This nation should be celebrating a high quality beverage produced by highly skilled craftsmen. One of the few things we actually make in our country. We should be celebrating and ringing its name on high.
Guinness - a pint of the black stuff. So well known it's even in the spell checker on my PC. And when you're in Ireland, you can't escape the stuff. It's everywhere.
It might sound a bit of a cliche, but when I first moved to London, one of the questions I'd get asked by people up north was "how do you cope with the beer down there?" as if there was something almost poisonous about the London beers!
It's taken me five years but I've finally done it - this year I finally made it to the Great British Beer Festival. Cue lots of talk of ale, pie, buses and of course, Rich Tea biscuits. (You'll have to read it to find out...)
Since 2002 the September Cask Beer Week has been celebrated in London by giant pint pots running around and causing mayhem - all in the name of getting you to have a pint.