Cry God for Harry, England and St George! Or maybe not. as St George's Day approaches, Shoptalk looks at our poor attempts to celebrate our patron saint's day.

IT'S St George's Day on Sunday. Do you feel a wave of patriotic fervour overtaking you, an urge to fly the flag and celebrate? The Irish look on St Patrick's Day as a great excuse for a party - with all welcome, the more the merrier. The Welsh wear daffodils and used to have eisteddfodau - but in the pubs and clubs of Cardiff these days that also means party time.

The English meanwhile...

The trouble is that St George has got too caught up with Eng-er-land rather than England. And also with the worst sort of nationalism. The Celtic fringe might want to make everyone welcome at their patriotic parties. The English seemed more inclined to boot them out or beat them up.

No coincidence that a sudden resurgence in Englishness blossoms just before the World Cup.

But St George could be reclaimed. The unlikely partners in the re-branding of St George are card companies and brewers. The brewers, of course, would love to see the English celebrate their national day with all the drink, fervour - and profit - of the Irish.

The card companies, delighted after turning Easter into a major card sending occasion, and after inventing other excuses for card sending: Father's Day, Grandparent's Day, Secretary's Day, Next Door's Dog's Birthday Day, have suddenly realised that St George's Day is just sitting there waiting to be beefed up a bit.

And, as we should all be keen to see St George treasured as a national saint to be proud of, rather than as an excuse for bashing Johnny Foreigner, the new PC attitude has surely got to be encouraged.

Of course, the best card to send on St George's Day would be one that showed the beauties of England - such as the brilliant Joe Cornish photographs. Instead - and how symbolic is this - the cards nearly all hark back to the past.

There are some grand St Georges, some very jolly St Georges. Less jolly is the fact that Churchill seems to figure in quite a lot of the cards. Undoubtedly a great man, great leader, but please, the war has been over for more than 60 years. Can't we get over it too?

And as for the card featuring the England football shirt and "66". Well, that's just plain pathetic.

But we liked the one with a sandcastle. Much more like it.

So if you're English and proud of it, then celebrate it - but, please, in the nicest possible way.

St George's cross is also pouring into the shops, covering everything from hair slides to giant flags in the build up to the World Cup. Sports shops have full kits for decorating your house; Mothercare has towels for toddlers - you can even push your baby in an England buggy, under an England blanket with an England parasol.

Elsewhere, supermarkets too are going all out to catch them young and to get children, girls too, sporting the St George's cross. From bootbags to badges, sweaters to slides, rattles, ribbons and lots and lots of teddy bears.

Now that should take some of the aggression out of it all.

* St George, the Saracen knight and the green dragon, plus medieval townsfolk demonstrating archery, games and mummers' plays, will be at Scarborough Castle tomorrow and Sunday, 11am-4pm.

The cloggies come out...

Morris and other traditional dancers of all ages from Tyneside and Northumberland will be holding a St George's Day Dance Out on Sunday between noon and 3pm at the Baltic Square, Gateshead.

Hexham Morris men, Hexhamshire Lasses, Tyne Bridge Women's Morris, Short Circuit Rapper and Addison Rapper and Clog will be performing dances from a number of different English traditions. And to prove that not all the dancers are "fat old men with beer bellies" Addison clog's children's group will also be taking part.

Jean Smith, of the Morris Federation, who is organising the Dance Out, says "We are using St George's Day to remind people of their traditional English roots and to celebrate them - particularly the wide variety of traditional dance."