Are you British?

[Chindie]

1 hour ago, LondonLax said:

Reading an old thread and this jumped out at me. 

Australia actually has a much higher level of immigration than the US in relative terms. 30% of Australia’s population are foreign born compared with about 13% of the US.  

Australia is also heavily influenced by Asian immigration (which makes sense given its geography). About 18% of the population is of Asian descent (which compares with about 7% in the US and 9% in the U.K.). Australia is very much a diverse multicultural country these days.

 

As I said 4 years ago, I'm not saying Australia is some monoculture, but it's a nation of 20m people who has historically drawn most of its immigration from small pockets of the earth in the last 150 years and only of any great amounts in the last 100 (arguably less), whereas America is literally hundreds of years of embracing every people there is and growing massively - 15 times the population maybe?

Obviously Australia is a modern and increasingly diverse country, but it's not America. And that isn't a bad thing by any means - it has it's own character and seems less keen to crow about 'the old country', even though a decent chunk of its people have very recent links elsewhere.

[LondonLax]

3 hours ago, Chindie said:

As I said 4 years ago, I'm not saying Australia is some monoculture, but it's a nation of 20m people who has historically drawn most of its immigration from small pockets of the earth in the last 150 years and only of any great amounts in the last 100 (arguably less), whereas America is literally hundreds of years of embracing every people there is and growing massively - 15 times the population maybe?

Obviously Australia is a modern and increasingly diverse country, but it's not America. And that isn't a bad thing by any means - it has it's own character and seems less keen to crow about 'the old country', even though a decent chunk of its people have very recent links elsewhere.

My theory for why so many in the US describe themselves as these hybrid groups: “Irish American”, “Italian American”, “African American” etc could be to do with how strong American nationalism is?

The way they ‘pledge allegiance’ in their schools or fly the flag and sing the anthem at every opportunity is very foreign for Brits or Australians. Australia is a lot more like the U.K. where patriotism is seen as a dirty word.

Maybe in the US the links to the ‘old country’ in a persons identity is almost a way of being permitted to keep some heritage in the face of the overwhelming need to conform to your US identity?

[Follyfoot]

2 hours ago, LondonLax said:

My theory for why so many in the US describe themselves as these hybrid groups: “Irish American”, “Italian American”, “African American” etc could be to do with how strong American nationalism is?

The way they ‘pledge allegiance’ in their schools or fly the flag and sing the anthem at every opportunity is very foreign for Brits or Australians. Australia is a lot more like the U.K. where patriotism is seen as a dirty word.

Maybe in the US the links to the ‘old country’ in a persons identity is almost a way of being permitted to keep some heritage in the face of the overwhelming need to conform to your US identity?

Don’t be fooled by what you read on here.

Despite declining over the past few years, especially amongst younger people the fact remains that the majority of the people in the UK are patriotic 

Edited September 8 by Follyfoot

[mjmooney]

9 hours ago, LondonLax said:

As bizarre as I find the weird Americanism of being 'Scots Irish' (... shudder)

Even worse, it's often 'Scotch-Irish'. 

[mjmooney]

1 hour ago, Follyfoot said:

Don’t be fooled by what you read on here.

Despite declining over the past few years, especially amongst younger people the fact remains that the majority of the people in the UK are patriotic 

Hmm. Perhaps. But in a much more restrained way (how frightfully British) than in the US. As a few posters have noted, that pledge of allegiance in schools thing wouldn't go down well here at all. I'm old enough to remember when the national anthem was played in cinemas at the end of the evening, and audiences were supposed to stand. By the early 1960s, half the audiences were pushing past the 'standers' on their way out. It was quietly dropped, to very little protest. Most of the 'vocal patriots' these days seem to be on social media (or rioting their way into jail). 

[Follyfoot]

44 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Hmm. Perhaps. But in a much more restrained way (how frightfully British) than in the US. As a few posters have noted, that pledge of allegiance in schools thing wouldn't go down well here at all. I'm old enough to remember when the national anthem was played in cinemas at the end of the evening, and audiences were supposed to stand. By the early 1960s, half the audiences were pushing past the 'standers' on their way out. It was quietly dropped, to very little protest. Most of the 'vocal patriots' these days seem to be on social media (or rioting their way into jail). 

