What Makes You Proud To Be British?

[MellowJoe]

When some guy from some foreign land your visiting goes 'you're English' they say and they go can I come back with you?'

 

[Barcon]

I am proud of the fact that we are the inventors of the toothbrush.
If it was invented anywhere else it would be called a teethbrush.

 

[yankblue]

I am proud of the fact that we are the inventors of the toothbrush.
If it was invented anywhere else it would be called a teethbrush.

Now if only you could figure out how to use them


;)

 

[Sk@mcfc]

Again, not taking the bait!

 

[Blue and true]

Why can't you take pride in your country's achievements when they benefit all of us? Folk are happy to condemn things they don't like about it - two sides of the same national identity coin.

Did you completely ignore my first sentence?

 

[staffsblue]

- The AONBs (esp Peak & Lake Districts)
- The appreciation of our contribution to the world in such areas as civil service, engineering, music, culture, history
- The education I received in state schools
- The original Land Rover Defender
- The Full English
- Roast beef & Yorkshire pudding
- The simple, all occasion, cup of tea
- Galaxy chocolate
- Lion’s Wine Gums

I must be getting hungry…!

Lion's midget gems (or whatever alternative name they have now) are also lush. Especially the licorice flavoured ones.

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

Interesting one. Not having lived in England now for most of my life (although I go there regularly, to see my blue lads), I have a huge distance from the country I grew up in. It would be easier to say “Things I like about England” (you notice I'm not saying Britain, which has now become quite a loose polity, I think — maybe it always was):

Most particularly, a good pub, usually out in the countryside, out on the moors, maybe. Maybe with a fire going in winter. Good ale, maybe some decent food. No screaming kids. A beaten up, tatty settee here and there, over in a corner. A place where the locals stare at you a bit. That's ok, that's normal. You're not from round there.

Secondly, without question, the English (British?) sense of humour, and specifically, banter. Banter with a complete stranger, a ticket inspector, a shop assistant, someone who asks you for directions in the street. It'll last for twenty, thirty seconds, a minute at the most. You'll never see them again. That's not the point.

I'd say that those two things are things I've found nowhere else on earth. Many, many other good things, but not those. Not in concentrated form.

I could add — the English language. The English one. Not the Americanised version of it which has crept in over the last forty years and made itself so thoroughly at home, especially among the young. The one that's full of idioms and expressions and weird words that, whenever I use them with an American friend (I do have them!), they just gawp at me.

Brexit? Best to keep my mouth shut. I've said, right from the start, that's it you people's business. I know one thing, and it's incontrovertible. Half of you voted for it. Half voted against. (And a dismayingly significant number of people didn't turn out at all). That — in itself — is a mess.

 

[johnny crossan]

Did you completely ignore my first sentence?

You contradicted it in the second which was the subject if my reply. You can't separate a culture from its country so if you are proud of it then you are proud of the country you happen to come from in that regard. There may well be other aspects you are not proud about of course.

 

[AirbagsOptionalTheReturn]

When it comes to people, not much in today's society, however we have a beautiful island that we really should be proud of and take care of it

 

[BrianW]

Culture is what time the shops open, what are the shops like, what age do you start and finish school, at what age can you get married, how do you celebrate birthdays and special days, what names do you call each other when you're born, how do you bury and mourn your relatives, do you shake hands bow or snog when you first meet someone.

Culture is the intrinsic version of who you are, it's a mixture of every experience you had, it's localised and nationalised at the same time, you are who you are because of a million interactions in your community watching the TV going on holibobs.

Fuck the arts that's a tiny piece of a massive jigsaw puzzle :-)

Your definition of culture is largely administrative arrangements. The rest has changed significantly in my lifetime. We are way more informal. (Christian/forenames the norm, which used to be unthinkable. Much more touchy/feely. It's now quite common for men to hug one another in greeting. This just did not happen fifty years ago. Many men now wear cosmetics - used to be nowt but soap, and maybe aftershave on special occasions. Even funerals are less formal and less religious than they were.)

So what we have is a mixture of admin policy (some of it guided by law, like shop opening) and a fluid social tradition that is unrecognisable from what it was when I was a boy. And given another fifty years, it will have changed again.

How interesting! My idea of an 'uncultured' person is someone who is uninterested in the arts and/or intellectual pursuits.

However, it's a matter of definition and I know of no one with the authority to speak ex-cathedra on this matter.