I was almost English once. Born in Dorset, brought up in Germany and retired to France. Doubt if I will ever even visit the old country again, I wouldn't recognise it!
Slightly tongue in cheek: Trying to define what English/British values are. Bitching and whining about how bad the country/society is but not looking at other countries objectively to realise that in many ways we have it so much better than others. Bitching and whining about how bad things are and doing nothing constructive about it.
I thought about the question and struggled to answer it, most of what came into my head seemed to be from a bygone age. I genuinely struggle to define British Values. Fragmentation from within, dilution from outside, absorption within the EU, it seems that British Values have been systematically dismantled to benefit the few. The opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics was toe cringingly embarrassing in it's attempts to define British Values. The NHS and a Routemaster Bus FFS.
The ability in my case ( n Ireland ) to call myself British when my country is part of the uk but not Britain hence I'm not British .
Ireland is part of the British Isles, but not part of Great Britain. So two people can call Northern Ireland "British" or "not British" and both justify their positions.
I think my views on being British are known , as far as I'm concerned I'm British. I'm simply stating as my above posts officially n Ireland is part of U.K. And not Britain In fact as per the British isles even the Republic of Ireland is part of the British isles but most defiantly not British . I have lost friends and relatives who have gave their lives to remain a part of a United Kingdom. A very emotive point over here.
Well I am confused; n Ireland ? I understand the difference between Northern Ireland and the north of Ireland, I think, but I thought that people from the north of Ireland, as opposed to Northern Ireland, generally didn't want to be British, although that doesn't stop them from being British. This is not a wind up by the way. I find the politics of this part of the world (!) fascinating.
me to. hope i didn't offend with the observations i made on your NI nurses thread.(which i deleted) v.interesting subject to myself.
Read up on the history of this part of the uk and be confused lol but the vast Majority of the Northern Ireland population want to remain in the uk.
sorry no. aint had time to breath recently. first time on here in about 24hrs that's an eternity for me.
One of the main British values is "Make it up as you go along". The whole basis of our unwritten Constitution and of the Common Law is stuff which has been made up on the hoof. Everything from fighting wars to structuring the United Kingdom has been done ad hoc and unprepared. We trust to muddling through. Other nations get exasperated by our traditional reluctance to commit to (and stick to) defined structures, treaties, and organisations.
