Ten reasons why England is great
It’s a tricky thing to say, because the English flag, St George’s Day and patriotism generally has long been hijacked by moron right-wingers, but isn’t England great?
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Shakespeare
Fittingly, his birthday is the same day as St George’s day, as he contributed so much to the richness of the English language - as well as doing his propaganda bit for unity under the Tudors by blackening the name of the last Plantagenet monarch and promoting feelings of English patriotism.
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London
Ah, London. Galleries. Theatres. Ethnic enclaves. Parliament and Big Ben, tourist traps, and carnivals; the Tube; Black taxis and red buses; medieval streets and hideous 1960s brutalist developments. Finest city in the World (if you don’t have to live there!)
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the English countryside
The English countryside is gorgeous. Across the Vale of Evesham in the spring, the beauty of the Yorkshire Moors, the Lake District, the Cornish coast, the Severn Valley in autumn, we don’t have towering mountains, glaciers, or rift valleys. The English countryside is varied, but moderate and dependable. Just like English people are.
Even the animals that populate our countryside are the same. You don’t get malaria from our bugs. We have no poisonous spiders, and no large animals which can eat you. Our single venomous snake - the Adder - is only as nasty as a wasp sting (and I’ve never seen one, ever).
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The Beatles, Stones, Sex Pistols and The Clash
For a small country, we’ve produced a lot of world-changing music. We rock. Nothing more to say.
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Broadway, Henley
They’re chocolate box-perfect English towns. They’re a bugger to live in, as you can’t put a nail in the wall without someone from the local Council making sure you’re not damaging the character of the area, but they’re damn gorgeous. There are houses in Henley that are older than many countries.
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Pubs and proper beer
Pubs - not bars. They don’t need to be all thatched roof or horsebrasses. They don’t need to be picturesque, but do need to be authentic rather than brewery-mandated “English Pub Experience”. They need a sense of community, a character behind the bar, some grumpy regular drinkers, proper beer and probably a resident dog.
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Food
People think English food is just fish and chips or curry - and there’s nothing wrong with either of those. But real English food can’t be beaten, and is rarely encountered by visitors. Take great cuts of meat, fresh vegetables like parsnips, sprouts, roast them all and lightly season, serve with a rich gravy and a pint of proper beer and you’ve got the best Sunday family meal in the world.
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World War 2
We English bang on about the war a bit, it’s true - but it’s because it’s deeply embedded in our psyche. OK, it was sixty years ago, but the reason it stays there is because, for a couple of years until the yanks could be arsed to help out, England and our Gaelic cousins Scotland, Ireland, Wales stood alone: we mobilised our entire workforce, turned civilian factories to making armaments, ploughed up parks to grow food on, and tore down metal railings as raw material to make guns.
We evacuated our children, split up our families and sacrificed our men, while the rest of the world sat on their hands or laid down their arms, because fascism so repelled us. And why shouldn’t we be proud of that?
Jan 2 2007: It’s been pointed out to me that I may not know my history, and the UK may not have stood alone in quite the way I wrote. So don’t listen to what I say…
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The National Health Service
I’m always astonished when I read that in other, allegedly civilised countries, health care is based on ability to pay. God knows, our NHS isn’t perfect, but get this: if you fall sick in the UK you will get treatment of the highest possible quality that the NHS can provide, free at the point of delivery, regardless of whether you’re a millionaire or a vagrant. Now that’s a civilised idea.
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Jane Austen and George Orwell
Both used the English language perfectly to celebrate and satirise the England that they loved. Orwell, in particular, is a hero of mine with his fierce promotion of clarity of language, his love of fairness and his defence of the weak. I reckon he should be the eponymous St George today.
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English people
I’ve a mix of Scottish and English extraction with a dash of Italian too. My wife is a naturalised Brit, from Thailand, so my kids are utter mongrels, which is itself quintessentially English. Everybody is mixed race here.
We live next door to Naz, a British-born muslim of Pakistani background, and our other neighbours are the Murphys, of Irish descent. Across the road are the Singhs and the Cohens and the Smiths. It’s a crappy grubby urban English proper street, full of proper English people.
Hurray for England. Have a good St George’s day.
52 Responses to “ Ten reasons why England is great ”
Heh, one of the terms coined by Shakespeare listed in that link is “accessible”.
