For Catalonia and St George

On St George's Day round Borough market last month there was a bit of Catalonia/England link up with food and music to remind people that it was also La Diada de Sant Jordi, when lovers exchange books and roses in Barcelona (a connection also made at Shunt this time last year).


The best thing was that it was a very sunny Friday and there were lots of people out drinking in the streets from lunchtime onwards.

Outside Southwark Cathedral (and elsewhere in the area too), the Lion's Part theatre performed a George and Dragon folk play.

Around the pubs there were also quite a few drinkers dressed up in various George and Dragon outfits. I started off the evening pondering whether, as Billy Bragg would have it, these stories and symbols should be actively wrestled from the BNP, English Defence League and co. who lay claim to them (on the same day the BNP launched its unsuccessful election campaign with a press conference where Nick Griffin was flanked by some bruiser dressed up as St George). By the time I'd moved from Brindisa, to the Market Porter and on to the Miller in Snowsfields I'd stopped pondering as my critical faculties dissolved in the drunken bonhomie.