"Robert Warner" wrote in message
.. .
Thank you for posting my petition on this site.

Yes, I am the Robert Warner who started the petition because I believe
that
whilst Remembrance Sunday is quite rightly a day of commemoration,
Remembrance Monday should be a day of celebration, a celebration of
Britishness, a roast beef and Yorkshire pud with family and friends sort
of
day.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5028496.stm

The anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta has been chosen as the best
date to celebrate Britishness. The charter imposed on King John on 15 June
1215 by rebel barons limited the power of the monarch and gave ordinary
people rights under common law.

Its anniversary was picked by 27% of the 5,002 people polled by BBC History
magazine, with VE Day, 8 May, taking 21%, and D-Day, 6 June, attracting 14%.
Chancellor Gordon Brown recently called for a new day for national identity.
In an address to the Fabian Society in January, he suggested the UK needed a
day to celebrate "who we are and what we stand for".

'Surprising choice'

BBC History magazine editor Dave Musgrove said the choice of the Magna Carta
anniversary may indicate the UK is moving on from a "dependence on World War
II as the critical point in our island story".

"It's fascinating, and surprising, that an event from medieval history has
come out above VE Day, all the more so when you consider that it's a
constitutional rather than a militaristic moment that's been chosen," he
said.

Dan Snow, the presenter of BBC history programmes, described Magna Carta as
a worthy winner.
"The idea that the will of the king can be bound by law is as important
today as it was 800 years ago," he added.

"It didn't work in practice but it set a precedent. It advanced the cause of
liberty, constitutionalism and parliamentarianism, which Britain in turn has
passed on to the world."

But some historians pointed out that Magna Carta took place before the union
of Great Britain.

"The problem with a Magna Carta day is that this was originally very much an
English, not a British significant event," said Linda Colley, Professor of
history at Princeton University.

"Though to be sure, it acquired in the 18th and 19th centuries a resonance
for radicals and constitutionalists across the islands."

Other dates considered in the poll were Armistice Day, 11 November; the
abolition of the slave trade, 25 March; Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, 18
June, and Churchill's birth, 30 November.