Coud you really imagine intelligent/literary people in this country (barring those posh types whose families had 'Hitler connections' in the 1930s), being proud to be 'English' or waving their flag like it was some sort of jolly scarf?

Of course some people will say "Oh I'm BRITISH", which I know I do as I associate 'ENGLAND' with flags hanging from council flat balconies and tatoos on the arms of bricklayers, or a red-dye cross on the back of a White bulldog 'relaxing' outside a flat-roofed pub on the Isle of Dogs, which I think would be the common stereotype of most people on here.

So, if I was to walk into the pub tomorrow with an England flag adorned my t shirt and said I was 'proud to be English' - what would you really think of me? Someone who was soppy for the countryside, quirky English born music producers, steam engines, 30s architecture, orange Penguin books, the British Museum, or sould you think I was a racist bigot who thinks 'there's too many of them over here' etc?

What I'm saying is, how has it come to this that we, an Island 'race' are ashamed of 'our' supposed flag - I mean jingoism in any country is pretty gash, but if Mogwai adorn their amps with the flag of St Andrew, that's being proud to be scottish - if say, British Sea Power did that with a St George's Cross, would we suddenly think they were mindless thug-jingos?

I blame the 'empire' and football myself.