Here is what I think Britishness constitutes.
1. Much to do with the welfare state which did not exist before 1945.
2. Being part of the EU because we weren’t before 1972 and many/most of us wish we were not now.
3. Anything to do with the “Multicultural Society” and entirely alien concept until recently.
4. Anything to do with “Social Justice” because no-one can agree what this means.
5. Anything at all to do with football since there is no British football team
So what does this leave? Maybe the facts which are:
1. Britain is a large Island with a number of smaller islands and associated territories.
2. Britain is a democracy with a Protestant Christian Constitutional Monarch as Head of State
3. Everyone is equal under English/Scottish Law everyone (or was before recent equalities legislationand the destruction of Mens Rea by the recent New Labour Government).
4. The British are, in general a relativity tolerant society, sometimes even to the point of complacency.
5. The British people are not particularly welcoming to newcomers and expect the newcomers to accommodate themselves to the pre-existing structures but those that do so will be accepted as individuals.
6. The British have in the past (and will in the future) take advantage of their island geography to maintain their independence and freedom.
7. The ONLY official languages of the UK are English, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh. You have to be reasonably fluent at one of these to be British.
8. Being British implies that one’s primary loyalty is to the United Kingdom, rather than any foreign state, society, religious leader or other entity.
3 comments:
A lot of us regard ourselves as English, Scottish or Welsh these days rather than British. The only ones who seem hell bent on keeping Britishness these days seem to be politicians and Ulster Unionists.
Ah, there's no way your resident Gibraltar bloke is going to pass this one up.
QuietMan, Ulster Unionists and especially the DUP are now really NI nationalists - just as much as the SNP is up north. Big state, high subsidy home rule junkies. Their overt Britishness is more about about what they *don't* want to be (merged with the lot on the other side of the border) than what they positively want.
To a much lesser extent that's true in Gib too - we're self governing and have a loathing of Spain. But we tick all of 13th's boxes (substitute 'rocky' for 'island' in 6). Perhaps you need to be outside of the UK to appreciate the importance of (2). Her Majesty is our Queen of Gibraltar and it's something we're proud of. Enough to really hate the Foreign Office for not allowing her to visit 'cos it'd upset the Spanish.
Britishness is something people used to aspire to. Malta almost became part of the UK after WW2 and in an alternative timeline Cyprus could have done too. There are still chunks of Cypriot soil which are as legally British as Surrey. This was pre handouts and benefits so they weren't on the take - they genuinely wanted to be part of it all.
They had (8) and they had it in spades. Here in Gib we still do.
5. The British people are not particularly welcoming to newcomers and expect the newcomers to accommodate themselves to the pre-existing structures but those that do so will be accepted as individuals.
Precisely.
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