From the Queens royal Lancers Website:

Goodbye to my England, So long my old friend

Your days are numbered, being brought to an end

To be Scottish, Irish or Welsh that's fine But don't say you're English, that's way out of line.

The French and the Germans may call themselves such

May Norwegians, the Swedes and the Dutch

You can say you are Russian or maybe a Dane

But don't say you're English ever again.

At Broadcasting House the word is taboo

In Brussels it's Scrapped, in Parliament too

Even schools are affected, staff do as they're told

They must not teach children about England of old.

Writers like Shakespeare, Milton and Shaw

The pupils do not learn about them anymore

How about Agincourt, Hastings, Arnhem or Mons

When England lost hosts of her very brave sons.

We are not Europeans, how can we be?

Europe is miles away over the sea

We're the English from England, let's all be proud

Stand up and be counted- Shout it out loud.

Let's tell our Government and Brussels too

We're proud of our heritage and the Red, White and Blue Fly the flag of Saint George or the Union JackLet the world know - we want OUR ENGLAND BACK !!!!

Whose your Deity?

When did being famous for no good reason become something to aspire to?
Everywhere I look I see a z-list celebraty shining their perfect pearly white teeth at me. Take a walk down any high street on a Saturday and count the number of wannabe WAGS, complete with over size sunglasses - perfect for blocking out the inquisitive gaze of "randoms".
The media tend to carpet bomb celebrity "culture" upon us from a great height. Television constantly regurgitates the same faces in a conveyor belt of self-promotion that we sit and swallow night after night. One example of this is Family Fortunes - one of many game shows I used to watch as a child - now it's Celebrity Family Fortunes. No longer good enough for television, the average family has even less chance of their 15 minutes of fame - unless one of their number is an out of work actor who wants to kick start their career after their tragic on-screen demise.
Why should any of this bother me so much you ask?
During my travels I ventured through India and was particularly amazed at the enthusiasm of everyday people. They were eager to become educated and come to England to escape the crushing poverty that was so apparent everywhere around them. The level of aspiration that these people had was breath taking and, in my view, not matched by my peers back home. Sure, we all wanted to do well in school, college, and university, but we were certainly not going to accept anything less that what we percieved to be ours. Menial jobs (those that involved starting at the bottom of a ladder and working our way up) became too lowly for us and rather than work 9-5 for a living we would chase the live fast, worry later mentallity. At least we looked good doing it.
What we see now is a major skills shortage in our country. Not content to work for anything less than what they think they are owed, the lower classes are seemingly happy to sit on their backsides and moan about all the foreigners coming into this marvellous land and taking their jobs. Jobs that they are simply not prepared to do as it will involve giving up a life handouts and celebratie scandals. All the while we loose sight of the bigger picture - our culture is not being erroded by the infux of foreign nationals, we are doing it to ourselves.

A new day

I have decided to write this online diary of my thoughts as I find myself, at the age of 30, becomming increasingly interested in the world. Throughout my twenties I lived life in a bubble, happy to satisfy my own needs and nothing else. As far as I was concerned the rest of world could take a running jump off a pier as it had no equivilance to my life - or so I thought.

With fatherhood thrust upon me I became aware of the fact that what happened outside of my own sphere of activity would indeed play a part in my life. The realisation that I now have a responsibility to protect my child against all dangers has become a focal point for my thoughts and allowed me to channel them in a way I simply could not do before their birth.

The dangers I speak of are varied, from a hooded gang of youths kicking your neighbour to death, to long term perils that will effect everyone of us - the rise of religious extremism and the placating attitude of the liberal elite being the first one that springs to mind.

I will attempt to make my thoughts clear in each entry and hopefully this catharsis will help me feel better.