Its a strange thing being English

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Not my words but powerful words all the same of someone who clearly loves this country

"England is a nation small in size but grand in vision. on this day of celebration
it is an opportunity for people to come together and mark with joy our country’s traditions, culture and history.
The England I know and love is a country where we are proud of our heritage and our heroes. Where we look after one another, especially in times of crisis. Where we cheer each other’s triumphs. And where we take pride in remembering all that we have achieved. We are a nation which gave birth to parliamentary democracy. One of our proudest daughters pioneered computer science, one of our proudest sons invented the World Wide Web. We are responsible for giving the world the words of Shakespeare and Jane Austen, and the songs of The Beatles, and Amy Winehouse and the buggles.
For me, the greatest feature of our country is the limitless opportunities it affords its people."
 
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,"I was raised to be proud of being British – and I have been for as long as I can remember. But the enormous pride I now feel in being English took longer to develop.


But for me that changed when I witnessed England famously demolish the Dutch at Euro 96. After the final whistle, tens of thousands waved the red cross at Wembley and sang of football’s return home. It was pure ecstasy. In that very moment it was as if the St George’s flag had been transformed into a symbol of national unity."


Just few words that's sums up this man's pride at not only being British but essentially English.
 
ajstoneservices said:
They are the words of someone out to blindside you.
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Maybe.

I hope not as this has always been something that's fascinated me.

Muslims generally call themselves British and not English.

Reading the media they may refer to an English actress as being British. If that actress is black then then more often she's British. Unless she's Scottish, then she's referred to being a Scottish actress.

Same with singers and other celebrities. Mainly referred to as being British and not English.

I accept this some English are referred to being English but this can be because they are quintessentialy English.

Ian Wright would be described as being an English Footballer and not a British Footballer. Only because he played for England.
 
I was born in Wales but I do not see myself as "welsh." As far as I am concerned I am British. Devolution, in my opinion, is the very worst thing that happened to Britain. I was living in Yorkshire up until 2 or so years ago. Wales is a travesty of what it used to be. Our health service is even worse than England's. Our transport systems, especially the train services are ****e. If I could afford it I would move back to Yorkshire in the blink of an eye. Oh and for those of you who will ask, I moved back because it's where our family are. Once my wife's side all died off in Yorkshire there was nothing to keep us there. BIG BIG mistake moving back to this **** hole though.
 
Nationalism is a load of b*llocks...

It's right up there with religion for causing all the problems on this planet!

At the end of the day we are all human beings...

Well most of us ;)
 
Fred Blogs said:
I was born in Wales but I do not see myself as "welsh." As far as I am concerned I am British. Devolution, in my opinion, is the very worst thing that happened to Britain. I was living in Yorkshire up until 2 or so years ago. Wales is a travesty of what it used to be. Our health service is even worse than England's. Our transport systems, especially the train services are ****e. If I could afford it I would move back to Yorkshire in the blink of an eye. Oh and for those of you who will ask, I moved back because it's where our family are. Once my wife's side all died off in Yorkshire there was nothing to keep us there. BIG BIG mistake moving back to this **** hole though.
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The infrastructure stuff- yes- in the last few years. Money is tight. NHS has always, and still is there for me whenever I have needed it. Crime? All 329 people in my village were NOT the victims of crime this week, and rarely are. Doncaster, Rotherham, Halifax and Leeds must be really tugging at your heart strings...
 
Fred Blogs said:
I was born in Wales but I do not see myself as "welsh." As far as I am concerned I am British. Devolution, in my opinion, is the very worst thing that happened to Britain.
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I was born in England but I don't think of myself as English per see...

I don't want to identify myself with any particular country, so at a stretch consider myself European simply because of rationality...

But if you believe devolution was bad, Brexit was far worse...

All regions of the UK now have the worst of all worlds!
 
Bod ... said:
Not my words but powerful words all the same of someone who clearly loves this country

"England is a nation small in size but grand in vision. on this day of celebration
it is an opportunity for people to come together and mark with joy our country’s traditions, culture and history.
The England I know and love is a country where we are proud of our heritage and our heroes. Where we look after one another, especially in times of crisis. Where we cheer each other’s triumphs. And where we take pride in remembering all that we have achieved. We are a nation which gave birth to parliamentary democracy. One of our proudest daughters pioneered computer science, one of our proudest sons invented the World Wide Web. We are responsible for giving the world the words of Shakespeare and Jane Austen, and the songs of The Beatles, and Amy Winehouse and the buggles.
For me, the greatest feature of our country is the limitless opportunities it affords its people."
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Any decent country should strive to achieve and/or represent much of this, especially one word in particular ...

democracy
 
ellal said:
Nationalism is a load of b*llocks...

It's right up there with religion for causing all the problems on this planet!

At the end of the day we are all human beings...

Well most of us ;)
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The challenge with nationalism, as with many things, is it depends where the individual sits on the nationalist scale. The more extreme end of the scale is where issues are likely to develop leading to problems.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with being proud of the country you were born and raised in, its traditions and values and to consider it better than other countries where the assertion would be valid based on things like democracy, equality etc.

I was born and raised in Scotland to a white Scottish mother and brown Indian father. He fecked off when I was barely born and I've had zero to do with that side of my family in all my years, as in zero. Many on here will know more about India and its culture than me. I don't say that as a boast or shy admission, it's simply a fact.

So to that end, although I have dark skin, I'm probably more Scottish in many ways than mixed race folk that very much have the foreign side in their upbringing, if that makes sense?

Further although I consider myself Scottish, I would assert I'm not as Scottish as someone named Tavish McTavish who can trace their Scottish lineage back on both sides for multiple generations. They are more 'Scottish' than me. Having said that, depending on how they live their life, they might not be as Scottish in terms of values and traditions.

It's complex, but not a load of b 0 l l 0 c k s.
 
I have a mate from 5 who's dad was Malaysian,

He's as English as I am. Most probably more patriot than me.
 
 
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