When I lived in Hanoi, Prince Andrew came to visit.

By accident, or design, he happened to be in town when it was the Queen’s Birthday. To mark the occasion Brits were invited to the Embassy to shake his hand and presumably ask him to pass on their best wishes to his Mam.

The general consensus was “ick”.

The British contingent wasn’t so small but was still almost invisible. For the Americans there was actually an American Club. The Aussie’s had a regular Friday night barbie at “Matilda’s”. The French were always doing something particularly cultural.

When I worked at KOTO it was commonplace for visiting Australians to give out little furry koalas with Aussie flags to the kids. When the “Socceroos” came to town I cringed at long-time expat Australians cheering on their team against a Vietnamese side with half their size, strength and investment.

Honestly – I’d have loved to see smug tossers Lampard, Gerrard and all well and truly thumped in Hanoi. What fun.

Elsewhere, while there was something called the American Spouses Club – the concept of Brits doing the same was too weird.  Brits really didn’t seek out Brits in the same way.

We didn’t like to celebrate our royalty much either(though even the Aussies had a day off back home for Liz’s birthday). The thought of our national anthem being played anywhere was horrific.

Okay so the British Council would stick its head up above the parapet from time to time. But for the most part it was on a more business level – flogging British Universities to rich Asian kids. 

Personally the most nationalistic I can ever recall being, was when I heard The Beatles on a cafe stereo.

The point is for the most part we don’t really do nationalism – it’s for an embarrassing minority. From the point of view of most Brits, nationalism is for a dwindling daft, sad and occasionally sinister group - skinheads, Tory grannies, retired majors, Sun hacks and the terminally naff.

Okay, so in the UK you could point to a few flag-waving run ups to football championships - but visible as it might be it’s still a minority. Let’s face it, while nationalism is upped in these instances no one is really hoping that Rooney “knocks one in for the Queen.”

Ironically enough, when mixing with other nations I was proud of our lack of pride. Our lack of jingoism was something I really could believe in.

In the end it turned out that the British unique selling points were: No flag waving. No nationalism. No rose-tinted nostalgia for the UK and the ability to be objective about our country.

Now it’s suggested that we should pledge allegiance, salute the Queen, boost nationalism  etc.

In doing so they’re taking away the only bit of being British I was ever proud of.