So the other day Vinny Jones ( can’t believe he’s the
reason I’m posting this ) says that he can’t recognise England, it’s all diluted, if you blindfolded someone
landed them at a national airport they wouldn’t know which country they were in blahh bllah….I
guess he’s trying to say England is losing its identity….Perhaps… Let’s take
Vinny Jones for a second, born in Watford, played for Wimbledon (fair enough)
represented Wales at International Level, is an expat or immigrant (depending on if he comes back or not) living in USA and has
the cheek to have a pop at immigrants in England?
Have a look at
this:
The link shows a list of the Indigenous people for every
continent and country. Nick Griffin wants England for the ‘indigenous’ people
of England…they are who exactly? What is a true British or English person? Apparently the
EDL, BNP and probably UKIP lot will say it’s a white fella in a bowler hat,
carrying a newspaper, drinking tea and having a roast for dinner. But essentially white people didn’t just
spring up in parts of Britain one morning; they had to have come from somewhere
right? So let’s see what good old Wiki
has to say about invasions of Britain:
So we have the following invasions:
Roman
Germanic / Anglo Saxon
Viking
Danish
French
A lot of foreigners coming over here taking our land it
seems? Lots
of invasions, people mixing, living together, building a life a town, city etc
etc and this is how things were and have been (Sounds Familiar doesn't it) I won’t go into race and colour
here but most of these invaders were white so it stands to reason that the
natives that Vinny Jones or EDL/BNP/UKIP goes on about would be white. However
lets pin down on effect, people came from other countries and settled here, and
continued to live here. I’m sure the average Joe Bloggs British guy could trace
his roots back to one of the list above, so he’s not English as such he’s probably
German or Roman but not 'Indigenous' English…ahhh but he’s white so it’s ok he’s English
really we won’t go too far back that will just confuse stuff let’s just call
him English coz he looks it. Here’s a look at the history of the People of
Britain :
Some quotes that stick out for me; "Throughout recorded history the island has consisted of multiple cultural groups and identities" and "...in reality Britain has always been home to multiple peoples" food for thought I think.
Let’s shift forward a good chunk to the 1930’s/50’s/70’s and present day. People
from the Caribbean, Africa, India, far east all came over to the England, probably didn’t
invade like the Romans/ Anglo Saxons/ Vikings etc did but came in search of
work mainly. Britain ruled the world and allowed all those that they rules to have a British
passport, thus allowing them to come here and live and work. I was in a shop
the other day and a shop attendant was doing a tax return for a relative, he
didn’t understand how a guy living abroad could have a British passport. That
shop attendant probably didn’t go to school much or know how the commonwealth
works…he’s the future!... I digress!
So…yes…loads of foreigners came over just like before,
lived here and opened shops, worked on train platforms, worked as porters in
hospital, build houses and some even were doctors and nurses...they eventually
had kids who were born here. Those kids became British. That’s how it worked
for them and that's how it worked for those descendants of the Romans/ Anglo
Saxons/ Vikings etc the difference is the kids born to Indians or African were
a different colour so distinguishable as “not from round here”
The problem about being British or English is that we
don’t really have that national pride thing going on very well..we aren’t flag
wavers and don’t buy British products exclusively we like the sound of being
British but are happy to buy foreign products and eat foreign food. If you think
of the St George’s Cross you think of EDL/BNP…..it s a shame because that’s a
symbol of England, if I wear an England football shirt am I suddenly classed a
racist? No…but if you see a white shaven headed guy with tattoo’s wearing a St George's Cross T Shirt for example, the brown
fella walking the street near him would assume he’s EDL/BNP without being none
the wiser. It works both ways you see, everyone gets judged.
See the thing is for me, I was born here, my parents came to London from Kenya in
the mid 70’s they worked hard, paid their taxes, all their bills on time bought
a house and had me and my sister. We in turn went to school here, got an
education, fell in love with football and queuing and moaning about the
weather. I call myself British and English I support England at sporting events, England
gave me everything I have today, no other country did so I’m proud to be
English. However stand me next to those friendly guys from the BNP/EDL/UKIP and
suddenly I’m not English to them. I wasn’t English to the bullies I put up with
through most of the 80’s and I couldn’t understand why, I was born here and
lived here just like them, I only looked a different colour and had long hair.
Through the education England gave me I learnt that they too like me have
ancestors that came from foreign countries so I thought to myself what's the
bloody problem. In school I learnt about
the Harvest celebrations, sang Christian hymns and at home we celebrate
Christmas. I was brought up to appreciate other people’s customs and faiths without losing sight of my own. I like that I did that, I have diversity now, I’m
British/English too and maybe I’m the face of Britain as it is today? Maybe the face of
Britain is a mixture of all sorts, just as it was when all those invasions
happened. I’m just like the ‘indigenous’ people of England but a good few
hundred years behind them, they’ve had their ancestors come from abroad and
settle here and now are lots of generations in, in the claim to being English
or British. The Royal family are German, Brits that go abroad are expats but
people that come to Britain are called immigrants. I know an ex pat is someone
that lives abroad but hasn’t fully immigrated just there for work but tell that
to the large “expat” community in Spain…they haven’t come back here? It’s ok
when the shoe is on the other foot it seems. They don’t see it and until they and the likes of Vinny Jones do we will always have this issue about
immigration and who is in fact British.
This is an interesting link to a question asked about
“what does it mean to be British to you?”
Some varying opinions you’d agree but interesting to note
that there is a sense of pride in all those answers. The thing is people nowadays
travel all over and the world, choose to live all over and it’s a global
community, if no one moved around we’d all be ignorant of each other cultures
and ways of life…oh wait!
