Is anyone proud to be British these days?

[silentP]

I suppose the acid test would be, given the choice and before any allegiance had formed, which country would you choose to live in?

[Supertramp]

I suppose the acid test would be, given the choice and before any allegiance had formed, which country would you choose to live in?

 

Not really. That's not pride.

 

I'm not sure why anyone is proud to be from a certain country. I'm not sure how you can feel pride for being born somewhere.

 

I just don't get it.

[silentP]

Not really. That's not pride.

 

I'm not sure why anyone is proud to be from a certain country. I'm not sure how you can feel pride for being born somewhere.

 

I just don't get it.

 

Nor do I really. I'm proud of some of the things we do and less so of how we behave at times but I don't think I've ever hated being English.

[Supertramp]

Nor do I really. I'm proud of some of the things we do and less so of how we behave at times but I don't think I've ever hated being English.

 

I don't hate it but don't feel pride in other people's achievements either unless I know them.

[Ms Macbeth]

I'm firmly in the 'being proud of an accident is utterly ridiculous' camp.

I'm glad I live here though.

 

---------- Post added 20-06-2017 at 06:17 ----------

 

 

How can you be proud of something that's pure chance?

I think the word you're looking for is lucky.

 

I agree. I'm glad I spent the first twenty odd years of my life in Scotland, and I'm enjoying being in Sheffield. I feel lucky to live in a fairly safe, moderately wealthy country.

 

I'm proud of my children and their achievements, I'm proud I stopped smoking. I can only be proud of something where I may have had some influence. I'm a British citizen, and I always thought I was ethnically Scottish til I was given a DNA test as a gift. Turns out my genetic roots are 47% British, 27% Irish, and the rest European and Scandinavian. I think we should all find out, it might remove some unfounded prejudices. ��

[*_ash_*]

I agree. I'm glad I spent the first twenty odd years of my life in Scotland, and I'm enjoying being in Sheffield. I feel lucky to live in a fairly safe, moderately wealthy country.

 

I'm proud of my children and their achievements, I'm proud I stopped smoking. I can only be proud of something where I may have had some influence. I'm a British citizen, and I always thought I was ethnically Scottish til I was given a DNA test as a gift. Turns out my genetic roots are 47% British, 27% Irish, and the rest European and Scandinavian. I think we should all find out, it might remove some unfounded prejudices. ��

 

I've seen these advertised, and not sure whether worth it or not. Is this all the info you get from them?

 

(not sure whether worth waiting a few years until a larger database of people might give more accuracy)

[Michael_W]

I agree. I'm glad I spent the first twenty odd years of my life in Scotland, and I'm enjoying being in Sheffield. I feel lucky to live in a fairly safe, moderately wealthy country.

 

I'm proud of my children and their achievements, I'm proud I stopped smoking. I can only be proud of something where I may have had some influence. I'm a British citizen, and I always thought I was ethnically Scottish til I was given a DNA test as a gift. Turns out my genetic roots are 47% British, 27% Irish, and the rest European and Scandinavian. I think we should all find out, it might remove some unfounded prejudices. ��

 

It is human nature to be bias and prejudiced, people are tribal, always have been and we naturally align ourselves to groups, family, friends, colleagues, village, town, city, county, region, neighbourhood, football team, religion, ethnicity, sexuality, politics etc etc. There is no such thing as unfounded prejudices just prejudices, but some are more opposed and divisive than others and they will always be that way IMHO, regardless of whatever la la land utopia some think it can be. Rightly or wrongly people can be proud of what they want to be like everything else it's just opinion ..... something else we are biased and prejudiced about

[hobinfoot]

I'm proud to be British. I've traveled a lot and enjoyed the people & cultures in the countries visited. But I love to get back home to this country.

[Andy1976]

I wouldn't say 'proud'.

 

I'm proud of my daughter, and of some of the things I've achieved in life, but I'm not proud as such to live here.

 

Too many pluses and minuses. I love the English countryside, I like some of the people, I like the music and arts, but equally I despise the chav types, those whose only contribution is to cause damage and harm, I despise the current trend for literally insulting your friends due to political persuasion, and many more things.

 

There are many positives of the UK, and many negatives. Living in this country and having been born here don't make me proud as such.

 

Plus our national football team is hopeless.

[sgtkate]

I'm not proud to be British as I'm only British by nature of the location of my birth, however, I am still mostly proud of Britain. We in general are still one of the most open and liberal countries in the world, we are excellent at sport for our size consistently punching well above our weight, we give more to charity per capita (both government aid and public donations) than any other country.

 

However, there are things we've started to do lately that I'm less proud of, our involvement in Iraq and Syria based on lies have caused untold suffering, our NHS is still looked upon by the world with envy but we don't value it or appreciate it enough to help it save itself, our police force is having to police by force increasingly rather than by consent etc. I still think we are one of the best countries in the world to live in but that doesn't mean we should rest on our laurels. We should always strive for better.

 

Other countries I'd be proud to say I was a part of would be Sweden, Denmark and Norway. All have more socialist and caring societies from the outside, but knowing someone who moved to Sweden for work, they've said it's a v insular society and they've found it nearly impossible to make friends even though they speak the language well enough. Grass is always greener huh?