This is one of the big questions and one that I hope people will be willing to discuss openly and frankly even though it will surely ruffle some feathers.

There is some serious Brit bashing going on in Europe particularly and further afield. But I am pleased to call myself a Brit whilst that stands for fair play and acting in good faith as personified by our remarkable monarch (whatever your politics, the individual qualities of this person are manifest and many).

But I don’t place my nationality above my judgment of what happens in the world. So I think that as with all –isms there is a pernicious danger of abuse of goodwill, manufactured or innate.

I see a tendency from America to bury its head in the sand when criticism, real or imagined, is laid at her door. The Superpower label seems to be worn rather like celebrity status where over exposure generates a mistrust and distancing from the rest. This engendering of mutual mistrust is surely harmful to both parties and sadly a common feature of all the isms I can think of – the us and them factor (no pun intended on the us/US).

If something wrong is done in your name – don’t allow government to take your love for granted – love may be blind but true love perhaps is able to acknowledge imperfection and probably be the stronger for it.

Unless I’m coming from a different planet, the whole purpose of a forum is to understand other people’s points of view and who knows, develop your own as a result.

__________________
Vigil, if you were my husband, I would give you poison.

Madam, if you were my wife, I would take it.