This is my idea of England and responds to a podcast where Konstantin Kison and Fraser Nelson, a Russian and a Scot, discussed how you get to be English
Nicely written. But dismissing DNA seems silly to me.
England wasn't created by random citizens of the globe. It was created by the mixture of Northern European peoples who *lived here on this land*- the Angles, Saxons, Vikings, Celts.
England hasn't been invaded since 1066 (and the Normans came in pretty small numbers), and pre-1945 it had tiny levels of immigration. That made for an extremely stable population for at least 1,000 years - a long time.
In other words the English, pretty self-evidently, evolved as a very distinct ethnic group that's existed on one island for centuries. However distasteful the subject is in polite circles, it seems to me that our genetics are highly significant.
That doesn't mean that small numbers of outsiders can't integrate and 'become English' in the cultural sense. They have in the past. But that's because they were *very small numbers*, and no other options were available to them. We're way, way past that situation now.
Englishness comes with a collection of habits and pleasures that we share. Visitors from other countries should be welcome to come and share in our culture and our Englishness too. They can even bring along a song or a chicken tikka masala of their own to share with us and we'll eventually call those English as well.
I think it's unfortunate, though, when people come to share our land but not our culture and I wrote a little more about this here:
History: Angles were the first migrating Germanic tribes who moved across Northern Europe - probably because of climate change - settling what is now Scandinavia, Holland and crossing the North Sea to settle what is now Northumberland, East Anglia and Midlands/Mercia.
Collectively the Anglecynn - Angle folk or English folk. These gave Anglaland, Englaland or England its name.
The English are a now a mix of the Angled, Saxons, Jutes, Danish Vikings and Celts and are a distinct group which developed distinct characteristics among which the Common Law.
Very good. My father always describes himself as English not British though he wouldn't pass the Konstan Kisin test being of Polish Jewish heritage.
Absolutely my point.
Nicely written. But dismissing DNA seems silly to me.
England wasn't created by random citizens of the globe. It was created by the mixture of Northern European peoples who *lived here on this land*- the Angles, Saxons, Vikings, Celts.
England hasn't been invaded since 1066 (and the Normans came in pretty small numbers), and pre-1945 it had tiny levels of immigration. That made for an extremely stable population for at least 1,000 years - a long time.
In other words the English, pretty self-evidently, evolved as a very distinct ethnic group that's existed on one island for centuries. However distasteful the subject is in polite circles, it seems to me that our genetics are highly significant.
That doesn't mean that small numbers of outsiders can't integrate and 'become English' in the cultural sense. They have in the past. But that's because they were *very small numbers*, and no other options were available to them. We're way, way past that situation now.
That's wonderful! Thank you, Simon.
Englishness comes with a collection of habits and pleasures that we share. Visitors from other countries should be welcome to come and share in our culture and our Englishness too. They can even bring along a song or a chicken tikka masala of their own to share with us and we'll eventually call those English as well.
I think it's unfortunate, though, when people come to share our land but not our culture and I wrote a little more about this here:
https://raggedclown.substack.com/p/cultural-loss
History: Angles were the first migrating Germanic tribes who moved across Northern Europe - probably because of climate change - settling what is now Scandinavia, Holland and crossing the North Sea to settle what is now Northumberland, East Anglia and Midlands/Mercia.
Collectively the Anglecynn - Angle folk or English folk. These gave Anglaland, Englaland or England its name.
The English are a now a mix of the Angled, Saxons, Jutes, Danish Vikings and Celts and are a distinct group which developed distinct characteristics among which the Common Law.