St George's Day is worth nothing to the Government.

Culture Minister Margaret Hodge confessed her department spent 116 pounds on promoting Saint George's Day this year, 114 pounds in 2007 and absolutely nothing in the previous three years.

The admission provoked outrage from at least one patriotic member of parliament:

"I think it is a shameful indictment and it needs to be changed," said deputy Andrew Rosindell, who is chairman of parliament's all-party Saint George's Day Group. "We must be the only country in the world that spends nothing or virtually nothing on celebrating its national day. It is a great pity. "I was expecting it to be low but not that low. Other countries in the world such as Australia and the United States spend a lot of time and effort in promoting their national days and we should be doing more. "There needs to be a change in the culture of government in the way it approaches something like this."

Are we surprised? No, and it stinks!

Thanks to Robin Tilbrook for bringing this to my attention.