Britishness

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One thing which strikes me when seeing the members profiles here, is that many members from the UK actually do write UK as location. That may sound normal to Americans who, despite having several states with autonomy, feel strongly American in identity. However, for the UK this is different. I have lived in the UK for 2 years (in Northern Ireland actually, but I travelled to Scotland and England rather frequently during that time) and rarely met people who would say "I am British" or "I am from the UK". Most would identify as English, Scottish or Welsh. Only in Northern Ireland it is more complex due its unique and rather painful political backgrounds, but in the other parts of the UK most people I met would feel English, Welsh or Scottish and see the UK as an artificial union. I worked in customer service and took calls from British customers all the time, when asking their citizenship most would answer Scottish or English while only a small minority answered they were British. Some people I talked to said they would never ever feel British and even want England, Scotland and Wales to go separate ways. Oddly enough, many British people here do write UK in their profiles location field.

So is this just to make it easier for the majority of members here (who seem to be American) or do you guys really identify as British more than as English/Scottish? Is there any British identity or is this a dying thing only surviving in elderly people and people from Gibraltar and the Falklands?

I lived in UK for 4 years and I haven't met a single person who'd consider themselves British that wasn't a second-generation immigrant.

I always found it strange, especially since there's really almost no difference in culture/mentality. I guess it comes from the historical differences but I'm not so sure why that would be still an issue nowdays...

I think most people identify with their country, but it's more for ease of geographical explanation. If that makes sense. So people know roughly where you're from. I've lived in England for a few years now, and we all write "UK" as where we're from, but would say the country in particular to other Brits (most will also say 'Brits' every now and then too). Within England, people will also specify further - I'm a Brummy, I'm from the Midlands, I'm from the West Country, I'm from Kent, Essex, Sussex, Dorset etc etc.

I don't think there's really any rhyme or reason to be honest.

If you ever met someone that said "I'm an Alabaman" or "I'm a Montanan", you would think they were presumptuous pricks.

The only states that can get away with that here in the US are New York, California, Florida, and Texas...

I'm a Pennsyltuckyan

Great Britain is actually the name of the largest of the British Isles upon which England, Scotland and Wales are located on. The term British is an umbrella term for English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish people. Most people don't like being called British becuase they are proud of their individual countries. People are even proud of their counties and so on. People on the Isle of Wight actually appealed to the council to have the IOW declared a seperate county from Hampshire and succeeded. Proudness of nationality goes way back to when England unified, conquered Wales and repeatedly tried to conquer Scotland and Ireland. People of Wales, Scotland and Ireland are Celtish and English people are Angle and it is all from those old hostilities.

I usually just say I live in New York, sometimes I'll put NY, USA but I never just put USA.

In larger countries there must be regional differences in culture. I mean, someone in Texas will have totally different cultural backgrounds sometimes than people in cosmopolitan New York, someone living in cultural melting pot LA grew up with totally other values than someone growing up in northern Alaskas isolated villages. And still everyone feels American, considers their country to be USA... I do find it odd sometimes, because the distances between for example Seattle and Miami are so huge that there must be local cultural differences.

But anyway, this topic is about the Brits here. In the UK, I also must say that I rarely see Union Jack flags in England, Scotland or Wales. I would see Welsh, English or Scottish flags and thats it. Only in Northern Ireland the Union flag is widely used but again, NI is totally different in political terms compared to the other home nations. Especially in Wales and Scotland the number of people wanting to split off from the UK and have their own nation is growing (in Scotland the independence seeking party is the 2nd most popular party I believe). I do spot ironically Britishness survives hundreds of miles away: people in Gibraltar who are constantly feeling harrassed by Spain will celebrate their British feeling, dito for those on the Falklands who are happy to be freed from Argentina. Ironic to see that a few thousand people in colonies very far away feel more British than the average person in England? I would also not say that the mentality in Scotland and England for example is the same, cultural differences may not be huge like when you would compare Europe to Asia, but still there is a strong local tough and a Scotsman will usually feel strong rivalry with an Englishman and vice versa.

But is Britishness dying or do most of you Brits feel a bit British in combination with the more local feeling? How do the UK based WP members see this? Would you identify as British or would you consider yourself more a proud Welshman/Scot/Englishman?




PS: NEVER call an Irish person in the Republic to be a Brit. Ireland liberated itself from the UK in a rather violent way and people still have a deep anger towards the previous occupation. The fact that 6 of the 32 counties on the island are still under British rule (Northern Ireland) is something that hurts Irish people very deeply. In lot of Dublin pubs I saw slogans scratched in toilet walls or fences, saying "if part of Ireland is unfree, we are all unfree".

I lived in Dublin and Belfast, so north and south of the border. I can guarantee, Irish people are one of the strongest patriots in Europe. The Irish pride and Irish identity is very very strong. Irish people will be extremely proud of their heritage, their culture, their celtic history, and how they finally liberated themselves from the Brits. To call an Irishman a Brit because it is part of the "British Isles" will insult this person generally. Just pointing that out, the Irish are the strongest patriots in the whole of western Europe for sure. Even Irish people abroud will still keep identifying as Irish even when they lived abroad for decades.

I usually say I'm British, but I'm leaving overseas at the moment, and that's tied to my nationality and my passport.

If someone asks your nationality, you don't say I'm UK-ish, or I'm English, although I guess some Scottish and Welsh and Irish people might feel a stronger sense of national identity in that way, but I don't have an English passport, I have a British passport.

I like british, cos its georgraphical rather than political. Bretons have lived here since long before england etc existed.

Im not nationalistic, and my ambition is to legally resign my citizenship (become a 'freeman' under common law) with a group of like minded people, forming a town in britain where we could do whatever we wanted free from state tyranny. However, atm im on welfare & the free housing, money, travel etc is making the tyranny a lot harder to resist.