A former army reservist has criticised Sir Keir Starmer for "missing the point" about English identity with his St George's Day comments.Michael Delaney told GB News that the Prime Minister's decision to reference the Southport riots whilst discussing the English flag was inappropriate.READ THE FULL STORY HERE
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00:00trying to sow division. Now, with the Prime Minister also referencing, of course, the Southport
00:05riots, some have called this politicisation of this sacred day as shameful and divisive,
00:12while others say it's an essential national conversation. Well, let's discuss this now
00:16further with the former Army Reservist, Michael Delaney, and I'm also joined by Nigel Nelson.
00:23Michael, let's first start with you. How have you received Sir Keir Starmer's comments today,
00:28St. George's Day? Is it really a time to play politics? It's absolutely not, and to be honest,
00:34I have to say I'm not that surprised at his tone today. You know, St. George's Day is a day that
00:40we celebrate being English, distinctly English, and I think the Prime Minister is petrified of being
00:46specific. He's petrified of saying that being English is a distinctive thing, and he's talking
00:52about these values like unity and diversity, real vagaries, to be honest, because he's terrified of
00:59not including absolutely everyone in the St. George's Day celebration.
01:03Is it fair? Look, we've had an expansive and exhaustive and in-depth analysis of Southport,
01:11of the riots, of the far right, of what that meant. We've had that conversation.
01:16Is today the day to resurrect that conversation? Absolutely not. I think today of all days is
01:23not the way to bring that one back up. If anything, it's probably the last day that you
01:29would bring it up. We've already had a very thorough inquest into that, and, you know,
01:35people have been arrested. People are in jail now for that. People that committed crimes have
01:39been arrested, and I think that his attempt to tie all these bad behaviours to the flag
01:46just totally misses the point of what St. George's Day is about. If we did that with every symbol,
01:51we've got work to do. Michael, do you think there's any way on God's green earth that
01:58Sir Keir Starmer, or indeed any other politician, let's be frank, would have the guts or even the
02:03temerity to talk about Scottish nationalism on St. Andrew's Day, to talk about the problems
02:09of nationalism in Ireland or Wales, or indeed Afghanistan, anywhere else on the planet apart
02:16from the English? What is it about the St. George's flag, about Englishness, which seems to be
02:21an open season, it's an open ticket for politicians to have a pop? Yeah, I think this comes with the
02:27backdrop of some serious sort of national browbeating that we've seen in recent years.
02:32English patriotism, to be clear, is understated. We're discreet about our national pride. I think
02:41there is a bit of a difference because Scotland, Ireland and Wales are technically minorities in
02:46these isles, right? I think that's the reason that they might seem a bit more proud, but this is the
02:52point. Englishness is a distinct identity, and he's just missed the point with this one completely.
02:59Do you feel there's something else going on here though, Mike? And it's this, Scottish nationalism,
03:04Welsh, Irish, is seen as something noble, something laudable, something separatist and something worth
03:10fighting for. Yeah. English nationalism, it's short-hand for racism. Yeah. Yeah, well this is tragic,
03:16isn't it? Because if you really sort of look at the achievements that have come out of the English
03:22state since its inception, which of course is debatable, I suppose you're talking about
03:27technicalities, but let's talk about, you know, since the, since 1348, since we've had this flag,
03:33right, instituted by Edward III, does a lot for English national pride and our identity. And,
03:40you know, we've got habeas corpus, we've got the rule of law, parliamentary democracy,
03:45all these things that have come out of England as achievements, and he hasn't really mentioned any of
03:50them. Mm-hmm.