Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford on Avon) (Con): I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. My Bill calls for an additional bank holiday, not the movement of an existing bank holiday. I hope those on the Treasury Bench are listening and taking note of such suggestions. I am pleased that my Bill is provoking debate and such good ideas.
To many, St George’s day is a celebration of all that is great about our nation. At the last election, every major party vowed to promote national integration and social cohesion. A national day celebrated by all, regardless of their background or heritage, would only help that process. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education has said, we must all encourage our children to learn about our nation’s past, the bad and the good, and we must celebrate our shared history. What better way to do that than a national day, officially recognised by the Government?
There are those who say that St George’s day is a Christian holiday and not representative of our multicultural nation, and those who say it plays to the fringe right of this country. I disagree. St George, after all, is the only Christian saint to appear in the Koran and the only saint to have a mosque bearing his name. Even in the world of faith, he is not uniquely Christian. Yes, the fringe right may well have hijacked our symbol of patriotism, which should sadden all of us in the Chamber, but today in the House we can go a long way towards reclaiming it.
Let us remember what our Prime Minister said on St George’s day last year:
“Today we are celebrating St George’s Day, and we are reclaiming St George’s Day as an important day . . . for good reasons.
And one of the most important reasons is that we should be reclaiming the flag from the BNP and saying the flag belongs to the English people, all of them.”
Very decent of Mr Zahawi to accept that the flag of St George currently is in the keeping of the BNP. It would be even more decent of him, considering the number of British soldiers that have died trying to democratise Iraq, for Mr Zahawi to pay his respects to them in a practical manner.
Considering he was born in Iraq, perhaps he should take his newly found parliamentary experience with him to help rebuild his own country rather than ply his trade disenfranchising his English hosts by stealing our identity.
