With yet more snow falling this morning (though thankfully not here) I’ve been thinking about the word ‘treacherous’ which has been used often during the bad weather in relation to the condition of the roads and pavements. Someone on Twitter said that roads can’t be treacherous because ‘they weren’t on our side in the first place’. Good point, I think!

Over the holiday we watched a BBC series on DVD called ‘Cambridge Spies’ – telling the story of the infamous Cambridge spy ring of the 1940s. I was also given a book written by one of the four, Kim Philby, who reached quite a high position within the British intelligence establishment but who was passing information over to Communist Russia. He too would be described as treacherous – being someone who betrayed his country.

But my question is this, was he treacherous? Did he betray ‘his’ country? Is having been born in a country ever enough for you then to be expected to be loyal to that country? Or do you have a right to choose which country to be loyal to no matter where you were born?

What say you?