no probs DJ! as for being english - I'm soooo the wrong person to ask, born in Scotland, Trinidadian mother, S african father, grew up in West Indies till 12, then SA, then UK from 13 to 29, then back to Windies with my family!

soooo, as for being English - I would say the "english" do well considering the country they're in! (I mean that in a financial, policitcal, climate, lifestyle way, not the actual countryside and heritage which is second to none on earth I believe).

Only because of the Scots.

Some would say despite of the Scots (Brown, Blair)

Tony Blair is English ,educated in Scotland.

Well I'm sure I saw a news report saying he was a scottish descendent ... ah well what the hell he's still prize tw@t imho

I believe he is English, but of Scottish descent. Yep, he went to school in Edinburgh, Fettes College...I remember him well, he was one year Junior to myself. Was just as much of a little twit back then as he is now. We used to pick on him unmercifully, whether it was the classroom or the playing fields.

Ah, the good old days, LOL!

Richard

dont hink you picked on him enough!! what he needed was all that ignorant, self-obsessed arrogance knocked out of him - I recommend draggin him back to college where you can all have another go!!

Heh!! He was one of those that clipe on you...

"Owww, that hurt, I'm telling on you"

A right wee teacher's pet too.

Funny though, I never thought he would go on to be PM.

Mind you, Fettes did instill that ignorant, self obsessed arrogance on it's pupils, took me a while to lose all that...although my friends tell me I am still arrogant, heh!!

Richard

I wonder where Cherie went to school, I would love to have had some fun with her.

Hello,

noone in this thread has actually said what they think is 'Britishness'. I am interested to hear peoples views on this too.
So, what do you all thinks Britishness is?
The government have created a site for Icons of England http://www.icons.org.uk/ do you agree with any of the things on there?

Tilly

Sorry if this sets the cat amongst the pigeons, I find most British people these days obsessed with what car you drive, what job you do and if you own your house and most of the ones I have met in Spain are the same - I say most - All the Americans I have met here rent their houses, drive small cars, and share their beer with you, no matter what job theyor you do. I don't pride myself on being "British", but instead on the fact I try to be honest and fair and decent to others, there are good and bad in all Nationalities and cultures.

The biggest icon now of where I came from would be a knife wielding, hooded, attitude filled, dealing, mugging scumbag of a kid.

Oh how I miss South London...

Amara - I have to agree with you there but sadly the Dutch, Germans and other Europeans are the same.

How strange, in my experience its the opposite, most of my work colleagues and clients tend to moan about the state of the country, and how little their money buys these days, but would share their last ROLO with you, yet when I was in America, most people were more interested in what job I had and what car I drove, I used to lie and say I had a BMW they usually liked that
I think the one character of the English, missing from almost all other races is their ability to laugh at irony. No other people can laugh at puns etc the way we do.

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

And the most British thing of all? Suspicion of anything foreign.

Oh and......-Only in Britain... can a pizza get to your house faster
than an ambulance.

Only in Britain... do supermarkets make sick people walk all the way to
the back of the shop to get their prescriptions while healthy people can
buy cigarettes at the front.

Only in Britain... do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries and
a DIET coke.

Only in Britain... do banks leave both doors open and chain the pens to
the counters.

Only in Britain... do we leave cars worth thousands of pounds on the
drive and lock our junk and cheap lawn mower in the garage.

Only in Britain... do we use answering machines to screen calls and then
have call waiting so we won't miss a call from someone we didn't want to
talk to in the first place.

Only in Britain... are there disabled parking places in front of a
skating rink.