Hi All

I'm not sure there is such a thing as true Britishness because it differs 
depending on age, region, social grouping, upbringing, experience, teaching 
and brainwashing etc.
When I was at school in the 40's we were "brainwashed" into believing that 
Britain had and believed in all that was best in the world including empire 
and the Royal family which meant standing to attention when the national 
anthem was played in the cinema, raising a flag on empire day, and doing 
implicitly what our leaders told us to do, but what we were never told was 
why there was so much poverty in our own country amongst other things. 
Remember WW1 and that the war was going to be over in weeks so how the young 
men followed like lambs to the slaughter and how men were shot for having 
mental breakdown plus the callous waste of young lives by idiotic generals. 
The change is that now children think more for themselves and have the 
benefit of much better communications via TV, radio and the internet. 
Young people are now much more "street wise" than we ever were, which is 
good but the let down is that many parents have at the same time opted out 
of showing and teaching their offspring how to behave in a "civilised 
manner".    Perhaps I have missed the point of the whole exercise.

Purely by coincidence I came across this little tongue in cheek item 
recently which is worthwhile giving a little more serious thought to than 
was intended!


Subj: being British!

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 Japanese
TV.

And the most British thing of all? Suspicion of all
things foreign!

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.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Frank Clement-Lorford" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 11:26 AM
Subject: Britishness


Hi, I know some will accuse me of misuse of this group and to those I
apologise. I always thought this group was an ideal mix of academic to
businessperson and ideal to gather opinions from.

 I have to present a paper titled: ‘'The Future of the Nation State'. I
thought I would look into Britishness and plot any change in the thinking
of major political parties. I do understand that essentially Britishness
is an individual opinion. Therefore I wonder if I could ask (save me
standing outside of Tesco's). Can you name two things that you feel is
Britishness, has that changed in the last 20 years. Also is there one
image that instantly promotes Britishness to you

I do appreciate any help you can offer on this matter and if you feel, you
have anything to add to the question, I would be grateful, If you want to
mail me direct please do so, all your answers will be very helpful. Again
apologies to those that feel this is not the right question for this group.

Regards

Frank


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