I find is very strange that people slag off the English, but by God when they are in trouble?

Question

Who do they call on.Yes the English ..what a load of hypocrisy!

Lets talk about the potatoe famine. You are perhaps unaware that many people living in the UK during this terrible time in history were themselves effected by this famine and many lost loved ones their homes everything. What you should be asking is why did the Irish Gentry..their own country men did not help them in this crisis. I admit that The English Government of that time could have helped more, but the ordinary English man in the street lets not forget they were in dire straits as well.

Star of the Sea by Jospeh O'Conner is a book you may be interested in reading. Thanks lol

Cat I understand perfectly what you mean. You yourself said you are Scottish, as an English man is entitled to call himself English and not British..

I appreciate what you are saying about the field of sports. when Scots are referred to as British and not Scots very infuriating. as it is for an English man to have to call himself British.

You must agree it's PC gone very wrong.

Annette - Aberdeen

Answer 1

This question opens a whole can of worms. Firstly, what are the "English". I am English (born in England), but of a Scots father and an Ulster mother. Often, what is referred to as the 'English' should read 'British'.

The potato famine was an humanitarian disaster. The seizure of the best lands of the Gaelic Irish and the exile of many from the East of Ireland to the poor lands of Connaught meant that families were living off postage-stamp plots with the potato as the staple crop, as this was the only vegetable that could be grown in relatively poor soil that could guarantee a yield sufficient to keep a family. As no new land was available to the Irish, the already-small plots were subdivided as families expanded until the limit of sustenance had been reached. Environmentalists today point out the dangers of monoculture, and this danger was evidenced in the Famine with catastrophic results.

If you have a look at Northern Ireland today, you can see proof of this policy. County Armagh reflects the historical division between Irish and settler, as the North of the county is fertile, and full of orchards, fields and Protestants. South Armagh is full of stony uplands, poor soil and Roman Catholics. (Incidentally, if one feels I am espousing the Irish Nationalist cause, my Irish forbears were protestants from Fermanagh,I have evidence that our family were not settlers, but converted to protestant Christianity for some reason or other, possibly to retain their smallholding - this did happen!).

Certainly, the British can be counted upon in a crisis, but what sector of the British are these great stalwarts. Elvis Costello, the Irish singer, used the line "With the boys from the Mersey and the Thames and the Tyne" in his song "Olivers Army", that relates to the employment of British soldiers in Cyprus and the offer of a "profeesional career" in the British armed forces. The boys from these three rivers would, almost certainly, have been working class - possibly conscripts, and Costello could have added other rivers, such as the Lagan, Clyde, Trent and Taff, to represent the constituents of the lower ranks of the forces. Their Officers, however, would have hailed from the Home Counties (the South), and would have been educated at Eton, Harrow and other private schools. As the British pop-group, the Jam said, in their song "Eton Rifles" - "What chance have you got against a tie and a Crest". What we call 'England' is, in fact, a subdivision of Welsh, Scots, Irish and English and an elite of the privileged, some of whom hail from the Celtic extremities, but the bulk of whom are from the affluent South. This division persists to this day.

Answer 2

What call the English, yeah I only do that when I want to pay tax without representation, create an Empire by subjugating most of the native population of the world and creating a load of current day problems due to a historical lack of diplomacy and a lack of foresight. I also call the English when I want to chat with some of the biggest hypocrites who have a lack of irony when it comes to self knowledge and an implicit lack of understanding of their own history and how due to their own fault and a complacent attitude have become a has been of history and yet tries to cling on to the coat tails of a real super power to bask in its reflected glory. I also call the English when I want to taste some of the best cuisine in the world.

Answer 3

Its not all good news we used to have an empire and treated a lot of those ppl very badly,Sorry, but yes when there is trouble or disaster we are always ready to help,so it looks like we English have two extreme reactions and yes I am proud to be English.

Answer 4

I am Scottish. I am sure that fact alone has made you go....here we go!! Well without being aggressive or offensive, you do act as if you are superior to the rest of Great Britain, in fact you are the only nation on the British Isles to refer to yourselves (England) as Great Britain! Now you must admit, that is arrogant.

When an English athlete wins at a sports event, you refer to them on the news as English. When, say a Scottish player (ie Andy Murray) wins, the news in England refers to them as British. Your question itself is arrogant, it is not England they call on, it is in fact, Great Britain.......do you see what I mean?

Answer 5

Call the English??? Yeah right...want to discuss the potato famine ?? Great help the English were. The sun now sets on their empire if you had not noticed.

Answer 6

The UK, the US and Australia should unite and tell the rest of the so-called free world to bugger off. See how France likes that!

Answer 7

Totally agree with you, the English are only good enough when the chips are down and stuff us when their gardens are Rosy.

Answer 8

What good have the English ever done?

Answer 9

Soooooooooooooooooooooo true!

Answer 10

Yep! I'm with you all the way on that one!