World without borders

I have to be honest, I find the whole "British Day" and the "What does it mean to be British?" debates so utterly meaningless that I barely have the energy to talk about it. But we can't leave the conversation to the Ruth Kelly's of this world who would surely drag us into a tea-drinking Rule Britannia knees up, swathed in the Union Jack.

National borders in my eyes are a bit of a fallacy. They are a means by which we can have some sort of control and make rules so that everyone's happy. Beyond that, we shouldn't really take them too seriously, which incidentally is the main reason I am so ambivalent about the Independence question. Whether the country I live in has its border at Gretna or Dover, I'm not really going to lose any sleep either way.

I recently joined up to the simply sensational couchsurfing website and so far I have hosted two charming Polish people, with a backpacking conveyor belt of Russians, French, Malaysian and Americans due to arrive over the next few weeks. Despite slight pangs of guilt about screwing over the Edinburgh hostel trade, I see the project as a celebration of World without Borders, fostering a greater understanding of who we are sharing this planet with and establishing what makes these people tick. I can safely say that as of this past weekend, I am hooked. And until some lowlife steals my tv, I don't see me ever stopping hosting whoever wishes to visit Edinburgh and sleep on my couch.

Where this couchsurfing business is a move towards a more inclusive and understanding world, propping up Ruth Kelly's suggestion of a "British Day" is a backwards step. We've come a very long way since the Second World War, people are moving around the globe at a furious pace and (conveniently putting the global warming to one side for a moment) this can only be a good thing as we get to meet witty Iraqis, sensitive Iranians, humble Saudi Arabians and inspired, inspiring Asians. And of course, those adjectives are interchangeable for each natonality, I'm just going on my own past experiences over the past 6 months alone.

But to lock our borders and celebrate everything British is too tribal and far too insular for my liking. This is a great part of the world to be, with great people to share it with, but no more and no less than any other small patch of land out there so there really is no cause for a rather false celebration. If Ruth Kelly wants people to integrate a bit more in certain parts of "Great" Britain, I think she'll have to come up with something else.