Park life

You know..i've actually droned on about some fairly negative points of view in the last few days..maudlin and downbeat perhaps due to yet another birthday. And any one could be forgiven that i don't actually have any national pride. Well I want to tell you that I do.

This cold and damp little island somewhere off the coast of France in the north Atlantic is my home. My heritage. It is not a place of singing chimney sweeps or cross-dressing Lords in rambling country mansions. It is not a place of high tea and Public schools,polo and pin stripes.It is a land that has changed so very many times seeing the face of society become richer and more varied than it has ever been.It is a 'Green and Pleasant Land'..where Cricket and Rugby stand alongside Banghra and Gangsta Rap. Where the Last Night of the Proms, Tea Rooms, Scones and Cream meet Kebabs, Chicken Tika, 'alco pops' cheap lager and ipods.Medieval castles and London eye, Green Grass and Motorways.

It is a land where there is a National Health Service..where if you get knocked over the Paramedic feels first for your pulse instead of the health insurance card in your pocket. It is a land where you can become what you want.

There is of course much that is wrong..but there is much that is very good. I can stand in my photograph in the park where I played as a child and say in honest truth. " Iam an Englishman"
Happy Sunday to you, I've had some wonderful lovely comments this week..I'm quite at a loss for what to say. So I'll lapse into stereotypical English: "Cheerio old chums..chin up!"