My wife filled ours in, think she clicked English and British. She doesn't recall seeing European as an option online.

I’m not pro English explicitly but I was born in England so I just put English down. I feel like British is used generally by people who think “English” has a toxic quality.

Also hello. 

To me, saying I'm English has the same connotations as waving the St. George cross around. It feels like the sort of thing that's been co-opted by Nationalists.

Yeah I read it more as a "how do you feel" question. Hence didn't tick English. Which kinda made me sad about the UK maybe but being a thing anymore potentially invalidating that option.

I dare say I'll still feel British rather than English tho, who's to say...

Yeah someone I watch on Youtube was talking about the flag shagging stuff lately and made a really good point that as an english person, they struggled to identify what english culture actually is. 

They said they identified far more strongly with being from Yorkshire, than any sense of englishness, and that they felt a sense of britishness from being a member of a union of countries working together. 

I don't know if it's something that's specific to England because of how much of our history is basically getting gang banged throughout the ages by a continuing stream of people invading from europe and then the empire and the influx of people coming here from overseas that regional identity feels much stronger than national identity, or what, but I think they had a point. 

I certianly feel more British than I do English, I would also add European as well, but that it what it is now. I've sat and thought about it and I can't really put my finger on what Englishness is? What is our national identity? It's basically getting pissed up at the weekend, losing in the world cup, losing at tennis and then laying claim to large cooked breakfasts and fish and chips and boasting that Tikka Masala was invented here, I guess throw in spitfires, the world cup, and anything else from the first half of the 20th century we used to be good (but definitely massively exploited people to achieve) at because it's been lionised so hard to everyone when they do history at school ever since.

I think English culture is pretty identifiable really, class awareness, politeness, not wanting to make a scene, a lack of directness that comes from that, a strong sense of fair play (albeit a misplaced one when it comes to foreign policy), satire, sarcasm and innuendo (again linking back to that lack of directness), a certain level of stoicy, I could probably go on.

The reason that it has become a bit less clear is that after the act of Union there was a conscious decision to talk about British culture rather than English culture in an attempt at creating a more cohesive national identity.

Of course, what this really meant is that Englishness became pretty much synonymous with Britishness which meant that this managed to fail at creating a unified national identity and also served to kind of erase Englishness as an identity, which wasn’t really helped by racists claiming all of the symbols of Englishness back in the 70s.

I refuse to think about national identity any more.

I just put Other and None.

Yossarian wrote:

I think English culture is pretty identifiable really, class awareness, politeness, not wanting to make a scene, a lack of directness that comes from that, a strong sense of fair play (albeit a misplaced one when it comes to foreign policy), satire, sarcasm and innuendo (again linking back to that lack of directness), a certain level of stoicy, I could probably go on.

That's a pretty middle-class outlook in my experience, and because of all our Keiths and Karens I'd say a frequently false one.

English culture's splintered to reflect the projections of disparate parties, the splintered arse itself liable to be our truest reflection. Not having a pop at you, dude, I'm just a big old anti-nationalist these days.

As the world gets smaller we increasingly realise the ridiculousness of foreign stereotypes, while simultaneously wanting to cling onto the positives from ours.

Spitfires over Dover firing at Gaultier's onion bike.

Culture as a thing is somewhat restrictive by its need for definition, where for example it might be easier to find racist football fans in Spain than the UK nowadays (I mean probably not, but run with this), but then also leftwing voters.

With this ongoing (and often beneficial) dilution in mind, being near-exclusively proud of my country for selective deeds is needlessly self-limiting, as well as an invitation for others to take pride in all our shite (which of course many do anyway). I'd be okay with national pride if we were ready to accept our disgraces in tandem.

I'd agree we've identifiable class cultures, but from inequality lack a unified one.

There's been some noise recently about the authenticity of the Blitz spirit, since doubts have grown over the continued promotion of our assigned culture. The implication (or at least known reception) that such traits are white.

For sales they have. Paris; Buck Palace...

Still not sure where the pride part of the argument comes in, that’s not something I’ve been arguing.

And yeah, I expect that most national cultures in most countries will be mainly defined by the middle classes, they’ll be the ones with the loudest voices.

Out of curiosity, what do you see if you turn that lens on Scotland? Because from here it feels like Scotland does have a stronger sense of self-identity. Pragmatism, gallows-dark humour, and a welcoming attitude seem pretty consistent across classes and regions. There’s also the ease of comparing ourselves in opposition to England – talking about what we’re not is easier than defining what we are. And there’s the casual swearing. That’s a common thread too.

Changing topics, this put a smile on my face (NSFW).

https://twitter.com/mrnickharvey/status/1373955427998826496