The Great in Britain is the individual

Last night during the various commentaries I was reading about Eurovision, incidentally of which Charlie Brooker won on all accounts, I got into a debate about our National identity. I then woke this morning to read two articles touching on this subject.

Since I've been in France I have found myself conforming to all the typical British stereotypes and rather proudly waving a flag of Britishness everywhere I go. I've always been patriotic. I love our sense of togetherness when we get together for great events such as the Royal wedding or the football. I describe myself invariably as both British and English and I am proud to be both. However, despite what is legally confirmed as our description of Great Britain being one internationally recognised country I have to argue. For me, even more so when I am away from home and looking in from the outside, we are four separate countries. Two of which have spent considerable time and energy trying to prove this independence and the third, whilst not openly protesting goes about it's day to day life keeping their Nationally recognised language and practices. And rightly so. And then there is the English who openly embrace all of the countries that make up the Kingdom and get hurt time and time again by the rejection of the countries around them.

Let's go back and talk about the part of our nationality that I said I love. The part where we come together warmly for National events like the football. The English ALWAYS support the Scottish, the Welsh and even the Irish in International sporting events. Only when we are playing against each other does this support disappear. The Scottish go out of their way to support anyone else, including Britain's biggest sporting enemy, the Germans. Then let's talk about the Royal Wedding. Maybe it's the media that create this image but for me looking at the wedding from another country it was the English that were in the news getting excited. Well, them and the Americans. Even in France when overhearing conversations post the wedding I listened to the French saying they had got pleasure in watching the English celebrate and that it was nice to see. The English. They never refer to us as the British. We are Grande Bretagne but no one has a clue that we are anything other than English. And that is where it is important to recognise the FOUR countries that make up our United lands. The English and the Scottish and the Welsh and the Northern Irish are not the same people. We are cousin-ed and very similar but we have vital differences. Some of these come from ancient battles and disagreements but those are deep felt and should be respected. It is easy for the English to support the other Nations in their Kingdom because their independence and their identity has never been threatened. We used to be three Kingdoms on one Island and the English monarch eventually won and stole the other lands. Look at our long history with the French to see how these old wounds don't heal easily even when you surrender the land as we did with our French counterparts. But for the Scottish, Welsh and as has been actively demonstrated by the Northern Irish this marriage was forced and has never been agreed to. I don't take it personally that the Scottish might want complete independence. I can understand it in the same way that I would be horrified if we adopted the Euro. I want to be European and I want to be British but at no point do I not want to also be English and embrace all the things that means. I am proud of my country and I am proud of the countries that surround it and I love the four that make up my Kingdom. But I acknowledge and celebrate the differences and in the way that I can appreciate another football teams greatness and have warm feelings for them, no football team has my heart and soul the way Liverpool do. And no country can have my heart and soul the way England does. If it was a battle between those four countries I would and do chose England (sporting events are luckily the only place this decision has shown itself so far). I am British but first and foremost I am English and that is not the same thing as Scottish or Welsh. Damn it, within England we still like to keep the distinction between Northern and Southern. These traditions are part of the make up and residue from our ancient internal battles. They make us who we are. And we are all great. Northern, Southern, Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish. We are Great Britain. But we are not only Great Britain. And one of the greatest parts of Britain is that we are open to change. No one is excluded from our lands, all we ask is that you respect the eccentricity that makes us us. And we want your own type of eccentricity here. Just don't tell me I am not English. I am. And the Scottish are Scottish, the Welsh are Welsh and the Northern Irish are neither Irish nor English. Let's face that elephant whilst we are at it. Because here is an example of the fights this force to be something you are not can cause. I would love Northern Ireland to be given back to Ireland. Not because I don't want them to be part of Britain but because I know nothing about their day to day life or culture. I know more about the Irish as a Nation than I do about the Northern Irish so what bloody right does my country have in determining their policies? Although, they can count themselves lucky to have been British in amongst the Euro debacle. Perhaps that is the real reason the fighting stopped. The only thing I understand about the conflict in Northern Ireland is that it started between British immigrants and Irish natives and it is still unresolved. I don't want the rest of Britain to follow this example and fight, let's just be United as individuals. Whatever is wrong with that?