Who’s British

The Daily Mail has a story on the number of people in the UK who regard themselves as British and the numbers may surprise visitors who come here. British is the general term for the citizens of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, i.e the English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish.

England, Scotland and Wales have been in a Union since 1707 and Northern Ireland since 1800, but over the last few years, particularly since this current government introduced a Scottish Parliament in 1999 and the Welsh Assembly in 2003, many more people are describing themselves by what country they were born in.

Now only 44% of people in Britain want to be described as British, with 52% of people in England saying they see themselves English and the Scots are a massive 86% for being just Scottish. The Protestants in Northern Ireland are probably the most enthusiastic about being British because they hate the thought of joining the rest of Ireland.

Politicians are now worried about a build up of support in Scotland for total independence and even more about the seeming reaction of the English who say good riddance. The English view is influenced by the fact that Scots elect MPs to the Scottish Parliament where the English have no say and to the British Parliament at Westminster, where they can vote on things that only effect the English. And it doesn’t help that many of the leading members of the government such as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary, Defence Secretary are Scottish. They also had their noses put out at the census when just about the only category that wasn’t included was a box to tick English.

I think the government are only waking up to the fact that if they don’t start encouraging people to see themselves as British it could easily drift into fragmentation, with voters saying who cares, we’re run by the European Union anyway.