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''England'' is dead and being british is dying.

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What the hell is wrong with you people? What is wrong with trying to preserve some British culture? What is wrong with being proud of your heritage and culture?

I'll put it this way, if I went to a country such as Pakistan, and wanted to alter and change their culture, I would probably be shot. They want to preserve their culture - it's natural.

Yes there is nothing wrong with having non-British people in Britain - these people are a credit and a true inspiration to our country.

Yet can you people not see that a Briton being an ethnic minority in Britain is morally wrong?

I agree to an extent, that it's great to try and include other cultures in a country, such as Indian takeaways, Nandos, Belgium beers etc... but there must be a limit.

We can't have British culture die out. It's just wrong.

Except British culture is not dying out, and White British still makes up like 80% of the country. Immigrants are not trying to change your culture. They don't force you to eat their foods, dress like them or practice their religion. Likewise if you go to Pakistan, you can eat what you want, wear what you want, practice whatever religion you want and you most definately would not get shot. There's a big difference between not assimilating and attempting to change a nation's culture.
All this is just a big fuss about nothing.

Reply 221

NoFunnyBusiness

Original post by Theconomist

Being British is about driving a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, then traveling home, grabbing an Indian curry or a Turkish kebab on the way, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV.

Get yourself a life and stop worrying about what other people are doing! What kind of world would it be if we all stuck to our own? Integration is a beautiful thing, you're just too blind to see it.

Reply 222

Theconomist

Original post by matt_price93

Considering most of those that replied aren't even white some not british.

Finally someone who cares about their country!

Reply 223

Martyn*

Original post by storna

How is she German?

Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

Reply 224

lukejoshjedi

It's funny, I can imagine the OP giving this speech or whatever at a town hall or event, getting a mixed reaction with some cheers and clapping, some boos and jeering and silence all mixed in one - the reaction of the people hearing that says it all really

Reply 225

The_Internet

Original post by matt_price93

I'll put it this way, if I went to a country such as Pakistan, and wanted to alter and change their culture, I would probably be shot. They want to preserve their culture - it's natural.

Pakistan is probably the worst example you can use. Considering it was part of India before, it's an ex colony of the UK, which has meant that its had many UK influences (especially in education, I've noticed) It is also becoming increasingly Americanised quite rapidly

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 226

Locke54

Original post by Martyn*

Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

Elizabeth is pretty damn British though, herself and her direct relatives have been born in Britain for centuries. Phillip on the other hand is Greco-English having been born in Corfu to a Greek father and a British mother. Neither are particularly German despite belonging to a German Royal family. Phillip himself wasn't even originally a Windsor/Saxe-Coburg-Gotha before he married into the family, he's from the house of House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg which is of Danish-German origins. Technically speaking Charles and William should reign under this name instead of 'Windsor' but when Phillip married the Queen he refuted this in favour of the continued Windsor name to avoid anti-German feeling in the aftermath of WW2.

Either way, Elizabeth is as British as they come, I'd be surprised if she can even speak German. While Phillip is Anglo-Greek from a German royal family. It doesn't make either of them properly German.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 227

Arthur2

All the English are immigrents, poppycock.

British Have Changed Little Since Ice Age, Gene Study Says
James Owen
for National Geographic News
July 19, 2005
Despite invasions by Saxons, Romans, Vikings, Normans, and others, the genetic makeup of today's white Britons is much the same as it was 12,000 ago, a new book claims.

In The Tribes of Britain, archaeologist David Miles says around 80 percent of the genetic characteristics of most white Britons have been passed down from a few thousand Ice Age hunters.

I can't post a link.

Arthur.

Reply 228

Chi019

Original post by matt_price93

Indeed, or Japan, Tibet, or virtually any non-western country for that matter. It is quite healthy to look after a unique, shared cultural identity. The UN even specifically seeks to preserve national and ethnic groups, which this site amusingly frames in terms of the US.

Article 2 of the United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as: any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:...

B. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

We will challenge the mental harm being done to our youth by teachers and textbooks that vilify their forefathers, charge them with collective guilt for historical “crimes”, and convince them through neo-Marxist and environmentalist propaganda that they’re literally a burden on the world.

http://www.hoosiernation.us/about/

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 229

magnum.opus

Cultural diffusion is a good thing. And English customs make there way around the world just the same, too. It's give and take.

Reply 230

Tefhel

My 'Britishness' isn't diminished by what car I buy or the nationality of people at my university. I think that's a silly thing to say.

And as an economist, you should know that the purchasing of foreign products, foreign food, foreign TV is driven by demand. If British people had wanted a British car, then they would have bought them, if people only wanted British food that is all they would buy. Personally, I'm happy to drive to a Sushi restaurant in a Mercedes (not that I have one) and then get back in time to watch Desperate Housewives on a Panasonic TV. It doesn't make me any less 'British'.

I used to agree with your argument somewhat, but the way you've put it I realise just how completely stupid it is.

Reply 231

RayApparently

Original post by Theconomist

I didn't explain myself.
I'm not talking about the nationality.
I mean the culture,heritage,ancestry etc.
Khalid Von Bronchrost Devon might hold a british passport but that doesn't make him a brit in my books.

Isn't that racism?

Reply 232

gladders

Original post by Arthur2

And I imagine there was some Saxon peasant somewhere in there moaning about how the Normans were 'stealing/changing our culture!' Give me a break.

Reply 233

username917703

Original post by P.M.H.

Being english means being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer.

Signing up to bump a five year old thread? :rolleyes:

Knobhead.

Necrothread

the thread that time forgot....

Reply 236

P.M.H.

Being british means being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer.

Reply 237

MonsoonFlower

Original post by viksta1000

ok so what checklist do we have to pass in order to be 'British'

I was born here, raised here, schooled here, speak english....but of Indian Origin, so am I not British?

I'm in the same boat.

Born and bred here, went to school here, can speak fluent English, but ethnically Chinese, have a UK passport, go to work 40 hours a week and pay my taxes.

Isn't that enough nowadays? :dontknow:

Reply 238

username1799249

Original post by Britishstudent

What the hell is wrong with you people? What is wrong with trying to preserve some British culture? What is wrong with being proud of your heritage and culture?

What is British culture though? I mean seriously what is it? Are you really saying we should go back to our little villages, bring in the hay on a cart before drinking a pint of warm p1ss and tucking into a pork sandwich?

For me, being British is going to my local carnival parade. Then listening to the steel band before tucking into a plate of paella.

There is a richness that comes to this country with other people and we have been enjoying that richness and diversity for centuries if not millennia? We are Anglo Saxons - i.e. mainly German. Then the French had a good pop at us and so did the Galics. Then there were the Vikings and in recent time, just about everyone under the sun. We drive German cars because they are better than British ones - did you ever get the opportunity to drive an Austin Maestro or Rover 25 - absolute carp! We brew some of the best bitter, but then some of the best lagers come from abroad. We do the best fried breakfast, but give me a curry over roast beef any day.

But how wonderful that we have this choice. 30 years ago, eating Pizza was seen as a bit out there. Can you imagine that today? Was that a good thing? I think not.