Whilst having a brief flick through Telegraph Online this lunchtime I came across a section where they had asked readers to state what being British meant to them (following the YouGov survey published in Tuesday's Telegraph).

There were views that ranged from one end of the spectrum to the other; some people thought being British was characterised by the country's, "faults and oddities" whilst others held the view that being British was about, "going to the pub on a Friday night for a well earned pint or two".

I quote my personal favourite in full below:

"The Office, Little Britain, Men Behaving Badly etc. That's British. Laughing at others knowing full well we are laughing at ourselves. From surviving the Blitz to sending a dustbin full of cobbled-together electronics to nose dive into Mars - to be British is to have an extraordinary sense of humour. It is the prerequisite to all our endeavours and the forge for all our views. It's how we survive failure and tragedy and how we celebrate victory. The media may have forgotten it, the Government may have legislated against it, but we ordinary surfs are still having a good laugh with it."

I feel a genuine affinity to my fellow Brit's view of this fair land. The Brits have a unique sense of humour that I have never encountered in any other country. Sure we have our problems; we may drink too much and we pay a lot for petrol but given the choice I would rather be in Britain than anywhere else. Britain encompasses a people with a quiet, reserved sense of patriotism. It's not overt and explicit like our American friends but it's most certainly present. We are a small but a great country steeped in history and tradition. Our majestic country has modern urban landscapes, wild untouched heath and a breathtaking coastline.
Even for the many gripes that I have with the politicians that govern and legislate for this land I cannot help but think that we are fortunate. Fortunate that we don't have the likes of George W Bush or Jacques Chirac. What Brits don't often realise is that the Americans would give their right arm for a Michael Howard or a Tony Blair. They would give anything to have well-educated and articulate leaders. Even though I look outside my office window today and see torrents of rain splashing on the pavement below I cannot help but feel a quiet and reserved sense of gratitude that I live in such a proud and noble country.

In closing I now pose the question to you all, "What does it mean to be British?"

| Telegraph Link : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/07/28/uviewbritish2.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/07/28/ixportaltop.html |

As Stuart Millson says in a letter to the Telegraph [Millson also contributes articles to Right Now, the conservative journal], 'Britishness' is really about the unique 'cultural personality' that has evolved over thousands of years. His, like my own, is an ethnic as well as cultural concept of 'Britishness'. We can talk this way with credibility, despite the propaganda howled at us by certain emotional and political quarters, because Britain is roughly made up, at least 96% of it is, of people who descend from two main 'racial' stocks. These are the 'Old British' group, whose genetic presence in the population may be easily identified via the frequency of 'Haplogroup One' Y chromosomes in men, and the 'Invader' group, who are represented by the frequency of 'Haplogroup Two'. Basically, Celtic and pre-Celtic descent is represented by Haplogroup One, and Germanic/Danish Viking ancestry by Haplogroup Two . A minority of the 96%[ of the total population] of white Britons have Norwegian Viking descent, represented by the smaller Haplogroup Three. Normans, Flemings, Huguenots etc have not made significant genetic contributions to our makeup, but they have certainly made great contributions to our cultural life.

I am not denying the contributions made by Jewish refugees, or by the mass immigration of Asian and Afro-Caribbean peoples since the late 1950s. I am referring to the genetic/cultural 'personality' of the majority here. Going where angels fear to tread, I would therefore suggest that 'Britishness' is really about the Anglo Saxon-Celtic cultural personality that has evolved over thousands of years. Later groups such as Asians and Afro-Caribbeans can be 'British' by virtue of having been born here. Nevertheless, their 'roots' do not stretch back anywhere near as far as those of the average white Briton. Men with Haplogroup One Y chromosomes descend from early Paleolithic 'Britons'. It is not part of my case to deny a 'black presence' in Britain going back centuries. I acknowledge the existence of black communities in Elizabethan times, and the evidence that some Roman soldiers [going back 2,000 years] were of black African origin. Nevertheless, the Duffy genes for African origin have made little impact upon the 'racial' character of the majority population.

Some may see this as an irrelevant, ethnological approach to the question of 'Britishness', or at worst 'racist rubbish'. I do not think that one can separate genetic heritage from national identity, and it is dangerous to do so. I merely seek to redress the effects of propaganda which suggest, wrongly in my view, that 'Britishness' is merely a socially-construct. Even if 'Britishness' is socially-constructed, there is still a socially- constructed reality out there- a cultural/genetic identity which has evolved over thousands of years.

I love that example you gave, i agree 100% with it. ALl the things i say. I travell all over and where ever you go there are Brits there, always held in very high regard, but we will never loose our ability to take the **** our of ourselves just as much as everybody else (many other nationalities just don't get that).

I have never been so proud to be British as i am today. I would rather be British, English or whatever than any other nationality.. and i think anybody who has ever lived in another country (other than maybe the Costas) would agree.

I drive a Mini with a Union Jack on the roof, so people are not afraid to let me know how they feel about that, so i get many perspectives.

From my experiance English people are held in the highest regard of any country.

I never put British, i'm English and proud to be English and all its privileges, its benefits and its freedoms that goes with being English.