I am from Sussex first. A Brit when I’m in Europe and a European when I am in the US.
I’d say that I am seen as a Londoner in England, and English in Britain. I used to be British in Europe, now I am probably English. I am also English in the white Commonwealth and Latin America, but British in the rest of the world - except the US, where I am most definitely European. However, if I am ever asked where I’m from I always say English. For that is what I am.
I do feel English when in Wales or Scotland, but that doesn’t happen much. If people ask where I am from I say Sussex. I think of the South downs and feel homesick.
I only lived in Wales for about a year, and that when I was very young, but I still understand hiraeth, and feel something when I cross the border, Odd, perhaps.
I see the Berger witch hunt has been suspended....interesting line from John McD blaming her for disloyalty yesterday (sort of pops his cuddly image) - I suspect he will have pixxed more than a few Labour MPs off. I cant see how this labour thing will pan out - any ideas anyone?
I have ancestors from all 4 home nations so see myself as British, even though born and ethnically mostly English. It doesn't surprise me that those comfortable with more broader identities are also happy to be European, and that is another facet to my identity.
I am proud to be English and British, and proud of Britain's contribution to the world. That is entirely comparable with finding Brexitism embarrassing and a retreat from British values. There are many sides to our country, and I will not have tossed like Aaron Banks or Nigel Farage define what being British means over people like Michael Heseltine or Paddy Ashdown. Nationalists diminish the country by excluding and dividing the country.
I used to think that was a majority view in England. I now know it’s not. That has certainly curtailed my pride in being British, because it has always been deeply wound up in my nationality, which is English. I once believed - naively as it turns out - that we were largely an outward looking, moderate, reasonable country that had put its past, good and bad, behind it, and was looking squarely to the future. I was profoundly wrong.
I have to admit I squirm knowing that our face to the world is people like Johnson, Rees Mogg, May, Grayling and co - incompetent, mendacious, nostalgic, xenophobic right wing English nationalists with no answers to the challenges posed by the fourth industrial revolution and globalisation. The current alternative, of course, is a nostalgic, intolerant, anti-Western left-wing party riddled with anti-Semitism and clueless about wealth creation.
There are many things I love about living in Britain and many things I remain very proud of. But pride in actually being British? I don’t think so. It turns out I am much more interested in values and views. I feel much more kinship with people who share mine - wherever they are from - than with people who see the world totally differently to me, even if they have the same passport. I am a citizen of nowhere.
From here, I struggle to see how the UK stays together, at least in its current form. I was born a UK citizen. If I live my alloted time span I expect to die an English one.
I used to be quite happy with being British, but the sheer incompetence of the govt & opposition, the venom and xenophobia of many leavers and the foolish antics of thr ultras have fatally tarnished my Britishness.
I am lucky enough to have dual nationality and i now prefer to describe myself as Irish.
So... you say Britain is a great place to live, yet choose not to live in it got a quarter of the year because somewhere else is better. 🤣
I don't think that's a contradiction, nothing weird about somewhere being a great place to live but with a few shitty months.
IMO it is a contradiction, especially when someone is lucky enough to be able to take advantage of a yo-yo lifestyle. Unlike us plebs who are stuck here through the grim months.
Here's a thought: a travel ban for all Brexiteers. They don't like foreign countries, let's help 'em by banning them from going abroad. Except for those that have already pissed off to go to live in Spain and such like: they should just have their citizenship revoked so they have to stay over there. Let the Spanish deal with them.
(I am, of course, joking. A little.)
If we ban travel for Brexiteers then we are permanently stuck with Nigel Farage.
Farage serves a useful purpose: anyone who flocks to his ordure-lined banner can automatically be seen as being fools, charlatans, or racists. (These are not mutually exclusive options).
I used to be quite happy with being British, but the sheer incompetence of the govt & opposition, the venom and xenophobia of many leavers and the foolish antics of thr ultras have fatally tarnished my Britishness.
I am lucky enough to have dual nationality and i now prefer to describe myself as Irish.
Brexit hss destroyed the UK
Anyone who has hedged their bets with dual nationality was clearly only "quite happy" being British.... Someone who drives both a Mini and a Land Rover is never going to be more than "quite happy" on the all-terrain road-holding of the Mini.
Anyway, discussions around "Britishness" are utterly misplaced on a Six Nations weekend.
I am from Sussex first. A Brit when I’m in Europe and a European when I am in the US.
I was born in London, but I have been in Sussex since 1979. My mother took me to see Surrey play in '65 and I have supported them ever since even tho I have spent more time in Sussex than Surrey. Its a funny thing allegiance. If I am asked my nationality, its British, even tho I am English by birth
So... you say Britain is a great place to live, yet choose not to live in it got a quarter of the year because somewhere else is better. 🤣
I don't think that's a contradiction, nothing weird about somewhere being a great place to live but with a few shitty months.
