Sir Michael and the Dragon

With his latest film, The Prestige, about to be released, Oscar-winning actor and all-round icon Michael Caine has said some interesting things about being English in Saturday's Times magazine. Here's an extract from the interview, published under the title 'England expects':

“I am very, very patriotic. Don’t get me started,” he warns. He frets that his beloved England is being overlooked as the other home nations enjoy devolution. His friend Sir Sean Connery has become a cheerleader for Scottish nationalism and Sir Michael is beginning to think he’s right. “I’m a very English man. And that doesn’t mean to say I don’t like foreigners and I hate all immigrants. I’m married to an immigrant. But I am not happy at the moment. Everybody seems to be represented but the English.

“There’s a possibility that a Scotsman is going to rule over me. A Scotsman who comes from a constituency where my member of parliament, who I elected, has no say whatsoever. And there is an answer, given to me by my friend Sean: give Scotland its independence. Gordon Brown can be the prime minister of Scotland.”

“And I’m worried about the fact that they (the Scots, of course) cheer for the other side in the football and I think to myself, ‘Have they really got my interests at heart?’”

How truly refreshing it is to hear such a big name championing a cause which is obviously genuinely close to his heart, and which hasn't been carefully picked from the basket of right-on issues which celebrities usually go to when they need to perk up their cred.

Full interview in The Times

FG