Jorrox: I don't suppose that the Chinese agree that there is one "Chinese culture" that represents that vast country with all its ethnic variety. That didn't prevent them from displaying some aspects of their collective culture that appear to the rest of the world to be distinctively and entertainingly Chinese.

We'd be a sad little nation if we let our individual differences blind us to how much we have in common in the UK. We have many shared aspects of our culture that distinguish us from, say, China or the US or Russia.

You may choose to laugh at morris dance, just as some English people laugh at Highland pipes and men in kilts, and others laugh at the Irish dances that are danced only with the lower half of the body. In doing this, you're showing one aspect of your own Britishness - self-deprecation and poking fun at neighbouring regions and their culture are one very distinctive part of being British.

I'd love to see a display of regional traditional dances chosen to represent British culture. It would include the various sorts of morris dance (like all the dances, this would energetically performed by fit and well trained dancers), rapper, Irish dance, maypole dancing with children, Scottish Highland dance with bagpipes, English clog, the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, etc.

And we could have a great procession showing as many of these dances as can be adapted to a processional dance-form. It could also include other features of traditional processions including, say, St George with his dragon, Lady Godiva, a Viking longship with blazing torches, an Obby Oss ... oh, I'm sure you could all add to the list. Make fun of our culture if you wish, but don't say it doesn't exist or that it isn;t worth displaying to the world.

What will really disappoint me is if we try to define ourselves by the antics of tired old rock stars and other "celebrities".

Marje