Are you British or English, Scotish, Welsh or Nothern Irish

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I think it's one of the requirements. Not for legal nationality, but for actual nationality. Say, for example, an English person moved to Spain, became permanently resident in Spain and acquired Spanish nationality in a legal sense but lived in a de facto English enclave. Only spoke English, only ate imported English food and, most importantly, thought of themself as English. They're not really Spanish, even if they do legally have Spanish nationality.

I think nationality is about where you perceive your home to be. Not necessarily where you live but where you perceive your home to be. Here's an example within the UK:

Person A migrated from Jamaica to England in the 1950s/60s and has lived here ever since. They have UK citizenship. They perceive England as their home. They talk about it that way, it's their state of mind. They see themself as English. So do I.
Person B migrated from Jamaica to England in the 1950s/60s and has lived here ever since. They have UK citizenship. They perceive Jamaica as their home. They talk about it that way, it's their state of mind. They see themself as Jamaican. So do I.

Well put, sadly many fall into the category of Person B, and a lot of true British seem to, nowadays, wish they were of a different nationality, yet steadfastly remain here, moaning and castigating the UK and its history.
 

Raz

Raz

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Well put, sadly many fall into the category of Person B, and a lot of true British seem to, nowadays, wish they were of a different nationality, yet steadfastly remain here, moaning and castigating the UK and its history.

What's wrong with that? Is saying something negative about your country a sin? Can't make improvements/changes if all you see is the positive. History shouldn't also be protected, especially when things were done that were wrong by people who were in the wrong.
 
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me English and proud ... but what do you expect from a northerner ... then again i can say i've lived in 6 country's from between 3 and 7 yrs .. and there all the same .. everyone trying to get a leg up pushing themselves to be rich .... have to say i stepped off that train a few yrs ago .. as long as i'm happy thats all it is ..
 
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What's wrong with that? Is saying something negative about your country a sin? Can't make improvements/changes if all you see is the positive. History shouldn't also be protected, especially when things were done that were wrong by people who were in the wrong.
Then again you need context, you cannot write Henry the eighth out of the script because he was a misogynistic old goat, getting rid of wives because they did not provide him with a male heir. He was probably syphilitic and low on sperm count but science was not very advanced. Blame god, the Pope, your wife, a few advisors. History is history.
Then England became a non catholic country, unlike Spain and France and fierce competition lead to these three mainly colonising the known world as it was discovered, plenty of wars, thievery and pillaging.

It is how far back you wish to go with a rewrite but the History of England (and the World) starts being messy if you begin deleting people for misdeeds or political correctness.
 
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Caporegime
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with a large enough DNA database you must be able to approximate where someone is from? how close do you think they can narrow it down? continent ? country? city?

there must be a bunch of traits people from specific areas share even if they aren't related?
 
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Person A migrated from Jamaica to England in the 1950s/60s and has lived here ever since. They have UK citizenship. They perceive England as their home. They talk about it that way, it's their state of mind. They see themself as English. So do I.
Person B migrated from Jamaica to England in the 1950s/60s and has lived here ever since. They have UK citizenship. They perceive Jamaica as their home. They talk about it that way, it's their state of mind. They see themself as Jamaican. So do I.


BINGO!

This is the perfect answer!
 
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What century are we living in?

Does it really matter whether you consider yourself English, British or Manx? I hope that one day these nationalistic attitudes disappear and people are proud to be whoever they are without having to be defined by ridiculous historical geographical boundaries
 
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Scottish here. (Bold 't' for the OP's benefit :p)

Since I've been mature enough, I've always said I'm British first. Born in Scotland, spent almost half my life living in England, have recently returned north of the border. The Mrs is English and our kids were born in England (with a little bit of Welsh in there too).

I don't think it's a bad thing to consider yourself, or be proud of yourself for being, Xxxx-ish before British, or vice versa, just as long as you're not an Engerlish chair-throwing football fan :D

But, none of the above (my post, or the previous posts in the thread) matters, as we are now forced to tolerate those who identify as ******* teapots, frying pans or Boeing 747s!
 
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people who don't see themselves as British don't adhere to our values and go out of their way to subvert our way of life. ( not all but some)
 
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Almost all of those things. Aside from Irish, family ties from Scotland, Welsh parent and born in England.
Consider myself English but from Britain.
 
Don
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I consider myself British as I was born in Britain. My wife considers herself Polish. My son considers himself either British or Polish depending on where he is and who he's talking to.
My dog considers herself dog, because she's a dog.
 
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Human, Earth.

I honestly want to write that - because I am, time humanity moved past the idea of countries, sure celebrate different cultures, but I wish we binned countries per say, worked together as one people.

Id still keep countries but just as identifier to where abouts on Earth, kind of like counties I guess, and good to exchange cultures, but we all need be one Earth now.
 
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My wife's family are Pakistani. They moved to Uganda before she was born. So she was actually born in Uganda and had a Ugandan passport before moving to the UK and becoming a British citizen around 1971. Interestingly, although she naturally considers herself British, she also considers herself Pakistani despite not being born there and never having visitied.

My children are British. But as they have a British/English father and a British/English/Pakistani mother then are they both English and Pakistani or are they neither English nor Pakistani?
 
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