Patriotism = Racism

BBC NEWS | Politics | Pupils 'to take allegiance oath'

School-leavers should be encouraged to swear an oath of allegiance to Queen and country, says a report commissioned by Gordon Brown on British citizenship. Report author, ex-attorney general Lord Goldsmith, says it would give teenagers a sense of belonging.

The only logical result of intense patriotism like this is reinforcing the idea that you and your countrymen are better than anyone else and our lives are worth more etc etc. As a young guy who has grown up with globalisation, geographical borders mean almost nothing to me except that people speak a different language. I couldn't bring myself to swear allegiance to the Queen because it suggests I care more about British people than foreigners, which is not the case. This is the kind of thing that turned the USA into what it is today.

This "sense of belonging" should be a sense of belonging to the human race, to this huge planet which we all share. This is hard to achieve when you can so clearly see your government invading and massacring people on the other side of the world for reasons that don't make much sense, other than that they aren't "one of us". Start treating everybody the same, and I will feel like I belong here.