Has England lost it?

Question

Or did it ever have it, for that matter?

There is no national identity, unlike Scotland, Ireland and Wales. There is no longer a national industry- England relies nearly 100% upon imported raw materials, goods and even labour.

St George has nothing to do with England, and yet is the national saint- even though very few English people know when his day is, who he was, and don't even recognise St Georges day. The day of remembrance is marked only by a 2 minute silence, when in fact it should be a bank holiday.

The media popularises characters such as Jade Goody. ASBOs are seen as badges of honour. I could go on and on- I used to have hope for England, hope that I could one day restore it to the old ways.

Now I am unsure. It seems to me as if England has slid too far. Is it time to abandon ship?

Answer 1

James, James lets not get too despondent lets look on the bright side we have our Cricket Team er um, The millennium Dome err err, The new Wembley Stadium ooh err, our spiffing education system ohhhh, (Come on media and leisure qualifications are sure to get you jobs in McDonalds). The NHS Arrrrrrrgh, (Hospitals have never been so safe and clean!) our magnificent Japanese and German car industries ooooooohhh, ship buil…………..AAAARRRGH! Kiddies being shot to death in London ………….err no wait we have huge Casinos coming and the Olympic Games that’s sure to bring another deluge of imported cultural anomalies.

We know it sounds really bad but we’ve been through worse, we had the Vikings and 100 years war with France and we’re still here and besides where would you go if you abandoned ship. And after all this is the 250th anniversary of the real St George the Great William Blake and we have to build a New Jerusalem!

Answer 2

England has no national identity? That's a rather pretentious comment. England has a national identity, as does every country! Its just that unlike the Scottish and the Welsh the English are secure in their identity and have no need to prove themselves all the time. St. George is the patron saint of many a country, including England, and is remembered not for "slaying a dragon" which is often confused with another George of Cappodocia (modern day Libya) who did actually slay a dragon. St. George supposedly slayed the metaphorical "dragon" of paganism and since England has long been a Christian country he is remembered for riding us of non-Christians.

The media does not speak for all English people, I do not idolize Jade Goody or any of the tabloid celebrities, I look up to my mother. Who, like me, is proud to be English.

Don't give up!

Answer 3

People all across the world are asking the same questions of their society because it's easier to think that the grass is always greener on the other side or to become disenchanted with where you live if you only focus on what is bad about your society/country etc.

I personally think that we, as a nation, have a strong identity. This is not in any meant to be positioned as offensive to Scots or the Welsh, but one reason that they could be percieved as having a stronger identity is because they constantly make a point of how proud they are to be Welsh or Scottish, which I think is partly based upon partly on the historical desire for identity because of our clashes in past history.

Yes if you only focus on the fact that we in England have social problems such as ASBO's, chav culture etc. you could thiink that we don't have anything worthwhile. This thinking is largely to be blamed on the constant tabloid fixation on "how terrible things are in this country", "rip off Britain", "ASBO nation" etc etc. Blah Blah Blah...

I personally look around me and think about our strong cultural identity - music, art, history (yes, not all great, but at least we have a history that pre-dates 1600...).

Look how strongly we influence other countries through music (erm, The Beatles anyone?), fashion (London, New York, Paris - there is a reason these all appear together...), art (pop English Artists into Wikipedia...), sport (Rugby, Football, Athletics, Cricket etc etc) and just general culture.

Compared to a country like the US we are a tiny island yet we offer more to the cultural pallette of the world than many other countries of the world put together. To be proud to be English doesn't mean having to wear a St Georges cross; being proud to be English is to be proud of simply what we have contributed to the world.

Answer 4

Dont abandon ship. English people need to be brought up by proud parents, start with the young, i make sure my kids know what a great nation the english are, and were.
English seems to have become a dirty word, with people having to always talking about Britain.
We need an uprising of the English, we have a rich heritage that should not be lost
COME ON ENGLAND

Answer 5

Things will turn full circle eventually - You will probably find there are a great deal of English People who have a strong National Identity, however being English, we don't shout about it. That is the English way.

Answer 6

Oh come on, we already have enough cocky Americans on here slagging of our country, lets not join their ranks shall we. We have a beautiful country and a unique language, without us there would be no Shakespeare, no Charles Dickens and no Harry Potter! Jade Goody is merely a fly in the ointment.

Answer 7

More Tea Vicor is making alot of sense to me. this is a good country, yeh like everyone i sometimes hate it because of the terrible stuff that happens to people who live here, but in comparison to other countries in the world, we got it GOOD. and we do have a national identity, we just dont see it because we live here, if we was scotish, then we might.

i think the asker is not custom to change, everything changes in life, even countries, england has gone through many changes, and still is, we just got to adapt to it, if you can't, you can just f*** off to crappy USA. to put it blunt.

Answer 8

We BRITISH/ENGLISH must reclaim our identity and make the nation great again but we wont while we are still pandering to other peoples wishes, sod america and sod the world lets put our country and NATIVES first for a change!!!!!

its about time we did

Answer 9

Yep, time to abandon ship sounds about right.Its going to the dogs without a doubt and cant see it getting any better.Thats why so many people are leaving for better places

Answer 10

I abandoned ship 5 years ago, want me to send you a bucket to bail yourselves out?