Anger at St George's Day celebrations

8:57am Wednesday 18th April 2007

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THE ONE London Party has accused Mayor of London Ken Livingstone of insulting the English majority in London by deciding to celebrate' St George's Day with a screening of Monty Python's Holy Grail in Trafalgar Square.

The party also called on the Mayor to support the campaign for greater public recognition of St George's Day.

The Mayor also announced today that there would be an attempt to break the world record for the largest coconut orchestra' led by the cast of the musical Spamalot.

Damian Hockney, leader of the One London Party, said: "The Mayor has consistently avoided celebrating the majority English culture of London.

"At first he claimed there was no call for it, then when it became clear there was a huge and growing call for it, he claimed it was unnecessary because there was no tradition of St George's Day celebrations.

"Neither is there a tradition of a Caribbean Showcase or a Russian Winter Festival, but that hasn't stopped him organising and promoting them."

He added: "Now that he has been reluctantly forced to acknowledge the presence of the English, he has done it in the most bland, insulting way possible - by ignoring the rich indigenous traditions of London and England and instead focussing on the vague, generic notion of English humour'.

"Will he be screening episodes of Father Ted' at the annual St Patrick's Day festival, or showing Bruce Lee films during the Chinese New Year celebrations?"