Is Purves completely stupid? or just being deviously insulting .
She seems to have no appreciation of the fact that St Geoprge's day is ENGLAND'S day . It is not British and her relentless referreals to everything British as though that is the same thing as English are insulting to the English.

Jack , London , England

Not only is Britain not England as others have rightly pointed out.

The greatest threat to England is Britain

The deadliest enemies of the English are the British.

This is certainly true post-devolution.

Stephen Gash, Carlisle, England

What was the point of topping and tailing an article about 'Britishness' with a reference to England's saint's day?

IM Archer, Alton, England

The British Character series looked at the United Kingdom of Great Britian of which England is a small part - in case you forgot.

At least the gist of your story is correct - even if as usual you got huge bits wrong.

mick, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Bring out all the Eccentricities to celebrate this marvellous day-the quintessence of being English.

ian, London, UK

"If the Scots, Welsh and Irish get so upset by the confusion of Britain with England, one can only wonder at the fact that so many of them choose to live and work in England"

- probably we all come here out of compassion to try to help cure you, after all St George is also the patron saint of syphilitic people!

AKULA, london, UK

There you go again Libby, conflating England with Britain. St. George is the patron Saint of England. Shakespeare was English and so, by your account was Pont. Time to join the 21st Century and recognise that there is no collective British identity.

James Matthews, London, England

I don't think she's saying that St.George is Britain's patron saint. I assumed, by talking about England's patron saint, Libby was being inclusive and referring to the idea that other nations within Britain would think about their own identities.

Maybe talking about the two in tandem is confusing but I don't think she'd make the mistake of using incorrect information.

P.S. I'm not English but I know the difference!

Peter, Nottingham, Notts

Don't feign surprise - we all know that as far as the London media are concerned successful Welsh, Irish and Scottish atheletes are British and only from their home countries when they lose.

Likewise Gordon Brown will doubtless continue to be irredeemably Scottish until (you never know and we live in hope) he does something breathtakingly admirable (donates an organ to save a small Somali perhaps) at which point London editors will praise him as an example of all that's great about being British....

Perhaps April 23rd could be marked by a 'Celts getting together to laugh at the English' day

Jonathan, London,

Could Pont be the patron saint of Britain?

Ranulph Spigot, Arlington, Sober

A column on St Georges day that does not mention England. Quite an achievement.

Andy, Plymouth, ENGLAND

I think the British v English police are a bit sharp today. The exhibit opens on St George's Day but is about the British character. Is that such a crime?
Perhaps Pont touches a nerve.

Paul M, Puerto del Rosario, Spain

The Welsh and the Scots have all the hilly bits. England is just rather flat. Having seen all of it more than twice and been thoroughly bored the first time I see no point in bothering with it again. Other countries are much more interesting.

Colin, Carmarthen, UK

I believe being over-pedantic is a "British" virtue too. ome on chaps, lighten up!

Ali, Salies, France

I n the whole article no mention of England ,this is Englands day not "Britains" Ms. Purves ,could you not bring yourself to say the name

E Justice, Gateshead, England

If the Scots, Welsh and Irish get so upset by the confusion of Britain with England, one can only wonder at the fact that so many of them choose to live and work in England.

Peter, Newbury, England Berkshire

I hope that tomorrow Libby will explain what St George has to do with being British.Just another example of the English confusing England with Britain which so annoys the Scots,Welsh and Irish.

Alastair Seago, Paphos,

Gordon Bennett! St George's day is ENGLAND's national day, not Britain's. Good grief.....

Glenn Beckett, Sydney, Australia

"Tomorrow is St George's Day. And Shakespeare's birthday. And, things being a bit up the creek, no doubt ministers will return to their theme of Defining Britishness"
You're off to a bad start in the defining stakes there Libby, confusing Britishness with Englishness. Pont is wonderful, though.

Roy, Hong Kong,

The Pont cartoons beautifully capture the idiosyncrasies of the
British character. I was fortunate enough to acquire a copy of a collected edition of his work with a forward by Richard Ingrams
published in 1985 - it is a joy to look at, they never age.

While all his cartoons are wonderfully drawn and humorous
one has favourites. I particularly like one titled "Tendency not to know what to do on Sundays." It shows a dozen men, bored,
lethargic looking, hands in pockets, some smoking, standing outside the Black Bull pub on Sunday, waiting for it to open.

Expatriate Englishman living in Ontario Canada

Henry Pope, Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada

Wonderful. My parents and I used to communicate with a few words from a Pont cartoon such as "What man with the black beard?" And his attention to detail was legendary. Each jar in a chemists shop was labelled with one word from the old Latin tag "A, Ab, Absque, Coram, De, etc" - familiar to my generation of those taught the classics.

John Underhill, Marlborough, UK

St. George's Day is the national day of ENGLAND and the ENGLISH. I know it's hard for the media to understand this, but England is not Britain. Britain is not England. Clear enough?

Steve Jacks, London,

Two points:

1) Its still Monday 21st.
2) St George is Patron Saint of England.

Man, Woking, England