Define Britishness

[Lt Kije]

Read this article, wondered if anyone had other ideas

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17218635

[Peter T]

Read this article, wondered if anyone had other ideas

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17218635

 

Did he get paid for writing that??? He's off his trolley.

 

By the way, what's a "Jimmy wig"?

 

LT. you need to find something better to read of a weekend.

[Lt Kije]

I see you were careful not to give your ideas of Britishness Peter, for the record I have no idea what a Jimmy wig is

[Eagle]

A Jimmy Wig is an item of Scottish Headgear and is a tartan Tam O'Shanter with red hair attached. Russ Abbot's "See You Jimmy" sported one.

[Lt Kije]

Thanks Eagle

[observer]

There's a prog on CH4, about a TV integration experiment in Bradford. They visited a Stately home to sample our history, and it was amusing to watch the black members surprise that there were no pictures of folk of African origin in any of the paintings - seems they must have thought Afro-Brits have been here since we became an Island. Perhaps a knowledge of our history, and indeed the history of the human race, would be a good start to knowing who we are?

[Lt Kije]

The people of African origin were used as slave labour Obs, and Britain grew rich on their labour and by selling them :!:

[Peter T]

A Jimmy Wig is an item of Scottish Headgear and is a tartan Tam O'Shanter with red hair attached. Russ Abbot's "See You Jimmy" sported one.

 

 

Thanks Quiz man.

[asperity]

The people of African origin were used as slave labour Obs, and Britain grew rich on their labour and by selling them :!:

 

 

Go back to the Middle Ages in this country and it was the native Britons who were used as slave labour by the Lords. Go further back in history it was the Romans who were doing the enslaving. You can't live in the past Lt Kije :wink:

[algy]

Slavery pre-dates written history and was practised on the African continent long before the white man set foot there, The British jumped on the 'band wagon' late in it's terrible history. Ancient Egypt, India, Greece, Rome, China, Japan were all nations using slaves in one form or another. Black slavery between antagonistic tribes existed in Africa long before the advent of the Portuguese in the 1400s. So as Asp indicated Lt, I don't think it is fair to hold the Brits up as being the only villains where slavery is concerned.

[Lt Kije]

Complete agree with asperity and alley,The British did not invent slavery, But it remains a fact that the British Empire was built using it. My post was a response to Observers, anyway we are getting off subject

 

Britishness for Obs is walking down a beach in white socks and Jesus boots with a hanky on his head.

[Dizzy]

[observer]

Your all over the place Kije: slavery was common place in history, and not restricted to black Africans; Moorish Pirates in Stuart times raided the British coast and took white folk as slaves. And btw, the reason for the African slave trade, was to secure labour to work the farms of Virginia and the Carribean, as whites couldn't handle work in the hot climate. The ships then brought tobacco etc back to Bristol/Liverpool etc, making the rich gentry even richer. The bulk of present day West Indian blacks came here in the 1950s in a response to labour shortages and cos they'd been granted British passports. It's important to know where you've been, in order to decide where your going!

[algy]

Not sure what Britishness is any more, it used to be, having a weeks holiday by the seaside, elevenses (cup of tea), Kick of at 3 pm. - meaning football matches, not fights, croquet, cricket on the village green, sat morning matinee, courting a girlfriend, going down the local and buying your mates a round and playing darts, respecting family values and looking after your elders, kids playing out and making there own enjoyment, I could go on and on but to me I don't think Britishness is easy to define any more.

[Cleopatra]

Britishness = walking along Blackpool seafront wearing a kiss me quick hat, eating fish and chips wrapped in newspaper.

 

That was in years goneby.

 

Today, britishness = scantily clad drunken young girls teetering barefoot down the street, puking as they go or lying legless in the gutter. Drunken young yobs fighting.

[Lt Kije]

As I said Obs, the British did not invent slavery, but alot of empire money came from it, by the way Obs have you been watching the program on the empire by Jeromy Paxman. It does not make the British look good.

 

Back to subject

[observer]

So what's your point Kije; slavery or wage slavery; the capitalist system is built on it; it's all about exploitation of people and natural resources for the enrichment of the few. Empires are based on exploitation, that's how they get rich and afford the technology to maintain the number one spot - that's history. But your question was about Britishness; and I'm suggesting that without a sense of who/what we've been in the past, we have little chance of arriving at a concept of what we are now or will be in the future.

[algy]

Nice to see you two sparring again!, it was becoming quite boring while you were away Lt. :grin:

[Dizzy]

..... we thought it was but now we all realise how lucky we were and how boring things can really get

 

Only kidding Obs and Lt K or should I say 'Laurel and Hardy'

[Cleopatra]

Cannon & Ball more like.

[Lt Kije]

I see you a not denying the white socks and Jesus boots Obs, as usual it was you that bought colour of skin into the discussion I was just replying to your post

[observer]

Afraid I can't descend to your level of nonesense - with the white socks business - thought you asked a serious question; but then thought again!

[Lt Kije]

Nonsence

 

I think it was abiit to close to the bone,how come you have not answered the original question,what do you consider as Britishness.

 

I find it funny that someone who is always going on about immigration. Can not come up with a statement about what is means to be British.

[Mary]

Britishness "sprung into political and academic prominence" in the late-20th century, but its origins lie with the formation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. Although Britishness was used to refer to Britons collectively as early as 1682,historian Linda Colley asserts that it was after the Acts of Union 1707 that the citizens of Great Britain began to assume a "layered" identity—to think of themselves as simultaneously British but also Scottish, English, and/or Welsh. In this formative period, Britishness was "closely bound up with Protestantism". The Oxford English Dictionary Online dates the first known use of the term Britishness to refer to the state of being British to a June 1857 issue of Putnam's Monthly Magazine.

According to Wikki

[algy]

Cannon & Ball more like.

Girt & Daisy! :grin: