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What does it mean to you to be English?

I bought quite a lot of Branston Baked Beans over lockdown as the only delivery slots we could get were from Iceland and that's what they had in stock. They're pretty good. Certainly better then Heinz.

Though I normally go for the Sainsburys reduced salt and sugar jobs (~40p) as my body is a temple*.

* old ruin
 
Minio said:
I wouldn't say that Tommy Robinson was a typical English person.
If he is proud of this country I wouldn't let it rub off on me.

Typically English I always think of Morris Dancers.
Not usually right wing. Usually social workers, teachers, probation officers and the like.
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Pravda said:
I think religion is more to blame than the colour of someones skin
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I think religions are more to blame for most negative things; especially in theocracies.
Pravda said:
If I buy Heinz baked beans in France, its 1.80 euros, a tin. Thats why I like being English, we know how to eat:)
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Sainsbury's own is 40p and just the right delicious balance, so Heinz' site doesn't come into it.
 
Pravda said:
And that's what I'm doing, giving my perspective.
I didn't say anyone on here, was, denying me anything, it's just a general statement, a conversation even, of the way the English are and have been portrayed in the world, because they've focused on the minority lowlife activists.
Why so provocative?
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You said 'I'm still not sure why, me, as English born, am denied a proud status.'

Perhaps I misunderstood as the grammar and punctuation is a little unusual, but the meaning seems unambiguous.
 
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A pre-Brexit survey on English identity.

https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/235/English-Identity-governance-of-England.pdf

At all ages, ‘equally English and British’ is the most widely held identity.
Those with the lowest levels of educational qualifications are more likely to identify as ‘English’ rather than ‘British’ and to report the strongest intensity of Englishness.
Like white voters, BAME voters are more likely to identify as ‘equally English and British’ than any other identity on the Moreno scale3, but are much more likely to be ‘British not English’, than ‘English not British’.

There are other findings.
 
I remember seeing Paul Ince being interviewed on that Football Italia programme that used to be on Channel 4 on Saturday mornings. This was when he was playing for Inter. They interviewed him in his swish Italian villa. The interviewer asked him what he most missed from home. He replied baked beans and HP sauce, opening his kitchen cupboards to reveal f*cking hordes of the stuff he‘d brought back with him after every trip home.

There, on a plate (literally) was ‘Englishness.’ Living in a country with one of the most revered cuisines in the world, but he preferred to stuff his chops with baked beans and brown sauce.
 
is the reason why we‘re so desperate to find something in our past to be proud of because we have so f*cked our future?
 
Finnegan said:
I remember seeing Paul Ince being interviewed on that Football Italia programme that used to be on Channel 4 on Saturday mornings. This was when he was playing for Inter. They interviewed him in his swish Italian villa. The interviewer asked him what he most missed from home. He replied baked beans and HP sauce, opening his kitchen cupboards to reveal f*cking hordes of the stuff he‘d brought back with him after every trip home.

There, on a plate (literally) was ‘Englishness.’ Living in a country with one of the most revered cuisines in the world, but he preferred to stuff his chops with baked beans and brown sauce.
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I'm sure that he didn't exclusively live on beans and HP sauce. he's entitled to his taste of home. When I lived in France I brought in Marmite and proper tea. I didn't have Marmite every day, the tea I did because French tea is revolting. It didn't stop me drinking coffee though.
 
Finnegan said:
I remember seeing Paul Ince being interviewed on that Football Italia programme that used to be on Channel 4 on Saturday mornings. This was when he was playing for Inter. They interviewed him in his swish Italian villa. The interviewer asked him what he most missed from home. He replied baked beans and HP sauce, opening his kitchen cupboards to reveal f*cking hordes of the stuff he‘d brought back with him after every trip home.

