Reflections on Openness

I have always been proud of Britain - my country.

It was lovely to have visitors with us for a few days - which, by the way - explains why there have been no Simplicity Blog postings for the last few days.

Alisan and David and their two lovely young children were visiting from Australia on a whirlwind trip to the UK.

David who is South African was full of praise for England and said how much he would like to live here. Alisan is British.

Given the outrage in London last week and given the fact there are many critics of Britain it was wonderful and refreshing to hear that Britain is still held in such high esteem by someone so many miles away from his home.

One thing the bombings will never do is quell the British spirit and our sense of fair play.

Annie and I were talking about the freedoms we enjoy in our western democracy and how - with that openness and freedom of speech - come challenges created by diversity in our population.

In spite of the tragedy last week I would still rather have that diversity in my country - despite the evil delivered by the bombers against my fellow Britains and people from other countries.

Maybe one cost of openness is the abuse of trust? - I would be really interesed to hear comments about this.