Why Britain? I think that Britain is a canary in the coal mine of Western culture, closer to the U.S. in many ways than almost any other nation. And it's further--not that much further, but further--along a road that the U.S. is travelling on many levels. What I see happening in Britain--good or bad--is a reasonable indicator of where my own country might be in a few years.

Your own views on patriotism seem to be reasonable and balanced ones. Unfortunately, the education systems on both sides of the pond look like they have gone a bit too far in the "anti-patriotism" direction, which was the obvious point of the article, and something I mentioned more specifically elsewhere on this thread. I think more balance is needed there. Blind patriotism is certainly bad, but so is blind self-loathing.

Here's just one problem with this lack of balance: Nature abhors a vacuum. If you raise a generation or two that has been trained to hold their own country, history, values and culture in contempt, something else may come in and fill its place. I assume you've been following the Archbishop controversy.

Here's more along those lines, and not just in Britain:

Europe in the House of War

Honour violence statistics

Relabeling Lent in the Netherlands

These are just the stories from the past day or so.