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It works both ways

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HR2

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Had a terrfic row with some woman on the phone just now. I am booked into the Freeman next tuesday to have my airway enlarged [again] and they send you a form which you have to fill in and send back prior to admission. A kind of get out of jail free thing for them in the event of mishaps.

Anyway, this old biddy says to me I have filled in the thing wrong. So I asked where and how as I had made sure everything was top hole. 'Your nationality' she says, 'you have crossed out British and put English'. So I said 'well I am' then she starts to lecture me that I can't do that as it's not allowed. I ask her who said it wasn't allowed and she says the race relations board as it might upset ethnic minorities.

That got my goat as on the form nationality section it has a list asking your skin colour and wether you are 'Irish' 'Carribean' 'Bangladeshi' etcetera. So we hollered the toss at each other until she threatened to cancel my admission. That sent me ballistic and I said if they did I would contact the RRB myself and complain at this negative racism. We settled at that.

But it makes you realise why folk are turning to the BNP in numbers doesn't it?
 
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Lewisham2221

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The trouble isn't even with 'ethnic monorities' and such like being offended. It actually lies with stupid, brainless, overpaid idiots who have nothing better to do other than think about things that might offend.

Cue rant about:
Christmas Winterfest
Black Chalk board
Baa Baa Black Rainbow Sheep
disabled wheelchair accessible toilet
etc.
 

devon_metro

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It's mad, beacause like you say HR2, i am not British, i am English. I was born in England and that's the fact. It's unusual as to how many different strands of 'British' There are. For example: A British Muslim- Why not a muslim? There is no dfference.

regarding black board- surely white board must be racist?

The world is going bloody mad!
 

Richmond

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Well she is right because England isn't a nation, The British Isles is the nation and England is part of that great nation.
"The term nation is often used synonymously with ethnic group (sometimes "ethnos"), but although ethnicity is now one of the most important aspects of cultural or social identity for the members of most nations, people with the same ethnic origin may live in different nation-states and be treated as members of separate nations for that reason. National identity is often disputed, down to the level of the individual."
I consider myself to be English but I am part of Great Britian which flys under the Union Flag.
 

Mojo

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Indeed. A friend of mine, for his GCSE coursework did a survey, and one of the things he did was a tally chart. He put boys on the first line of the table, and girls on the second. Some girl told him he was sexist.
 

devon_metro

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It's ridiculous, i no longer listen to any of the rubbish. And it most definatly is impossible to be racist to white people. Im sure this conversation would be considered as racist or sexist in a way.

People from other cultures seem not to care yet some take it for granted!

Some people need to get a grip! (Oh sorry- i could have offended someone:roll:)
 

66526

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I've noticed round my end that people call woman 'ladies' but still call men 'blokes'. Personally I feel that this is sexist and I aim to claim compensation becasue of this... (rolling eyes...)
 

Tom B

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It's not "ethnic minorities" who are offended, it's some overpaid beancounter. There might be a couple who put in complaints, but it's normally someone who wants a good excuse to justify their job, so they make a stupid policy. I don't know of anyone who's "offended" by Christmas. People shouldn't be wrapped in cotton wool just because they're different - surely they'd just like to get on with their life without being bent over backwards for over things they couldn't care less about!
 
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Richmond said:
Well she is right because England isn't a nation, The British Isles is the nation and England is part of that great nation.
"The term nation is often used synonymously with ethnic group (sometimes "ethnos"), but although ethnicity is now one of the most important aspects of cultural or social identity for the members of most nations, people with the same ethnic origin may live in different nation-states and be treated as members of separate nations for that reason. National identity is often disputed, down to the level of the individual."
I consider myself to be English but I am part of Great Britian which flys under the Union Flag.


WHAT UTTER ROT AND RUBBISH.. Of course England is a NATION. The same way as Scotland and Wales Are NATIONS. Britain is the name for the physical entity of the ISLAND on which 4 NATIONS exist. As for that dishcloth they call the Union flag it should be burned and the 4 nations allowed to fly thier own. This PC rubbish gets on my damn nerves. I take the greatest offence to have someone say my nation and therefore my nationality don't exist
 

66526

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Just think what the situation will be in 30 years time... Lovely thought there.
 

