One of the least entertaining engagements I've had this past week has been with a UKIP supporter, where he basically said that UKIP was the only political party supporting Britain and I was a fool, a traitor and a charlatan for thinking otherwise.
Of course he's talking nonsense. Everyone is supporting Britain.
The question is, of course: Which Britain?
Concepts like nationality are a complex, cloudy thing. What is Britain? What does it mean to be British? It's something we all vaguely agree about in secret, shuffling ways.
Everyone supports Britain, but they support their version of it. Conservatives support a Britain of entrepreneurs and wealthy gentlemen. Old Labour supported of a Britain proud of leaving no-one behind. The Scots Nationalists supports a Britain where Scotland unshackles itself from Westminster and ends at Hadrians wall. UKIP supports a Britain where London prefers the shackles of Beijing, Washington and Moscow to the perceived ones of Strasbourg.
Everyone who wields political power in Britain wants their vision of Britain to prevail. That's why we have elections in the UK, so that all these competing ideas of what Britain could be are decided by the
The question facing us in the next 12 months - with Local, European and a General Election coming soon - which version of a future Britain will you choose?
