Bradley Wiggins Wins Again

My respect for Bradley Wiggins goes up on a daily basis. OK the word on his latest victory, kicking the disgusting Piers Morgan in the nuts, is that it wasn't actually Bradley Wiggins but a fan. Either way it's the kind of thing he would have done and whoever kicks Piers Morgan in the nuts is top man in my reckoning, Wiggo or a fan.

Just for the record I am a patriot and I like to see competitors sing the national anthem. But if they don't then that's up to them. I prefer the understated patriotism where people aren't classed as patriotic if they don't sob when they hear the national anthem or put bunting out gfor the Queen's birthday. What I dislike is footballers like Giggs and Bellamy playing for Great Britain and making a conscious decision not to sing the anthem. Don't like GB, don't play for GB.

St Patrick's Day

Now I don't believe myself to be churlish, but I don't actually care that today is St Patrick's Day. If I had more Irish blood than great grandparents on my mother's side in me perhaps I would. If people who want to celebrate St George's Day weren't treated like xenophobic, racist, homophobic, paraskevidekatriaphobic monsters, and every other phobia you can imagine, I might be slightly sympathetic to St Patrick's Day. But I don't care.

What really pigs me off is Americans claiming to be Irish, especially American politicians claiming to be 'Oirish' to get the Irish vote, on the grounds that their great, great, great grandfather once had a pint of Guinness or once cut a piece of peat out of a bog. It's just wrong. If you want a piss up then have one, you don't have to sing maudling songs about perceived injustices three hundred years ago, wear a stupid green Leprechaun hat and drink vast quantities of Guinness until every bodily fluid oozing from you is jet black. Get over it.

Although a pretty patriotic person I don't naturally go for over-the-top demonstrations of patriotism anyway, I don't think it's very English. But I must admit to liking the following very, very much:

It's Kicking Off!

Let's just kick off, the sooner the better.
Bring it on! Riots in the streets and bloodshed. Let's follow the Irish example but take it further. Let's shaft the political class, properly!

Oath of Allegiance

The proposed oaths of allegiance, suggested in a report by Lord Goldsmith, are just more patronising pap from our political masters who have spent years demolishing any sense of patriotism and national pride. Now, when they realise that people are slowly starting to wake up to the situation, they try and nationalise patriotism and force their form of it on us, whether we want it or not.

Personally I prefer the understated nature of our patriotism to the organised flag waving, and other overt demonstrations of pride in one's country that others display, but each to his own. After years of political correctness damning all things British does anybody actually believe that getting pupils to swear allegiance as they leave school is going to make any difference? Would a pupil, student or anybody else who supports a terrorist organisation refuse to swear the oath and say why? I doubt it, they would just go through the motions. This proposal won't do a single thing to turn empty words into a true feeling of patriotism.

Lord Goldsmith accepts that there is a "crisis of national identity" but will not accept that it was caused by people of his ilk in the political class in the first place. Perhaps the timing of this ludicrous posturing is designed to divert the minds of the simple from the Lisbon Treaty. Or am I being cynical?