It is telling that the word "Patriot" is used as a name for a type of missile......

Some people see patriotism as a duty. So we return to Mr Bernard Shaw...

"When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty."

Patriotism seems a bigger deal in The USA. The idea of making children stand and put their hand on their heart, swearing to the flag and all that.. I always thought overt rituals were a sign of lack of confidence in the first place.

The Tea Party angle is similar to our UKIP angle but with guns rather than pints of beer. Make Britain great! Stop immigration from being a drain! the government, running scared of the closet racists calling themselves UKIP are getting that way themselves, even to the point of trying to hide a report last week showing that immigration has had a net contribution to the economy rather than a drain on benefits.

I mention this because the latest idea by raving bigots is to appeal to patriotism and christianity. (Note the large Muslim, Hindu, Sikh etc population of The UK, let alone the fact that less than 1% of the population go to church....)

Interesting times, especially as big business has shown that the world is a smaller place now and patriotism is becoming a more parochial irrelevance all the time. Presumably hence the backlash?