In despair...

Some person on Facebook decided I should get an invite to the Facebook group this is ENGLAND!!!! STAND UP N B COUNTED!!! As if the random capitalisation and use of 'N B' as 'and be' didn't suggest these people were a little on the dim side the quote below is the group's description.

"this is our country where we choose illegal immigrants over our soldiers we make sure they are well fed n equipted over our soldiers who are dyin fightin sum f**ker elses war we live in a country where half of the ppl dont even speak our language yet get more rights than us i say ditch political bullshit send them bk we only have had problems since they came if you werent born here then fuck off home our priorites should be with gettin our boys home safe CHARITY starts at fuckin HOME

WE ARE BRITISH !!!! ITS ABOUT TIME THE GOVERMENT STOPS TAKIN HOLIDAYS ON OUR FUCKIN MONEY AND EITHER STANDS DOWN OR DOES THERE FUCKIN JOB
i would love for one ov us 'common ppl' t go for prime minister we live in this shit hole that is now england its not england though its a load ov political correctness went wrong if u ask me! if u agree JOIN THIS GROUP
STAND UP AND BE COUNTED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

There is a remote possibility they'd have a point, but only if Britain was a single cohesive culture that had been that way forever. But instead we Britons are a mongrel race with origins in Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Roman Empire, France and elsewhere (and we haven't even hit the days of empire yet).

That aside, who chose to go to war? Our government. How many people speak English in our country? Most. Who can't spell people? You. Who doesn't recognise 'ov' isn't even a contraction? You.

If you understand the history of Britain isn't as a cohesive race, that immigration (sometimes albeit through invasion) has for millennia been part of our culture, and that we ourselves have been known to emigrate (often using force) then feel free to be proud of being British, I am (despite not being at all proud of some of our behaviour over the years). If you use patriotism as a thin veil for racism then the rest of us would quite like it if you didn't do it in our name.

I am not Ed Baker...

...or at least the one you may think I am.

In the last week I have been confused with E. D. Baker a (female) author of books for children ( see here and here) and also Ed Baker - a hymenopterist from Cardiff.

I am currently basking in the glory of other people's fame!

Uncluttered Tube Map

Telling us what we always knew but never wanted to admit. People don't come to the Natural History Museum to look at insects, instead they want to see some statistical blips incapable of surviving beyond the K-T boundary. One day, they will learn.

Tourist Tube Map from The Londonist.