IMO it is a contradiction, especially when someone is lucky enough to be able to take advantage of a yo-yo lifestyle. Unlike us plebs who are stuck here through the grim months.
Here's a thought: a travel ban for all Brexiteers. They don't like foreign countries, let's help 'em by banning them from going abroad. Except for those that have already pissed off to go to live in Spain and such like: they should just have their citizenship revoked so they have to stay over there. Let the Spanish deal with them.
(I am, of course, joking. A little.)
If we ban travel for Brexiteers then we are permanently stuck with Nigel Farage.
Farage serves a useful purpose: anyone who flocks to his ordure-lined banner can automatically be seen as being fools, charlatans, or racists. (These are not mutually exclusive options).
I dont see his BREXIT party causing any stress for anyone...then again he's always relied on being underestimated.
I’m both British and English, not that I spend very much time thinking about my identity in national terms. People talking about being proud to be British seem as jarring to me as people talking about being proud to be gay. Those are both just things that I am.
Right now as a country it is heading backwards and the ship of state is going to take a long time to turn round. First of all it is going to need to take a decision to turn around and that might be decades ahead. It always walks a line between being outward-looking and welcoming on the one hand and insularity and shunning cooperation on the other hand. Sadly it has chosen for now to shun the complications of the modern world in order to pull the duvet over its head.
I think it is true that those who obsess about their identity are often the least comfortable in it, just as Napoleon was a Corsican, Hitler an Austrian and De Valera of Spanish descent. The rest of us just get on with life without thinking about it much. That in itself separates us from the nationalists who ruminate on these things and who see it as core. It is as incomprehensible to me as the internal struggles of the Transgendered. It is not that I am unsympathetic, just that it is so alien to my own experience.
Nationalism and its evil twin of Populism are something that we are going to have to come to terms with as a nation, but that does not mean surrendering to their base philosophies of exclusion and willful ignorance.
I dont see his BREXIT party causing any stress for anyone...then again he's always relied on being underestimated.
UKIP never got a directly-elected MP, yet they have dramatically altered the political and social fabric of this country (although I could argue 'poisoned' rather than 'altered').
Farage's new party isn't about Brexit: it's about Farage and spreading his sort of sub-Yaxley-Lennon hatred.
As an example: a sex crime is comitted by a Muslim - sometimes anywhere in the world - and the usual PB crime reporters are all over it.
The pope admits that priests have been abusing nuns on a large scale, including in Europe, and as far I saw, there was silence on here. Nada. Nothing. The nuns don't count as they're the 'wrong' religion.
English identity (either on its own or combined with other identities) was the most common identity respondents chose to associate with, at 37.6 million people (67.1 per cent). English as a sole identity (not combined with other identities), was chosen by 32.4 million people (57.7 per cent).
British identity (either on its own or combined with other identities) was a common identity chosen by 16.3 million people (29.1 per cent). 10.7 million people (19.1 per cent) associated themselves with a British identity only.
Welsh identity (either on its own or combined with other identities) was chosen by 2.4 million people (4.3 per cent). 2 million people (3.7 per cent) associated themselves with a Welsh only identity.
We can thank the SNP for this. We all used to be British first, and that was arguably a better state of affairs.
Saw some footage of the 1966 World Cup Final last night. The stands were covered in a sea of waving Union Jacks. Interesting.
Was the shift towards the flying of the Flag of St George by English footy fans the work of the SNP?
Comments
Odd, perhaps.
I used to be quite happy with being British, but the sheer incompetence of the govt & opposition, the venom and xenophobia of many leavers and the foolish antics of thr ultras have fatally tarnished my Britishness.
I am lucky enough to have dual nationality and i now prefer to describe myself as Irish.
Brexit hss destroyed the UK
I have fixed it. Thanks
For instance, anyone who has ever voted UKIP ...
Anyway, discussions around "Britishness" are utterly misplaced on a Six Nations weekend.
Ealdwulf must be distressed to see the sorry state of his realm.
Farage's new party isn't about Brexit: it's about Farage and spreading his sort of sub-Yaxley-Lennon hatred.
As an example: a sex crime is comitted by a Muslim - sometimes anywhere in the world - and the usual PB crime reporters are all over it.
The pope admits that priests have been abusing nuns on a large scale, including in Europe, and as far I saw, there was silence on here. Nada. Nothing. The nuns don't count as they're the 'wrong' religion.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47134033
Was the shift towards the flying of the Flag of St George by English footy fans the work of the SNP?