Without seeming crass, with the whole of England's 2000 year history in mind, what is cerebrated that you would say is distinctly English? Not just one offs, but annually, that reflect the English identity?
I don't believe that we have any national celebrations that reflect our identity. We only celebrate such things as christmas and easter and halloween which are religiously related to our christianity. We do however celebrate on smaller scales two distinctly british things, one is May Day and involves a simple day off work for the majority whilst rural communities tend to hold fetes which incorporate maypole dancing which i had fun in learning at primary school. The second is Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes however you want to call it and is a british thing. The meaning for most celebrations have been disassociated in replace of simple entertainment and in Valentines Day's case commerce.
In New Zealand there is a government agency where if there is no New Zealanders 'able' to do the job advertised, only then can you employ a foreigner, I think England would benefit greatly from such a system.
We already have positive discrimination which i class this example as and we may well go there in the future but i don't like the idea of positive discrimination although a nation should be operating to sustainability before adding more to the mix i guess
Preserving a culture and cultural identity are similar but different things. When the amalgamation of other principle cultures becomes your culture, though the cultures you integrate with retain their own identity without reciprocation, then what is your identity? Does it mean to be English, you pick and choose from other cultures what you might while yours is rejected?
This seems another dangerous slippery slop to me. Do you know some schools in England have English as a second language only? Did you know the mayor of Slough at one point couldn't speak English at all? Did you know the introduction of sharea law to some parts of England was discussed? That some councillors feared Christmas in a Christian nation would cause such offence to it's ethic residence they wanted to rename it Wintersmass as not to be seen as offending other cultures?
In the history of the UK we have been invaded by just about everybody since the days when we as a people were seperated as different tribes, it was really only after the roman invasions that natives decided to come together to tackle cultures which have left their mark and influenced our progression, the english language is a hefty mix of european words/variants as well as latin, the romans built our first roads, the vikings built some of our first villages and roman and viking names form the basis of our adapted cities/town names. The english have compared to some european cultures not existed as a unified people. The Greeks, Italians and Scandinavians have a longer history and been able to defend them pretty well.
I don't see anything that if it is english culture that is good should be kept to ourselves or anything and we have already exported a few sports such as rugger and cricket. There are hundreds of italian restaurants in the uk but only 1 in Italy did you know that, i think this is because of preservation or maybe contentment not to move abroad.
What culture do you have in New Zealand that make you stand out from the Australians?
What are the English progressing towards? Whatever it is, they are doing it quietly and without objection, in my opinion.
My fear is that while a multitude of cultures may reside in England, which does ultimately enrich a nations development, although not exactly harmoniously at times, the English will only be identified, in England, as your average Jeremy Kyle guest.
Jeremy kyle is like marmite and the majority i know don't like him or his show which takes the underclass as its substanance. The average audience member i could only assume is made up of the lowest classes that have nothing better to do or love watching misery.
I find that distressing.
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