There, on a plate (literally) was ‘Englishness.’ Living in a country with one of the most revered cuisines in the world, but he preferred to stuff his chops with baked beans and brown sauce.
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Keith Floyd after filming one of his culinary series for TV loved to get home for a Heinz Sandwich Spread sarnie on Mothers Pride
 
stevec67 said:
I'm sure that he didn't exclusively live on beans and HP sauce. he's entitled to his taste of home.
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I think he pretty much did, judging by the contents of his cupboards. Yes, he’s entitled to his taste of home. But my point was that, in a place with one of the world’s great cuisines, his English culinary conservatism prevented him from exploring all that wonderful Italian food. Reminds me of my old auntie Linda from Toxteth who wouldn’t eat lasagne because she didn’t like ‘foreign food.’
 
An interesting question.

My personal feelings fall both into good and bad:

Good:
  • We resulted in English being a fairly common "world" language, certainly so in say aviation
  • We instituted governance via the civil service in a number of countries of the world. The fact that they are still in a semblance of use fairly wells justifies it
  • Our civil service, very much attempts to be egalitarian in it's treatment of it's staff (don't get me wrong, the policies that they're OBLIGED to implement on behalf of kleptocratic rulers might not be, but that's another story)
  • The massive number of inventions that were created and introduced
  • We stopped the Nazis in 1940, and I believe that if we'd capitulated, even the US would have succumbed to the Nazis
  • We were a leading country in stopping the slave trade, e.g. the Atlantic squadron
  • The introduction post WW2 of the NHS, Welfare state, National Insurance etc
  • We did give back ex-colonies and I believe "tried" to do it in a reasonable manner
  • As a country, and despite a level of scuminess, a basic ability to assimilate other races, nationalities and religions in a fairly harmonious way
  • Linked to the above, the ability to meld together disparate groups in other areas. For example, in India. Whilst the EIC did their best to f..k over everyone, the country was basically unified during it's time in the British Empire and until it fell to pieces with the very unfriendly partitioning into India and Pakistan, which I do feel we were give a bit of a bad rap for. Whilst there is a degree of blame, I believe the resultant atrocities don't sit primarily with us
  • We have a lovely looking country (in some places), some great suits, Aston Martin's and Jags look great
  • The BBC
  • We created the TV series such as UFO and Space1999
Bad:
  • The sheer level of corruption that has existed within the country for centuries and how it permeates the running of the country
  • The East India Company (EIC) (best example) and how it was sanctioned to do what it did, which was basically rip off any country it touched (primarily India), pushed Opium into China and when it struggled, asked for support from Britain which was kindly provided with our Navy. All the time, the profits going to the "few" within the EIC and their mates, whilst the British taxpayer was paying for the Navy. Then when the EIC was wrapped up, they shareholders were paid an absolutely HUGE sum of money by the British taxpayer as compensation
  • The British involvement in the slave trade. No, I don't believe that we established it. Slavery has existed since records began, so basically since civilisation existed (ironic eh). However, we did give another "market" for the slave traders based in Africa. Again, primarily for the profit of the few. And also again, when it was stopped within the British Empire, another MASSIVE payout to the few as compensation, again paid for by the taxpayer
  • The desire to destroy the welfare state and similar, primarily to give the cash to the already super rich. How is it that our laws permit "offshore tax havens", the ability to syphon of billions from a company for it's shareholders, and then walk away from it's wreckage?
  • The complete lack of application of accountability for our politicians
  • Involvement in say the coop of the Iranian president in the early 1950s, just such that some US mates in oil could get rich
  • Our press/media. Just awful. Free speech is great, until you have the Daily Fail, The Outrage and similar, i.e. primarily bs or stupidly exaggerated
  • We appear to have companies now run at the behest of accountants. I know that they're there to make money, but what about ethics, making high quality products, like say Germany, Switzerland or Japan has done?
 
Finnegan said:
I’ve long suspected something was amiss but could never truly articulate what it was- until now. We’ve become a nation of coffee drinkers where we used to be a nation of tea drinkers. I want my country back.
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FWIW I've never really liked coffee. I suspect tea drinking may have sufferred because 'supermarket' packs of 'tea blends' are generally so awful. Totally different to decent single-estate teas. Hence most people in the *UK* have no real idea what good tea tastes like. Can't say that preferring *good* tea to coffee somehow makes me "more English" though, as could just as easily say it makes me "more Chinese!"
 
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