Telford won't be marking St Georges Day

Telford & Wrekin have confirmed that they will not be marking St Georges Day again this year.

I spoke to them today to find out what they were planning after hearing a couple of councillors at the recent Telford & Wrekin Question Time event saying how pleased they were to be marking Chinese New Year and Holocaust Day assuming, somewhat naïvely, that they would be extending the same courtesy to the 95 or so percent of the population of the borough that's English.

But no, there will be no borough-wide events. The only event they know of is Hadley Parish Council's annual St Georges Day dinner which will be attended by the mayor. Which isn't really good enough is it?

I was told that because Telford is a multi-national town they would have to celebrate every patron saint to keep everybody happy but as I pointed out, there are only four patron saints in the UK and as we're in England there's only one that matters. I also pointed out that regardless of whether they are white, black or asian, most people living in Telford will consider themselves English.

I've asked for my comments to be passed on to the Leader, Andrew Eade, but I may pre-empt it with a phone call this evening. It's a little disappointing after Andrew got off to such a good start by taking down the EU flag and replacing it with the Cross of St George when he took over as leader last year.