Britishness may be celebrated in August...

In the modern British lexicon it seems that few words are dirtier or more likely to cause an uproar than the word patriot. Long gone is the proud Englishman professing his love of Her Majesty The Queen and propagating the virtues of his nation, but today even less extreme professions of national pride seem rarer than fat postmen. So filthy is the word, that should you allow it to slip off of your tongue in the midst of even the most casual of exchanges it's guaranteed that you'll raise a disapproving eyebrow or two.

Luckily then, news announced today could prove to be just the thing that closet patriots need to boost their social standing: that the August bank holiday could be turned into a "Great British weekend". In a speech today, Liam Byrne, the immigration minister, will refer to research that has shown the public to be in favour of a Britishness day running at two to one. But does this mean that we're all devolving after years of being too liberal with our complaints? Or does it just mean that there's nothing wrong with liking the country that you live in after all?

According to Byrne, the Britishness day would involve cultural events such as film screenings, street parades, posters of famous Britons like Winston Churchill being put up, and even a speech by the Queen. It is also believed that the activities will to foster an atmosphere of tolerance and help show that Britain is not xenophobic.

We can't see anything wrong with the idea to be honest. For too long have people been complaining about the state of the UK and what a terrible place it is to be, but, regardless of the government, it's actually not that bad. Some people even seem afraid to like the place, which is particularly stupid if you live here. But maybe that's because it's always easier to complain about something than to find the good in it. It shouldn't really matter what your political opinions are, we should all be able to be proud of what we've got.

Most other countries have national days to celebrate their people and culture, and it doesn't seem to do them any harm. For some reason though, we English seem to feel that we're better off hating ourselves for being who we are and what we represent.

Even if we're not really proud of who we are, perhaps now's the time to start pretending.

It could be worse after all: