jfish1936 Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 Australia has Australia Day commemmorating Cook's landing. (The Aboriginees don't celebrate it, they call it something else like Slavery day. We used to have Empire Day, now very non-PC. Technically, Arthur Philip's landing to institute the penal colony of New South Wales. in 1788. Cook missed seeing Sydney Harbour, but Joseph Banks enjoyed Botany Bay, in 1770. Many Aboriginal spokesmen have called 26/01/1788 "Invasion Day". Would the anniversary of the battle of Hastings be a good date for "Britain Day"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjw47 Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 Most national days are when the host country celebrate their independence... usually from Britain I suppose we could celebrate kicking out the Vikings or the Romans but I'm sure most of us will be happy with a Thatcher day, where we celebrate her demise instead. Accept of course we didn't actually 'kick out the Vikings or Romans' did we? The Vikings absorbed themselves in and the Romans withdrew of their own accord when their Empire finally -after 2,350 - years started to fall apart. As for Thatcher she was probably the most divisive Prime Minister this country has ever known, and is best forgotten. ---------- Post added 28-01-2014 at 11:27 ---------- Technically, Arthur Philip's landing to institute the penal colony of New South Wales. in 1788. Cook missed seeing Sydney Harbour, but Joseph Banks enjoyed Botany Bay, in 1770. Many Aboriginal spokesmen have called 26/01/1788 "Invasion Day". Would the anniversary of the battle of Hastings be a good date for "Britain Day"? The anniversary of the date the French invaded, conquered the country, and replaced the English King Harold with the French man Guilliam Fitzrobert? The date when they then started to replace the entire Anglo-Saxon aristocracy with Frenchmen, the descendents of whom still own most of the land and control most of the power in this country? Well, I've given it some consideration, but on balance maybe not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Obelix Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 Americans have July 4th for Independence (though they celebrate thanks for us English on Thanksgiving in November!), the Australians had their national day yesterday, and most foreign nationals have their own special day. Except Britain/the UK as a whole nation - despite our wealth of successes and high moments- have no national day in that sense? Well, we here have St.George's Day, April 23rd, but seriously, does anyone bother. Depends what you mean by "bother." We managed to fill the cathedral full to bursting with over a thousand Scouts last year for our annual Scouts Own there and then paraded through the town along with the Guides, St Johns Ambulance, a diminishing, increasingly elderly but still active British Legion, the Rotarians, and several other groups as well. We will be doing the same again this year on the Sunday closest to the 23rd as well I have no doubt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeMaquis Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 Would the anniversary of the battle of Hastings be a good date for "Britain Day"? Any Britain Day would have to celebrate a day after the Act Of Union and that wouldn't go down well in some parts of Scotland. Nor would it go down well in some parts of Wales. The histories of the Scots, Welsh and English may be intertwined but they're looked on from different perspectives by each nation. If a UK day was adopted instead then some parts of Northern Ireland would celebrate it with marches, sashes and bowler hats and other parts with molotov cocktails, bricks and bottles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfish1936 Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 The anniversary of the date the French invaded, conquered the country, and replaced the English King Harold with the French man Guilliam Fitzrobert? The date when they then started to replace the entire Anglo-Saxon aristocracy with Frenchmen, the descendents of whom still own most of the land and control most of the power in this country? Well, I've given it some consideration, but on balance maybe not. That's how our Aboriginals see "Australia Day", when their regimes were conquered, and their rights over the land began to be wiped out by foreigners, whose descendants own most of the land and control most of the power in Australia.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjw47 Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 Perhaps before we decide on a suitable date to celebrate 'Britain Day' we should wait to see which way the Scots vote later this year? The whole idea may be redundant. ---------- Post added 28-01-2014 at 13:27 ---------- That's how our Aboriginals see "Australia Day", when their regimes were conquered, and their rights over the land began to be wiped out by foreigners, whose descendants own most of the land and control most of the power in Australia.. Precisely, and in our scenario the ordinary people of this island are the aborigines. The only real difference being that the foreigners saw an opportunity to exploit the natives here by conning them into believing 'we're all in this together.' That way you have an almost limitless supply of cannon fodder, who can be persuaded to go to foreign parts, steal their stuff and kill any objectors. The young impressionable lads who do this never appear to have the intelligence to stop and ask themselves a few questions. Like, who is taking all the risks, and who is gaining most of the benefit? And, why do we think it acceptable to turn up in someone else's country and help ourselves to their assets? Also, what would our response be if foreigners turned up in Britain attempting to do the same? Why are we surprised that these people appear to be annoyed, and are shooting at us? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 Australia has Australia Day commemmorating Cook's landing. (The Aboriginees don't celebrate it, they call it something else like Slavery day. We used to have Empire Day, now very non-PC. I think we should have a Bankers Day instead where we celebrate all the great ways bankers have generated wealth, created jobs and made our country a better place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spilldig Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 I think we get the lowest number of public holidays in Europe... I made exactly this point before and got shot down by people pointing out that we get more annual leave than other countries. We also get less bank holidays than many other non EU countries too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blake Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Maggie thatcher day. No? they do have a Margaret Thatcher Day, in the Falkland Islands. Every 10th of January, since 1992. ---------- Post added 29-01-2014 at 07:12 ---------- T Would the anniversary of the battle of Hastings be a good date for "Britain Day"? no because Britain as a union did not exist then. The most appropriate date would surely be the day the Act of Union came into force in 1707, May 1st. Except there is already a holiday on that day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truman Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 I made exactly this point before and got shot down by people pointing out that we get more annual leave than other countries. We also get less bank holidays than many other non EU countries too. We get less annual leave than a lot of European countries too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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