I'm 100% ENGLISH traced back generations on both side.
But you can't put English in your passport you have to put British, now considering you can put Scottish and Irish, not sure about Welsh?
Why not and that annoys me, why should it be different?
We are all part of the British Isles but it's only the English that are not allowed to state that.
To be British I feel you need to have been born here or spent most of your life here AND given up any connection with any other country. I reckon it's one of those all or nothing things. You are either 100% British - or you are something else (single country). The idea of dual nationality just doesn't make sense to me. It's about home and (unless you are an MP claiming expenses) surely you only have one real home?
Whether you are English, Scottish, Spanish etc is all about genetics. And you could be 1% of 100 different origins.
I'm English through and through since the Vikings - mother's side Viking + father's side Norman (2nd generation Viking). But I certainly don't consider that that makes me better than anyone with a different mix - rather more boring in fact.
If you go far enough back, of course, we are all African.
People were living here in the Stone Age. The Celts were probably the first Brits that we can name but they were pushed to the margins by other immigrants, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Normans. How anyone can claim to be purely British is beyond me. Taking it to its logical conclusion, we are all descended from the first modern humans who left Africa about 100,000 years ago. Going even further, all the heavy elements, i.e. carbon, iron, were made in a supernova when another star blew itself apart so we are all aliens.
Incidentally some evidence has recently come to light that cricket originated in Flanders.
i have a smidgen of greek in me
and no i dont mean a greek small person
think of myself as English ..... tho my surname has viking origins .... n pillage :twisted: :twisted:
I think we have more of an identity issue here in the UK because of our mixed heritages. Its not something that worries smaller countries and communities because they have not experienced the various integrations and sheer numbers of people involved. They more or less know all the people who live in and around their locations. But because of the continuous immigration and integration we are reminded that we are a constantly evolving nation.
The claim to being British is often more frustrating for some people who have integrated for a few generations, and consider that any links with their old countries are completely gone. More often than not they can go through a phase of being assertive about their Britishness.
100% cream cake me :thumbup:
British for several generations, made mostly of Russians, national of another country through marriage, "right of return" to another by ethnicity.
100% not a fan of jingoistic, chauvinistic, nationalist stuff (except being Welsh for the Rugby!).
10% pirex.
20% raging thunder.
20% metal.
50% mental and coming your way!
I'm all English both my parents and there ancestors were born in and around the Cannock area....although unlike Dean I don't class myself as a Yam Yam as I'm from Staffordshire not West Midlands.
Si on the other hand is a proper UK/Irish mix as he has family and ancestors from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
But saying that I know lots of very British people of many differing backgrounds with ancestry from many differing countries.
To me being British is proud of who you are, where you have been raised and the people you share your life experiences with in your growing years in these wonderful lands we call Britain.
Im not british but have had a british passport from birth so does that makes me british? I have no other official nationality
