I suppose patriotism does come into being in a small way for us all. I am proud of being a UK citizen in that we started the whole international sign up to human rights, including the international courts that all but a few less advanced countries are signed up to.

UK citizens enjoy equality of opportunity, enshrined in law. You can go about your life without discrimination based on race, gender, disability or sexual orientation. If you are discriminated against or come up against published bigotry, you can call criminals to account.

Yes, I can be proud to be British. Despite everything, most of us are. When a part of The Uk had the choice of leaving the other month, they emphatically voted to remain British. The politicans wanting to leave wished to take the equality their party had put into legislation with them. The Scottish National Party, despite being rather incompetent and wooly headed, are at the forefront of equal rights and opportunity for all. The Scottish National Party will go down in history as the government that made gay marriage a fact in a part of The UK known for religious intolerance and low intelligence bigotry in some people, and they have every right to be proud of themselves, every last single member.

Oh aye, our past may have been one of discriminating against people, same as any other country, but apart from a few criminals and people with disturbed minds, we do have something to be patriotic about, despite our international reputation for self loathing...

That said, I am not a patriot. That has connotations of "holier than thou" about it, and just like in The States, tends to be put forward as an asset by the wrong people....