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Plaid Cymru AM Janet Ryder - is it a good idea to make St David's Day a national holiday ? | UNLESS you've been subject to a power cut for the last week, and shown the hand to anyone audacious enough to attempt to make conversation with you - loved ones and strangers alike - then you'll know that the subject of national days is very much to the fore at the moment. First Gordon Brown proposes some form of 'Great Britain Day'. Then Plaid Cymru AM Janet Ryder criticises this claim, and advances the notion that St David's Day be made a public holiday. We at pembrokeshiretv.com believe that, in order to truly embrace our identity as Pembrokeshirians, we should be granted a 'Pembrokeshire Day' holiday.
It would seem that a primary thrust of the chancellor's desire to embrace our Britishness and the Union flag is to celebrate the nation's multiculturalism, and win the flag back from the far right. All but the most small-minded of folk would agree that this is a good thing. Although the Union Jack has unwittingly acquired racist undertones, it is important to remember that the exclusionary ideologies propounded by parties such as the BNP are entirely at odds with the concept of union.
But Gordon Brown's idea was always bound to get some backs up. Referring to the flag, the chancellor said : "All the United Kingdom should honour it, not ignore it. We should assert that the Union flag by definition is a flag for tolerance and inclusion." There are two problems with this however. It is all very well to claim that the Union referred to is that of all citizens living together in harmony and superhappy la-la. In fact, it is commendable. However, the actual Union signified by the flag is that of three kingdoms underneath one monarch. This top-down approach, which basically states 'You are all equal as royal subjects', is simply not the same as the ground-up scenario that Brown envisions.
'Boo! You are getting far too bogged down in conceptuality' I hear you cry, as a projectile rotten vegetable whistles past my ear. But I should retort that the second problem, which follows directly from the first, is that there is literally no place for Wales - the fourth kingdom - in the Union flag. In this respect, AM Janet Ryder has a point. If there is not so much as a symbolic nod to the Welsh in the flag of the United Kingdom, then why should the people of Wales be bound by it ? One way of dealing with this would be to graft a little dragon into the centre of the Union flag, with a mandate to alter its status from a royal flag to a national one. This - of course - is never going to happen. But is having a national holiday on St David's Day the answer ?
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The four-nation flag - probably not entirely practical | Well... no. There are numerous practical hinderances with making the first of March a national holiday. Not in the least that this is the day when children can dress up in traditional Welsh costume at school, and have their pictures appear in the paper for proud parents to marvel over. Is this not what typifies St David's Day most ? Making it a national holiday will obviate this tradition in one fell swoop. I never thought I'd hear myself saying this, but won't somebody please think of the children* ?
Here at pembrokeshiretv.com, we believe that the best way to elude these conceptual and practical pitfalls is to introduce 'Pembrokeshire Day', and celebrate our true identities. We are a melting pot within a melting pot, and should rejoice accordingly. So how will 'Pembrokeshire Day' manifest itself ? Will festivities take place three or four days after the event ? Or will it be agreed that 'Pembrokeshire Day' be held on the 20th, but no one is quite sure which month ? As it will be your day, pembrokeshiretv.com eagerly await your suggestions. So get scribbling.
*Although technically - of course - I didn't actually say it.
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 Flying The Flag For Pembrokeshire.
As pressure mounts for a recognised Pembrokeshire Day, pembrokeshiretv.com takes the fight one step further and demands the county gets a decent flag.
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