Amen to the NHS. It’s really hard to imagine living in a country without one.
Great minds think alike! (We’ll ignore the corollary about fools…).
I was just trying to decide what to put for my St George’s day post when I came across your ‘ten things I like’ concept.
So here’s my 10 Things For England And St George.
Sometimes people make their point, throw their teddies, wag their finger….. shout the odds. You chose to emphasise your view with a beautiful overview of the soul of England.
You have made this sceptic isle sound like I actually want to live here. Bruce, you are indeed a poet. My forelock is indeed caressed in adoration for such a review.
(The duck thing was a mistake though!!!!!)
Happy St George’s - may your pint never be empty.
Amen to the NHS. It makes a huge contribution to equality and fairness.
In Belgium we have a state health insurance system which re-imburses at set rates. Middle income people think it’s fantastic, and get truly excellent and rapid healthcare. But when you have a problem finding GBP 15 to take your kid to the GP (you have to pay up front and get partly refunded after), you’d really want to be in England.
Love your list Bruce - reminds me of why, although always yearning to be elsewhere, at the end of the day this is a cracking place to live - as long as your local isn’t an All Bar 1 or some other crap ‘cool’ bar.
Just when I needed reminding why I love England so much, I pass your wonderful page… Thanks Bruce! Miss you and the family every single day. Tons of love Pipx
Nice list, but come on — how can anyone be proud of a war with a death toll of over 50 million people???
You may passibly pass yourself off as English (though I think the term Briton would be more accurate) but your kids aren’t. I am not being horrible but merely stating a fact.
Thais are Thais. They aren’t Britons and they certainly aren’t English Britons.
Bollocks to that Steven. My kids are English, even though they’ve grown up entirely in Belgium, attended Belgian schools and have Belgian mates. That’s not because they have English forebears through many generations, but because identity is constructed (and continually reconstructed) not determined by blood.
I never said there was a difference. Personally, I’ve always defined myself as a Briton. I don’t approve of loony-lefties saying everyone in the world is British when they patently aren’t. This is why we have Islamic extremism in our country with innocent members of the public blown-up on the Tube. It is high time we stopped immigration otherwise we will become a dispised minority in our own land.
It’s all been downhill since we let those damn Saxons in from Germany. Send the Anglo-Saxons back to the Continent, keep Britain for the Celts!
No one makes comedy or even laughs like the English.
Excuse me?
England and our Gaelic cousins Scotland, Ireland, Wales stood alone ???
I wonder then, how did Australia and New Zealand lose over 40000 soldiers in this conflict?
Lest we forget.
Not to mention the Canadians, Indians, Gurkhas, Poles, South Africans etc. who fought the Germans in North Africa and the Middle East. Often armed with American tanks and equipment too.
I do wonder, if European fascism so repelled us, how come Franco stayed in power for so long.
Anyway, at this time of year spare a thought for the 80,000+ US soldiers killed fighting the Nazis in the Ardennes at xmas 1944.
The bulldog spirit got us through the Blitz, but I do think the English view of the war tends to denigrate the contributions of everyone who fought.
Better than being a dumbarse. LOL Thanks for the amendment…..Good man, even.
Oops, that 80,000 in my comment should actually be 20,000. My bad.
Feel free to pour scorn on the Vichy French, by the way. They defended Lebanon and Syria like lions, fighting against us (and the Aussies). Fought valiantly, then bravely refused to join the Free French after they surrendered in 1941. If only they’d remembered how to fight like that a year earlier, thus saving the rest of us a lot of trouble liberating them.
Bruce, sorry, your kids aint english and i should know, i fought in the war and trust me. The french aint worth shit in my book. there all cowards and the yankees aint any better. please, vote for the BNP. My great grandson is starting colledge, he wants to be a plumber ( great british job ) but , polish people have most of the plumbing industry, and any other industry really. Bring england back to its good old days. where men could wave a england flag without hispanics gunning them down, and they could make a comment on other cultures without being arrested, and we didnt have to wait for ever for some god-damn foriner in asda try to count our money , then short change us. Long Live the queen.
Hell yeah colin, The french are pricks, The yankees are all overweight and the god damned polish are invade britain and takeing all our jobs
They think they can come over to our contry and take our jobs and eat our food. Hell no, The time will come where they will all just mysteriously dissappear.
