The latest figure for this is £2 million, and it has come at one of the worst times, when this country is still struggling to stay on its feet financially.

 http://www.sundaymercury.net/news/midlands-news/2010/04/18/sunday-mercury-unveils-face-of-leader-of-edl-whose-group-has-cost-taxpayers-2-million-66331-26264953/

Their next demonstration is in Aylesbury, and already the local market that runs on a Saturday has had to be cancelled. And the response from the EDL? Well, apparently we should be grateful that they care so much, and one day we will thank them. Somehow, I don't think people who rely on good trade on a Saturday (like a lot of retailers) will be thanking the EDL in a hurry. 

My point of this ramble is that the above things I have talked only ever so briefly about are not how I define English culture. One of things I am proud about this country has always been our acceptance of different cultures, religions, backgrounds, and that it all makes our country to be a great wide and varied mix of talents, specialities and interests. That to me is English culture.