David

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Richmond said:
Well she is right because England isn't a nation, The British Isles is the nation and England is part of that great nation.
"The term nation is often used synonymously with ethnic group (sometimes "ethnos"), but although ethnicity is now one of the most important aspects of cultural or social identity for the members of most nations, people with the same ethnic origin may live in different nation-states and be treated as members of separate nations for that reason. National identity is often disputed, down to the level of the individual."
I consider myself to be English but I am part of Great Britian which flys under the Union Flag.
Correction, England is a country. Scotland has an elected parliment, and call themselves Scottish, not British. Northern Ireland and Wales have their own assemblies, and use thier nationalilty with pride. Why can't us residents of England do the same?

Each country in Freat Britain has their own national flag and anthem, so lets hear one good reason why we can't call our selves English.

To re-inforce my point, look at the identity of the British (?!?) team in the World Cup....
 

Richmond

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We don't have a British team in the world cup
[EDIT]
Great Britian is made up of 4 countries, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Island. Each can have their own elected parliaments but are member states of the United Kingdom. Our nationality is British because we are part of this Island and the day that we have to cross border controls to get into another part of the island you can then start to call yourself English and hold an English passport, until then your British, but as we are all descended from French, Germans, Swedish etc then maybe were not who we think we are anyway
 

David

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Richmond said:
We don't have a British team in the world cup
My point exactly. The team in the World Cup is ENGLAND. If we was a true United Country, their would be no seperate national Identities, and our team at the world cup would be called Great Britain....
 

AlexS

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In the Olympics, it is Great Britain...

England hasn't had it's own legal entity since something like the 13th Century when the Kingdom of England and Wales was created. The actual name for the country you live in is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
 

Mojo

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It's quite interesting you should say that HR2. If you asked most people their nationality, they select British, rather than English. On forms where I'm asked my country, I don't put England, but UK, as do, apparently, most people.
 

AlexS

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The official legal line is that the indepedent country of England hasn't existed since 1284 when the Statue of Rhuddlan was passed, declaring England and Wales as one legal and political entity.
 

Techniquest

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It's a bit like when Sky decided we lived in Wales here (we're circa 3 miles away from the Welsh border). When they replaced our English BBC and Channel 4 with the Welsh versions, we kicked up a right fuss. Thankfully this soon changed and we got the English ones back.

But I agree with HR2, we should be proud to declare ourselves English/Scottish/Welsh/Irish/whatever. I put English wherever possible! Not all forms allow you to do so though, so allow just a tick box by British.

WSXFan, flying the England flag tomorrow on the DFR! (literally!)
 
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Richmond said:
We don't have a British team in the world cup
[EDIT]
Great Britian is made up of 4 countries, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Island. Each can have their own elected parliaments but are member states of the United Kingdom. Our nationality is British because we are part of this Island and the day that we have to cross border controls to get into another part of the island you can then start to call yourself English and hold an English passport, until then your British, but as we are all descended from French, Germans, Swedish etc then maybe were not who we think we are anyway


I AM NOT BRITISH There is no such country. The islands [Including Eire which is part of the British isles] have five countries and nationalities resident on them. There are no sport teams that attend international meetings as Britain. Each country sends its own albeit they travel together to do so. I take it you must be ashamed of your birthright by denying your nationality? British indeed!! :angry4:
 

Lewisham2221

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Richmond said:
the day that we have to cross border controls to get into another part of the island you can then start to call yourself English and hold an English passport, until then your British

Just to be pedantic, you don't actually have to go through border/passport controls when travelling across the border between most mainland Europe EU countries, France, Belgium and Holland for example. ;)
 

TheSlash

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I went on a 12 day course at Wimbledon once. There were delegates from SWT and Alstom. The Alstom guys were all Australian and New Zealanders. They started asking about Wales and Scotland, as they planned to visit one of the countries during a weekend break on the course.
So of course we filled them in on the essential details
"You'll need your passport.
If they are wearing a skirt like thing, ask them if they are tribal warrior at the weekend.
You had better get a book of Scottish phrases as they speak Scottish up there" 8)
 

Richmond

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"I AM NOT BRITISH There is no such country. The islands [Including Eire which is part of the British isles] have five countries and nationalities resident on them. There are no sport teams that attend international meetings as Britain. Each country sends its own albeit they travel together to do so. I take it you must be ashamed of your birthright by denying your nationality? British indeed!!"