Ironic to see such enlightened attitudes, really, considering that the Poles fought in the Battle of Britain to keep narrow-minded racists from invading England in 1940. Mind you, before that people like Colin would have been complaining about Paddies (like my grandad) coming over and taking all the building jobs, to be sure.
Here’s a moving video about people who are frightened by a world in which not everyone is exactly like them.
I’m sorry but being English is being English. The pakis and others that come over to our country are NOT English. They don’t give a shit about this country and are taking it downhill. Vote BNP! And get this country back to the way it is meant to be. I may sound racist but nowadays everything is, including wanting the best for your country. Long live England and Britain.
my goodness, what a terrible country! we welcome with open arms those from less developed places and help them (and their families) live a better life; we tolerate free speech - including words spoken by those who would condemn people from other races or people who have a parent from another race; we have a health care service that treats the sick; we have a library service that feeds the mind for free; we have an education system that strives to eradicate inequality on the grounds of opportunity … Those of you who complain, have you ever lived abroad? do you know what it’s like in much of the world? Please, feel free to move to find your nirvana; just let the rest of us get on with appreciating how much we have to celebrate.
Funny how you guys can rave about WWII and foreigners in your country all together in one melting pot. Is there any connection the world around you is not aware of? Or are you focused on the past, not realizing that we have severe other problems?
Anyway: it pisses me off to see how degenerated the discussion is (I do really mean the people discussing) and my strong suggestion is: use the short time when your economy is up to focus on the betterment of your own future.
Kindest regards to all the retarded 50′es minds
Funny
couldn’t agree more - especially with the last one.
As per usual I’m made to feel ashamed of wanting to celebrate all that is good about England and Englishness by the small minded minority who want to align it with Fascism and the BNP.
I’ll ignore the ignorant pricks above and celebrate today in the same way that the Irish celebrate St Patrick’s day - with a smile and a few pints with the melting pot that is my local pub.
I am not white or English, but I love England! Never have I felt so great in a white country being a foreigner!
Long Live England!!
PS But mainland Europe sucks. Fascists.
bruce, your kids are definately english!
if they were born or raised in england, they are english. i myself have french, german irish (and obvs english) ancestors - but im still 100% english!
great country!!
Look you ignorent twats. If both your parents are english then you are english. If both your parents are dutch/french/chinese/any bloody race then so are YOU! Now listen carefully cos this is where some of you retards will get confused. If you were born and spent your whole life in Norway but your parents are German, then you are German. If you were born in south africa but your parents are japanese then you are japanese. Its in you blood NOT your upbringing, yes! growing up in south africa might make you talk/act like a south african, but you are not.
Ok so if your mum is swedish and your dad is english this makes you mixed race and therefore half english and half swedish. A friend of mine has an italian father and and english mother, he has spent all his life in england but considers himself italian therefore denying half of his heritage, his mothers.
Now you may be thinking “what if my mum is half irish and my dad is scotish?” then you are 3 quarters scotish and 1 quarter irish. This is simple maths people!!!
I my self have an english mother and a father who is a quarter irish, this then makes me and my siblings a third irish (tho i hate to admit it)
So i hope we are all clear now that you cant choice wat you are, the 2 people that come together (excuse pun) to give life to you with there own blood is wat makes you you.
Shame about some of the comments on here.
One important thing re: the pub - beer needs to be served room temperature, not cold!
I stand corrected, one eighth it is.
Thing is bruce if you wish to look that far back then you may as well go all the way back to the dawn of man where youll realise that we are all the same, we all belong to the same atoms.
Nature is built up of atoms that join and seperate. A hydrogen atom at the end of your nose could at one point have been part of an elephants trunk. A carbon atom in your cardiac muscle could even at one point been part of a dinosaur.
So you see if you insist in looking that far down the human race blood line, you will see that we all built up of the same atomic structure anyway. My point was that by defanition of national boundries in the modern world one must be identified by ones parents genes.
I hope this makes sense.
Jon
Although i disagree with Jon’s tone I think he has a point. If a person is born in Britain with parentage that is obviously non-white then the sibling will probably relate him or herself as being ethnically “Asian” or “Black” etc..
For example you may have third or fourth generation Indian’s that were born in England, have British nationality and only speak English. However, they will probably consider themselves British by nationality but Indian by ethnicity.
