Drinks and dragons with George
The Welsh do it with a load of old daffodils and songs in the chapel. Scots do it similarly with haggis and bagpipes. The Irish do it with a week of hooleys now culminating in a parade around London.
And the English? Not only are we the only country in the Union not to have our own national anthem, but we do next to nothing to celebrate our nation day, St George's Day, which, just in case you haven't heard, falls on Tuesday (23rd).
It's an outrage - nothing short of a scandal, in fact. It should be a recognised public holiday with us all wearing bicycle clips and bowler hats, singing chim-chiminee tunes and chasing foxes with hounds. Hell's teeth, we should even be allowed to go morris dancing if we want.
Our friendly Bedfordshire brewer Charles Wells (which brews, among others, the excellent Bombardier bitter) is the only drinks outfit to my knowledge that has actively campaigned for widespread recognition of St George's Day. Bombardier - a cracking beer with a taste of bitter hops - is affectionately known as England's Patron Pint, and the Bombardier Bus will be travelling round London on Tuesday, offering samples of the product.
The bus is set to tour many of the major London landmarks, stopping at THE CITY TUP (66 Gresham Street, EC2, 020-7606 8176), THE FULHAM TUP (268 Fulham Road, SW10, 020-7352 1859), THE CAMDEN TUP (2-3 Greenland Place, NW1, 020-7482 0399) and THE MARYLEBONE TUP (93 Marylebone High Street, W1, 020-7935 4373).
It will also make a visit to the LAMB & FLAG (33 Rose Street, WC2, 020-7497 9504) where, at 12.30pm, the winner of Bombardier's competition to find a new national anthem will perform live on the premises. And singer Billy Bragg is also expected to take part in the festivities.
BAR CITRUS (36 The Cut, SE1, 020-7633 9144) is planning an all-day party to celebrate the day with promotions on Bombardier bitter. This is a Charles Wells venue and is the brewery's first attempt in London to provide a bar rather than a pub. It might look a bit like a Slug & Lettuce, but this is a perfectly agreeable cafe-style bar that comes into its own in warm weather when the concertina windows are folded back.
Elsewhere, THE BRITANNIA (5 Brewers Lane, Richmond, Surrey, 020-8940 1071) will be celebrating the day with a right royal Brit-pop knees-up in the evening, with a festive English meal (call ahead for tickets). But if you want to head to a pub of history, then pop to the appropriately named THE GEORGE INN (77 Borough High Street, SE1, 020-7407 2056) where, at the time of writing, they were unsure when St George's Day fell. Typical, eh? Long live England.
