St. George isn't who white people think he is

Just as racist nationalists flock to commemorate St. George’s day, we at the Canary hasten to remind you that the man himself was a Turkish immigrant who never came to England – and the flag so many people like to shag is actually Italian.

After all, what could be more typically English than us stealing someone and something that wasn’t ours in the first place?

St George isn’t who racists think he is

The Green Party’s Jenny Jones got straight to business:

Happy St George's Day!
England's national day, when we celebrate our patron saint, a Turkish officer in the Roman army who died in Palestine and never visited Britain.
And, he didn't kill a dragon.

— Jenny Jones (@GreenJennyJones) April 23, 2025

Journalist Kevin Maguire added a present-day context:

Happy St George’s Day when we celebrate a Turkish migrant worker who never came to England and would now probably be barred from entering.

— Kevin Maguire (@Kevin_Maguire) April 23, 2025

He’s got a point. What else would happen if St. George, who had a Palestinian mother, was born in Turkey, and famously helped poor people, tried to enter our shores? Of course, that would be the current woke version of poor people – a lefty plot – rather than the good old poor of the past who can be used in a convenient Hovis advert but otherwise ignored?

That didn’t stop the likes of racist Lee Anderson spitting out his weird nationalism:

Happy St George's Day.

I feel proud to be British.

But extremely lucky to be English.

I'm an Englishman 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 pic.twitter.com/km2kzPBSCE

— Lee Anderson MP (@LeeAndersonMP_) April 23, 2025

That would be the same Lee Anderson who claimed that Sadiq Khan (more on him later) was giving London away to “Islamists.”

Robert Jenrick who, you guessed it, recently went on a racist rant about “immigrants with alien cultures,” made a call to cherish our past:

England is a great nation. A great people.

Let’s cherish our past, not forget it.

Happy St George’s Day! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 pic.twitter.com/wRBVcF4RU1

— Robert Jenrick (@RobertJenrick) April 23, 2025

Not the colonialist past, or the genocidal past, that other one, you know, the good past.

And, this one speaks for itself:

Many of the Tory politicians tweeting to mark St George's day would do anything for this country except pay their taxes here

— David__Osland (@David__Osland) April 23, 2025

Democracy, decency, etc etc

Wet wipe Keir Starmer made some wild claims about England:

England is a beautiful country, rich with pride, potential and creativity.

Today, let’s remember our shared history, our shared inheritance and our shared values.

Happy St. George’s Day 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 pic.twitter.com/ZV2O6AjBZ0

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) April 23, 2025

Pride, potential, and creativity? Is that what you call supplying arms to Israel for their genocide in Palestine? Or is it 1 in 5 people living in poverty? Continuous funding cuts for the arts?

Meanwhile, assimilationist Sadiq Khan also joined in:

Today we celebrate why we love our home, why we'll always be proud to be English, and our values of democracy, fairness, decency and respect.

As Mayor of England’s capital, I'd like to wish everyone a happy St George's Day! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 pic.twitter.com/1APcg8kLVV

— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) April 23, 2025

Democracy, fairness, decency, and respect. According to Unlock Democracy:

The integrity of elections and freedom of speech have been undermined… Media concentration is becoming an increasing problem alongside pressures on local journalism and concerns about government appointments to the BBC. The use of ‘dark money’ in elections is an increasing concern. Freedom of speech remains protected in law, but a proposed Online Safety Bill may restrict this in the future. The government has also made political interventions to shape education syllabuses.

Respect, but only for the richest and most powerful in society. Not for poor people, or trans people, or immigrants, or, those magical unicorns who are poor, trans, immigrants all at the same time.

National pride

Unfortunately, Starmer wasn’t done there. At a reception in Downing Street he also said:

Yet now – there are people trying to sow division in our communities, people taking the red and white of our flag, like the bunting downstairs, with them, as they throw bricks at businesses…

Starmer recalled the race riots of 2024:

We have to fight for our flag and for our values.

Because it was the aftermath of the riots that showed what it means to be English. It marked the coming together of a country.

With the imagery of a John Lewis-esque Christmas advert, Starmer continued:

People who got together the morning after, all across Britain with shovels, brooms, and brushes, to clean up their communities. Rebuilding walls, repairing damage and it’s in that spirit that we reclaim our flag and that was incredibly uplifting to go from rioting to people coming out to do what they could for our country.

So that’s what we must do for our country, for English decency, honour and fairness. Wrench it out of the hands of those who want to divide this nation and reclaim it for good.

The only reason the English can have the cognitive dissonance of celebrating St. George as a symbol of everything English whilst the man himself was actually a Turkish immigrant is because there is one thing the English excel at. That’s contorting themselves into ridiculous positions, and saying fucking stupid things that make them look fucking stupid in the name of national pride.

Starmer doesn’t get to divide up the people who did the race rioting (whilst covered in England flag t-shirts, tattoos, and more) and the people they rioted against. Communities did come together after the race riots – but it was people committed to anti-racism and anti-fascism. It wasn’t people that Starmer would approve of, sweeping up their streets because they knew nobody else would do it.

Take back the flag and St. George

It’s the most typically English thing to divorce oneself from the actual consequences of actions. Those racists didn’t try to set a building full of refugees on fire in isolation. Their thoughts and opinions grew from somewhere and that’s something we’re all responsible for: the government, police, teachers, doctors, anyone who hasn’t and wouldn’t challenge racism wherever they see it.

The rhetoric of ‘taking the flag back’ is ironically the exact rhetoric racists use. They want to ‘take the flag back’ and they want being English to mean being white. Starmer is using the same language as these racists, has spent his time emboldening these racists – you don’t then get to turn around and act like we need to take the flag back from those people.

We know what it means when you see an England flag. If there isn’t a sporting event going on, seeing the England flag outside a pub means: any Black or Brown people coming in here will get suspicious looks and maybe their heads kicked in. Seeing the England flag means racists are staking their claim. And, in doing so, they’re pointing the finger at people of colour to tell us that we don’t belong, that we’re not English like they are.

Symbols mean something – they’re not just random images. St. George isn’t who English people think he is. The English flag doesn’t mean what white English people think it does.

Taking a flag from racists doesn’t stop the flag from being a symbol for racists.

Featured image via the Canary