This Land

Watching the fireworks dazzlingly display across the skies over the London Eye in the early hours of 1st January 2013, reminded me of everything it meant to be a Briton. Now, some of you might ask what is indeed a Briton?

I plan to address this at the end of the piece.....hold your fire!!!

As the heavens came alive with colour and sparkle all over Westminster, one could not only admire the spectacular, but accept the obvious. These fireworks were very unBriton-like (my own phrase).....too much extended assistance, too much expected glitterati , too little suspense and way too much extravagance.

And so, some of us wonder, we debate, we elaborate, we stretch and finally, we accept. Today's Britain has indeed been wondered upon, debated about, elaborated on, stretched and accepted. The image of the 'Briton' past, actually has no resonance in 2012. The squareness, even echoed in the thought of the word, means today's citizenry has migrated a million light years away, to a much rounder and comfortable world. These days, no one can afford to be square, actually, no one wants to be square - it is not even a distant fantasy. The stiff upper-lip has loosened....

When those wondrous fluorescent collages hit the sky, I slowly came to realise they are manifestations of a collective solid and everything else falls aside; nationality, creed, race, space or religion, become oasis-like dreams. Even those who rule us see it. The Briton has changed....sorry, I meant to say has died.

It's evolution....there is a new patriotic, loyal, dependable and solid type we can still all rely on. The only piece of the jigsaw we need to plug, requires us to forget the word, 'Briton,' as there is a new type in town. This type has a new philosophy and a new culture, funnily, this type evades a moniker and detests labels. This type has a new way of life. A way of life embarrassingly better than the one before....we should open up our arms to it.

Judging by those fairy goddesses in the skies yesterday, the fireworks crew already have.....they know the 'new' Briton has arrived!