I have avoided replying to this thread because I have always believed that we have much to be proud of in the UK. Our sense of fair play, our lovely countryside (I give you the Lake District, the Peaks of Derbyshire, a walk along any riverbank in the autumn), our free-at-point-of-service NHS and many more things.
However, I have come to realise that I am probably living in the past. As a nation (by no means everybody) we have become hardened and consumer orientated. Our lovely countryside is being built on (witness the newly announced "eco-towns") and the bits that aren't are marred by the amount of fly-tipping. People are no longer courteous to others, either in person or on the roads. Our NHS is close to breaking point due to the demands made on it by people who have never paid a penny into it. The welfare system is now a way of life for many people rather than the helping hand it was designed to be. We use to laugh at the corruption of foreign politicians and then, one day, we turned around and found that our politicians could out-corrupt the worst third world politico that there ever was.
A few things recently have led me to the conclusion that Britain (or should we call that the Yookay?) has lost its direction. The extended family and neighbours of Sharon Matthews, for example. Surely this news item has been the strongest case yet for compulsory sterilisation? On the morning TV, a family on benefits won 100 thousand pounds on a lottery scratch card which they then proceeded to spend in a very short time. They are now claiming their benefits back and think it "unfair" that they haven't been reinstated on the welfare system.
There are a group of people who want to destroy, by killing and maiming our citizens, our old way of life. They make videos of how they are going to destroy us all and what we are but still continue claiming benefits, using our Health System until it's at breaking point and boast about how their religion is better than ours. They were born and raised in Britain and we are walking headlong, but blindfolded, into a serious crisis which is exacerbated by the reluctance of the powers to be to acknowledge the threat they pose. We finally catch one, whose avowed aim is to train young men into carrying out suicide bombings, maiming innocent women and children and totally disrupting the way we live our lives whilst still milking our system for all it's worth. And what do we do when we catch him? We allow him to carry on doing what he has been doing because it would be detrimental to his "Yooman rites" to send him back where he came from.
Almost 80% of nurses and doctors working in the emergency departments at our hospitals have been physically assaulted by patients, most of them high on drink or drugs. At Alicante airport last summer, my wife (on crutches due to a recent knee operation) was sworn at by a football-shirted Brit because she couldn't move out of the way fast enough for him to get to the nearest bar.
We wait years to open a new terminal at Heathrow and then make the most almighty cock-up of it from Day One. The eyes of the whole world were on the new terminal 5 and just imagine how we have been denigrated because of this debacle. Add this to our Mad Cow Disease, our football "supporters" and the crass behaviour of our holidaymakers throughout the world and you can understand why I pretend to be Canadian when on holiday.
What a marvellous nation we are turning into. I close my eyes and remember the Britain that I still dream about. Unfortunately, the downright nastiness of many people, who seem to always be in such a hurry to get to whatever they are doing, is far outweighing the pleasant memories I have of my country.
So what am I patriotic and proud about? Most of our Armed Forces. Some of the stories I read do make me ashamed but I believe the majority do a fantastic job in extremely difficult circumstances with very little support from our government.
I am proud of my family who make their way in life without trying to screw the system for every penny they can but, I am afraid, they appear to be in the minority (or is it just that we only hear about the ones who do screw the system?).
I am proud of the influence our relatively tiny nation has on the world stage even though our politicians seem determined to erode this with every day that passes.
I used to be proud of our Royal family and still think HM the Queen is a reason to stir patriotism in the heart of every Brit. On the other hand, I can't see myself stirring with a smidgeon of patriotism when one of the other dysfunctional members of her household take over.
I used to be proud of our judicial system which led the world in "innocent until proven guilty", "habeus corpus" etc but now find our politicians want to lock people up for 42 days without charge. If even the USA have a 48 hours limit, why do we need so long? Inefficiency? Corruption? God knows because I certainly don't. This government has spent over 150 million pounds a year on "advisors" for things like ID cards, how to run the railways etc. Why? Are they so inefficient that they can't do the jobs they are claiming hundreds of thousands of pounds a year in expenses to do? (when Labour took over in 1997, the cost of advisors was around 7 million a year).
OK, rant over. Next thing is why I am moving to Spain? Well, the housing market is so buoyant that I would be stupid not to. The place I bought 5 years ago has quadrupled in price and I've been told they're going to build a Disney theme park right next to me. Me, worry? No chance.