For mixed races if the apperance of the sibling is obviously say Asian or Black then they “may” choose to identify themselves with that particular part of their parentage.
For black people in the UK it must be quite difficult as so many (on speaking with them) do not really know their true lineage. Therefore they are simply part of the “Black” community. That must be tough not having true roots on which to base yourself.
For the most part, those of us that are Caucasian born from any parentage in the UK will simply consider ourselves as British. Why is that? Well, simply beacuse being Caucasian fits into what is considered the “norm” in Britain.
I would like to believe that that as a nation we are not racist. One thing I belive is mistaken for racism is simply noticing a difference between people by there appearance. I think that this is normal and it happens Worldwide. I myself have lived in England, Sweden, Dubai travelling around all of the Middle East, Tanzania, and now here in Thailand. Everywhere I have ever been I am “noticed” for my being white. Or should I say noticed for apearing different than the masses around me.
I too am married to a Thai National and my Children hold both English and Thai nationality. So, what are they? I would say that if they end up growing up here in Thailand then they will be Thai. If we go back to the UK and they grow up there then they will be British.
In my humble opinion, being British means that you grow up surrounded by Britain and all that happens in Britain.
Lastly, and more to the point, another reason England is great is it’s history and what the people of England have produced. i.e. Newton, Darwin, Fleming (both Alexander and Ian), Farady, Kelvin, Watt, Shakespeare, Dickens, to name but just a few. England is brilliant and i am certainly most proud to be English and British.
BTW: I can trace my lineage back to 1225 so by Jon’s definition I must fit in to what is truly English? or…?
Ok, A. Fleming & Watt were Scottish, and Kelvin was Irish. But I’m still proud to be English!!
I love the Uk so much….. have decided I will only marry a pom…. nothing less for me.. !!
but alot of people are sayin on this page that the foreigners are comin over and taking all the jobs.what about all the british people who are emigrating to australia and canada????
bruce you have put 10 brilliant points up but can u stop being a smartarse because no one likes a smartarse.
britian had so many inspiring people
winston chruchill
florence nightingale
jane austin
lord nelson
robert burns
oliver cromwell
brunel
william wallace
ronnie barker
chris columbus
also britian invented lots of important things and started the industrial revelotion. invented most sports and laws.
also we have the best army in the world, not the biggest and havent got the most money but we have the british bull dog spirit, stiff uper lip and cool under crisis.
we have the best enlite force in the world - the SAS alot of other elite forces are trained by the SAS like the amrican marines and the russisnd
we was the first country in the world to have the police, trains, eletricity, sewages - toilets
we have the best musicians and bands the world has ever seen - the beatles THE CLASH the who THE ROOLING STONES elton john THE KINKS- oasis
we help other counties out wen their in need
and we do and have done so many more things but i really cannot be arsed to write them down.
BTW IN MY 3RD COMMENT I PUT THAT THE YANKS did help us, 2 years INTO the ww2 but i pisses me off wen they say ‘you wouldnt of won the war without our help’ because that is true.I PUT TRUE BUT I MEANT IT ISNT TRUE
just one more thing i need to say
Rule Britania!
Britannia rule the waves.
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.
I was wandering about and bumped into this site somehow… I think Bruce may have been referring to the Battle Of Briton, which was near the beginning of WWII. We were sort of alone. The US were keeping out of things, isolationists. They really didn’t want to get involved. They saw it as someone else’s problem until Pearl Harbor. There were many many countries and peoples who joined the fight. We may well have been scuppered if it wasn’t for the contribution from the Poles etc. Just one more comment: A lot of people forget the contribution from the people of the Caribbean, which perfectly illustrates the nonsense spoken by some contribitors to this type of debate. A very pleasant read about this, in novel form, is Small Island by Andrea Levy. Have a nice weekend.
DOH! Battle of Britain!
hah, only now caught up with the racist twunts that seem to have found a home in your comment box. it’s like reading spEak You’re bRanes
In England, already there are not even real english people.
Hurrah for St George’s day indeed.
Pubs - What makes a pub a pub is the smell. …sweat, stale beer, peanuts. Mmmm.
WW2 - difficult to forget this massive event when everywhere you go there are memorials to the brave people who sacrificed themselves so we can have the life we lead now. Also it’s no uncommon to find buildings left as lasting reminders - take St Andrew’s in Plymouth for example.