Bruges is nice for a long weekend, gness, though I wouldnt recommend July-August, not because of all of the Dutch or Italians there, but the mozzies in the canals. I stayed once in the Duc de Bourgogne, had a wonderful "Bouffe" but so did the little insects on me......
I don't know why people are getting their knickers in a twist about him being Turkish - so what? St Andrew was from Palestine and St Patrick was a Welsh bloke educated in France.
And FYI, Rowan, morris men rock! My OH is one, and believe me, he is not a pr1*k. Don't knock it till you've tried it.
;-)
Come on now... grown men with bells on and silly hats being hit by another man with a pigs bladder and knocking bits of wood ,,, not exactly the Haka is it
The problem is English men who have been made into saints were all Catholic.... and we have a state established protestant church... George was distant enough to be ok without causing a problem within the different churches..
//How does a turkish/syrian man represent british culture and core values? Surely a saint we want to represent us should be close to our hearts and affiliated with us in some shape or form? //
Even good old AOG hasn't come out with that line of "nigh on nationalist rubbish". It's tradition, mediaeval folklore and all that. Just get over it, move on and leave the rest of us to celebrate it.
I bet Hula has foreign blood in her too - go back three or four generations in one's family histiry and there is usually some genetic inheritance......