I know its unfashionable and people will sneer at me but patriotic songs actually mean a great deal to me, they express the love I have for my country, its landscape, history, culture and inhabitants. When I heard them living overseas they reminded me of Britain.

Last night of the Proms is everything good about Britain, its at once reverent and deeply silly, its serious play, a global audience brought togehter by universal principles and culture that are guarded and nurtured by a particular place, people and culture.

The people who attack it, the songs, and British patiotism feel like bigots to me, they aren& #39;t interested or curious, they don& #39;t have nuanced critiques, they just want to see a culture they have contempt for be replaced with one they consider morally and intellectually superior.

We talk a lot today about things being & #39;offensive& #39; but the way this has been handled by the BBC, and talked about by a lot of people who are decision makers and major voices in the arts, is actually, really, truly offensive to British people in general.

I agree the culture war framing is tiresome and awful, and I& #39;m tired of it too, but the solution is for there to be basic mutual respect and tolerence, even if you don& #39;t personally like the monarchy, or patriotic songs etc, you should respect that they mean a lot to other people.