'We don't do flags on the front lawn'

An International Herald-Tribune columnist chimes in on "Britishness." (This seems to be a special crisis, for some reason, since you can't watch cricket test matches on free TV.)

Let me just add that my (mostly) uninformed opinion of London and Londoners is that this is truly a world city, home to many world citizens, much like New York or Washington, D.C. (to a lesser extent). In walking out my door here in the central truck-unloading/jackhammer zone, I experience a great many accents and languages and see a variety of skin colors. People come here for the work and for the excitement of a big city, and expect others from other parts of the world to come here for the same reason. If people didn't want to experience that, they'd choose to live in Omaha. There is nothing wrong with choosing Omaha, but your expectations ought to be slightly different when you choose Omaha.

How do I define "world citizen?" Well, perhaps quoting from Casablanca would make it clear:

Major Strasser: What is your nationality?
Rick: I'm a drunkard.
Captain Renault: That makes Rick a citizen of the world.

Well, maybe not.