The olympic team goes as Great Britian, ladies curling team won a medal for Great Britian but were scottish, Ryder cup team etc...
 

Techniquest

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TheSlash said:
I went on a 12 day course at Wimbledon once. There were delegates from SWT and Alstom. The Alstom guys were all Australian and New Zealanders. They started asking about Wales and Scotland, as they planned to visit one of the countries during a weekend break on the course.
So of course we filled them in on the essential details
"You'll need your passport.
If they are wearing a skirt like thing, ask them if they are tribal warrior at the weekend.
You had better get a book of Scottish phrases as they speak Scottish up there" 8)

ROFL!!!

TC, I couldn't give two hoots about the rules and regs mentioned here.:thefinge: , :bs: , :tongue: , :angry4: (those emoticons should summarise my feelings here). Fact is, I was born in Shrewsbury, England, UK. I am English by all logicity. I wore my England flag with pride today at times on the Dean Forest Railway. I wouldn't wear it in Wales, I don't fancy a load of arguments with the Welsh. Couldn't wear it all day either as it was inconvienent to run for a train with a flag on you! Didn't have a choice but to run through the car park before the barriers came down at Lydney mainline this afternoon though! I enjoyed wearing my flag as a cape though, I'd do it again quite happily!

My application form for Asda has "UK or Irish" on it. I was tempted to put "Other (please specify)" with "English" in that space, but I decided not to be fussy, I was too hungry (missed breakfast) and I had to hurry up to pack my stuff back into the bag for alighting at Lydney.

Point is, I'm English. Damn proud of it. No law will stop that.
 

Dave A

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HR2 said:
WHAT UTTER ROT AND RUBBISH.. Of course England is a NATION. The same way as Scotland and Wales Are NATIONS. Britain is the name for the physical entity of the ISLAND on which 4 NATIONS exist. As for that dishcloth they call the Union flag it should be burned and the 4 nations allowed to fly thier own. This PC rubbish gets on my damn nerves. I take the greatest offence to have someone say my nation and therefore my nationality don't exist

I DO NOT agree with your statement about the flag being burnt. That flag symbolises how 4 seperate nations have been able to become one and fight for the freedom of the world today. The United Kingdom, as a whole, represents something which has taken many centuries to do, create a lasting co-operation between different nations that can benefit the people of its countries, as well as the rest of the world! This, as you can see today, especially in the middle east, is something very rare and extra-ordinary!

Finally. I agree on the fact that we should be allowed to call ourselves whatever we want, whether it be English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish, as our own culture and history is something we are less allowed to remember these days. However, being British is what makes us unique. The fact that the two of us (England and Wales) have been able to live side-by-side for so long, and by respecting each others cultures and traditions, we have surely set a great example to the rest of the world!

Note: AFAIK, Britain is the name for England & Wales as they are run by the same government, whereas Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own. The United Kingdom is the name for the "physical entity of on which 4 nations exist".
 

AlexS

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England and Wales = 1 country. Scotland is another. Northern Ireland is a cluster of counties that should probably actually be a part of the south end, like they always were.
 
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HR2

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AlexS said:
England and Wales = 1 country. Scotland is another. Northern Ireland is a cluster of counties that should probably actually be a part of the south end, like they always were.

Don't agree with part of that Alex. 4 countries/nations on the British Isles. England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland. Each with it's own flag and parliament. Ulster is part of the Republic at the moment adminstered by the British Government and should never be treated as a separate political enitity no matter what the bigoted, bowler hatted buffoons say.

They can pass all the laws, statutes and acts they wish but in the end they cannot deny people their birthright. That is my own personal opinion.
 
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