In Competition No. 2430 you were invited to suggest some items in a government programme of ‘events’ designed to improve our sense of national identity. How British am I? I sometimes wonder. I am sorry for our troops in Iraq but I don’t support them. I am a republican who dislikes pubs, is bored by soccer and doesn’t drink tea or enjoy roast beef. I’ve been investigated by MI6. I fail the sports loyalty test: if the British Lions were trounced by the Solomon Islands, I wouldn’t give a frozen hoot. And yet I regard myself as deeply patriotic. Odd, isn’t it?
The prizewinners, printed below, get £25 each, and W.J. Webster has the extra fiver.
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