I usually disagree with the countess on the subject of celebrating Englishness; I am of the Richard Bridge persuasion - babies and bathwater and all that. But I do sympathise very much with the countess' fear of extremism invading such initiatives, and I can understand why she wants to stay clear of them.

Celebration and separation are two very different things, and the problem is how to stop one short of the second. Take the old Yugoslavia - conceived by powers around a table rather than along ethinc lines, and in ignorance of the underlying issues, it took someone like Tito to make it viable. But viable it had become - until with Tito gone petty nationalism reared its head, and fed by the world's powers again (with Germany first in recognising Slovenia and Croatia, now, why did that not surprise me), they unravelled the whole jumper into its constituent threads, only much more crumpled and pitiful now, giving opportunity for atrocities like Srebrenica to take place.

I can imagine a similar scenario for the UK. When the Scottish Assembly was established, even as I was pleased for the Scots, I couldn't help seeing its necessity as a tacit admission of failure on the part of the country to manage all its constituents equitably. No Tito here, just the institution of monarchy (itself beginning to creak) to keep the thing together. How long will it take for the four nations to become truly separate, I wonder - and will they be better off for doing so (I have my doubts).

And yet... I like to see people celebrating their nationality, and their differences and their culture - enough to want to preserve them, but not to want to impose them or exclude others. Such a hard balance to maintain, but such a prize to be gained from its achievement!

Please, beware of balkanising the UK. So, for once, on this particular subject, I come down on the countess' side. This march is too tainted, this bathwater too dirty and there's a lot more than the baby in it...