Originally uploaded by darylhai.

I took this picture on the way to my hotel after work today. It was pissing it down while I was dragging my case behind me through puddles after a very long hard day at the office. It was good to see nonetheless.

Just as I was thinking how good it was to see that some of us English are finally celebrating St George’s Day, they all broke into a chorus of ‘Rule Britannia’. Unfortunately, it was subsequently followed by a chorus of ‘No Surrender to the IRA’. I despair. How are we ever going to be able to disassociate our national flag from football hooliganism and far-right nationalism when we still have idiots like this. I felt like pointing out the irony to them that due to the Good Friday Agreement we’ve let the IRA bombers out of prison, which in some people’s eyes is a surrender; but I’m writing this from my hotel room not a hospital, so obviously I didn’t.