So What is British Culture and Identity then?

cardboardbox?Youwerelucky · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 9:58 am Post subject:

Ilkley moor b'a tat
Old fashioned neighbourly friendliness (not wife swapping Gopher Rolling Eyes

)
Pride (in everything English / British) i.e. regardless of what sport is on telly if we have a chance to win everyone gets behind the bowling / darts / horse jumping / hockey / fencing / badminton etc team)
Singing the national anthem (and meaning it)
Helping others
Tolerance
Biting your lip (i.e. not complaining)

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BOXYS BAR - LIQUER UP FRONT AND POKER IN THE REAR

HarryofOz · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 10:00 am Post subject:

Tommo · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 10:09 am Post subject:

Bonfie night

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wewantourdarbyback · Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 10:11 am Post subject:

halfaperson · Allan Clarke Joined: 13 Jun 2007 Posts: 754

Some great stuff there chaps and lasses. Cheers. Been doing some homework Wink

Whether you Johnny Foreigners think so or not It’s a big subject Mr Harry Wink

. More than a bloke in an iron mask and a soap star singer

so its probably going to be in installments. Im going to try to be as objective as I can but it is difficult, that is why hopefully you non Brits can chip in from your perspective as well.

First of all there’s the sense of history we all have and our place in it. I think this is something we are generally proud of and find it hard to understand why immigrants can’t make an effort to appreciate it and in some cases they even show hostility about it. It may be drilled into us from school and TV etc but it’s a firm belief that we have played a pivotal role into making the world the place it is. This probably contributes to our supreme confidence about ouselves.

I think most people also take a delight in visiting and exploring our history. Even the Roman, Viking and Norman occupations are seen as positive things and signs of it and are actively sort out and preserved for show. Again you hardly see immigrants in museums, historical sites etc. Why this is is a mystery to me. After all, it is all history that has made our country so attractive to them in the first place. This is one of the reasons there is some hostility to them. Every time I go abroad for instance I actively seek out these places.

So as far as history goes and our place in it we can go back to the Roman occupation and the pockets of resistance against them (Boadicea etc). The fact that we eventually kicked them out is a source of pride (nowt to do with the weather mind you Wink

and their crumbling empire). This may be fact or fiction as with the middle ages of King Arthur etc but its ingrained in us. This could go on and on but suffice it to say the great things that have happened in our history have gone a long way to define our, heritage, culture and identity. It aint all been pretty of course and there has been a bit of shame as well.

In chronological order and with the assistance of Kenneth Morgans fantastic book The Illustrated History Of Britain (Should be compulsive reading for every Brit and anybody else who wants to know about us).

Our History or at least my version

The end of Roman occupation they get beat by Constantine
The Origins Of Todays Britain Wessex/Mercia etc
Viking Invasions
Harold Wins AT Stamford Bridge (Not Too Difficult in those days Cool

)
Harold gets beat at Hastings by the Normans (unlucky son)
Crusades
Twatted By The French at Bouvines (first and last time Evil or Very Mad

)
Magna Carta-Civil War
Scots get a win at Bannockburn (another flukey first)
Civil war again
100 years war
Twat the French (a recurring theme from now on)
Plague

Agincourt (Easy Easy)
War on France and Scotland
Twat them both, Scotland at Flodden
War with Spain
Twat Scotland again at Solway Moss (Will They Ever Learn)
more war with france. Technically we were friends just before
Kill Protestants
More War With France Theres a pattern developing Here
War With Spain (They Want Some more as well)
Twat The Armada
Guy Fawkes get toasted
Have a look at America, like it, take it
War with Spain This lot are getting annoying now
And France (17th Century not a good century for peace and harmony)
If that wasn’t enough Fighting- Civil War
Take Ireland (Like the Beer and fishing)
Fucking Dutch start now
The another ding dong with Spain
Cof E take a grip of the country
Dutch at it again
Plague
Fire
Dirty Dutch see us down and have another go (Bastards)

King Billy Arrives, King James Fucks off
King Billy twats Irish and French. (Seems good bloke after all)
War Of Spanish Succession
Get Gibralter (Nice and Warm place for a holiday)
England Scotland Union
Austria’s turn to get stroppy
Jacobite Rebellion
Culloden (Thatll teach em)
Twat Austria and France and Russia with help from the Prussians
Canadas Nice Well have that. Take Quebec from the French.
Invent Steam Engines
Give America the country (it was shit anyway)
French Revolution?. Lets have another War with them to liven it up
Twat The French and the Spicks Big Style at Trafalgar
Then again at Waterloo (Fuck me were hard aren’t we)
Err famine in Ireland (sorry about that Embarassed

)
We invent Industry
Dirty Boers start kicking Off Who The Fuck do they think they are.
Hmm pretty hard actually
First world war. Not Pretty but we win eventually
Germany kick off again this time they mean it
Need help. Get Japs to bomb Pearl Harbor so those fuckers across the water stop selling The Krauts equipment and join in with us.

Well that’s about it folks, pretty good stuff eh?

All these occasions’ battles and landmarks in history have left an imprint on the British Psyche. One that says. We may not be big but we matter. We may be small but we wont be ffff around with us. Well ok apart from the Irish and the Japs in Burma and a few other cock ups, (even then we can make a victory out of them. Dunkirk eg). So for starters I would say our History plays an important part in defining Being British. That is been secure and confident of ourselves in the world. So much so that we seem to be the only race going where its ok to take the piss out of without been politically incorrect. This is basically cos we don’t give a chuff. In fact we do it to ourselves as good as anyone.

Next installments, culture, inventions, politics and way of life and how they affect British Identity. Blimey this could go on a bit Shocked