Every year it’s the same old story, and it’s always inaugurated by the usual collection of technocratic mediocrities and simple-minded leftists. Come 23 April, they’re always at the ready to remind everyone that St George wasn’t English actually, declaiming in a precocious schoolboy manner an earth-shattering fact which everybody knows already. Or else they will pronounce that the flag which bears his name actually stands for peace and inclusivity, and that it should never be the preserve of those who stoke hatred and prejudice.

Starmer is mistaken when he affirms that the St George’s flag stands for ‘unity’ and ‘decency’

Starmer is mistaken when he affirms that the St George’s flag stands for ‘unity’ and ‘decency’

As if on cue, early yesterday morning we had Kevin Maguire, resident sage of the Daily Mirror, pronounce on X: ‘Today we celebrate a Turkish migrant worker who never set foot in England and in 2026 would probably be barred.’ Barely half an hour later, Prime Minister Keir Starmer added: ‘St George’s flag stands for unity over hatred and decency over division. Those are the values I will always fight for. Some try to hijack our flag to spread hate, I reject their plastic patriotism.’

In their own different ways, both are wrong. The figure who became this saint and legend........

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