The British are a wonderfully understated people. When I’m asked what I associate with the United Kingdom, things such as tea, football, and the phrase ‘yeah, not too bad thanks’ immediately spring to mind. The context behind being ‘not too bad’ seems to matter little. Whether it’s their wedding day or mother’s funeral, you can rest assured that a Brit will remain largely noncommittal as to whether they are happy, sad, or indeed, actually ‘not too bad’.
But this poses the question of what it truly means to be British -are we defined by the traditional values of democracy, law, tolerance and liberty; or by the things we do which make us who we are?
On one hand, yes it would be nice to say that being British was synonymous with being tolerant and lawful, but when there are over 7 million reported crimes per annum this hardly seems a fair assessment of the situation at hand. After all, are criminals not British too? It strikes me that a far more honest approach to characterising the populace would be to stick to the very things we associate ourselves with.
Bad weather, the pub, keeping calm and carrying on.
It’s these often unspoken subtleties of the nation’s identity that form the foundation upon which the idea of Britishness is built. We thank the bus driver, inexplicably defend the pronunciation of scone, and keep a stiff upper lip no matter how we really feel because it’s in our nature. And it’s through this that the people themselves determine what it really means to be British, and certainly not through a prescribed set of idealistic principles.
To condense any nationality into a list of values would be an impossible task, as is sadly demonstrated by the British Citizenship Test (the exam which is supposed to definitively prove whether or not one is ready to become a British national), wherein ancient monarchs and their treaties, promptly forgotten by most upon stepping out of their Year 8 History class, claim to be the very substance of our identity.
So, one might be forgiven for asking whether it would actually be more appropriate to not ask about some long-forgotten historical figure, and instead pose the question: “You are in the hospital following a car accident, you are in great pain. How has your day been today?”.
It’s a simple enough question, with a simple enough answer: “Not too bad, thanks” -congratulations, you’ve passed! Anything else, sorry that’s the wrong answer, but do please come back in a few months.
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Jot & Scribble 