It's a really strange thing that some people who claim to be 'proud to be English' seem to have little grasp of what it actualy means. I like being English, I cannot claim to be proud becuase where I was born was a simple quirk of fate and nothing whatsoever to do with me! My Polish Father, and his Russian Father and Polish Mother were here becuase Poland had become to difficult to live in during the 1940s. Grandad (Deda to use the Russian term) was in Poland because the Communists made it too uncomfortable to be in Russia. My maternal grandmother was born in Rhuddlan, North Wales, and was here because her Father moved to find work. My maternal Grandfather's family came to Lancashire as strike breakers from Staffordshire. How can that have been anything to do with me?

All that being said I repeat that I like being English. I will celebrate the diversity of our culture. I will have a Curry or a Pizza or Piroggi to celebrate St Georges day, I will play my Anglo-concertina for Abram Morris and sing a Scottish song in the pub. It's great! Why the need to keep harping on about the (in)glorious past?

And, yes, the song is shite.

DeG