I remember they used to play the National Anthem at the end of programming for the day on BBC 1 each night (don't think they did on BBC2 as the early hours were filled with beardy boffins playing with the fabric of the existence each night) not sure if they do now as rarely up that late and hardly ever watch the beeb anyway 

Edited September 8 by Follyfoot

[bickster]

2 hours ago, Follyfoot said:

Don’t be fooled by what you read on here.

Despite declining over the past few years, especially amongst younger people the fact remains that the majority of the people in the UK are patriotic 

Evidence?

[mjmooney]

6 minutes ago, Follyfoot said:

I remember they used to play the National Anthem at the end of programming for the day on BBC 1 each night (don't think they did on BBC2 as the early hours were filled with beardy boffins playing with the fabric of the existence each night) not sure if they do now as rarely up that late and hardly ever watch the beeb anyway 

I was going to mention that, too. I knew of some older people who stood for the anthem before turning the TV off. It was discontinued in 1997. I'm surprised it was that late, tbh. 

[Follyfoot]

16 minutes ago, bickster said:

Evidence?

https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/survey-results/daily/2024/04/25/235fb/1

Regarding the UK, how patriotic would you say you are?

 

All adults

 

Region

 

Gender

 

Politics

 

Age

 

Social Grade

Very patriotic

20%

 

 

Fairly patriotic

38%

 

 

Not very patriotic

23%

 

 

Not patriotic at all

12%

 

 

Don’t know

6%

 

https://www.opinium.com/black-history-month-patriotism-in-the-uk/

Insight

Thu 17 Dec 2020

Black History Month: Patriotism in the UK

Opinium Thought Leadership

Classically, the image of a “British patriot” tends to evoke a whiter, more conservative member of society.

On one hand our research corroborates this; seven in ten (69%) Brits would describe themselves as patriotic – this rises to 89% among Conservative voters and falls sharply to 51% among Labour voters.

 

Edited September 8 by Follyfoot

[Jon]

15 hours ago, sidcow said:

. I've got some French in there somewhere 

You are now dead to Tone Loc @tonyh29

[bickster]

2 hours ago, Follyfoot said:

https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/survey-results/daily/2024/04/25/235fb/1

Regarding the UK, how patriotic would you say you are?

 

All adults

 

Region

 

Gender

 

Politics

 

Age

 

Social Grade

Very patriotic

20%

 

 

Fairly patriotic

38%

 

 

Not very patriotic

23%

 

 

Not patriotic at all

12%

 

 

Don’t know

6%

 

https://www.opinium.com/black-history-month-patriotism-in-the-uk/

Insight

Thu 17 Dec 2020

Black History Month: Patriotism in the UK

Opinium Thought Leadership

Classically, the image of a “British patriot” tends to evoke a whiter, more conservative member of society.

On one hand our research corroborates this; seven in ten (69%) Brits would describe themselves as patriotic – this rises to 89% among Conservative voters and falls sharply to 51% among Labour voters.

 

You realise you've just presented evidence that the people are getting rapidly less patriotic  

[Follyfoot]

9 minutes ago, bickster said:

You realise you've just presented evidence that the people are getting rapidly less patriotic  

If you read my original post properly, you’ll notice that included that statement

[mjmooney]

9 minutes ago, bickster said:

You realise you've just presented evidence that the people are getting rapidly less patriotic  

TBF, he merely said that the majority (atm) are patriotic. That poll fwiw would support that. 

[Follyfoot]

Just now, mjmooney said:

TBF, he merely said that the majority (atm) are patriotic. That poll fwiw would support that. 

And I said it was declining

[bickster]

1 minute ago, Follyfoot said:

If you read my original post properly, you’ll notice that included that statement

It did, you are correct but to be honest it’s not really true. I'd actually suggest that if you stick to the trends within each polling company you are more likely to find both a majority and no rapid decline at all, just a fairly flat line

[AJG23]

4 hours ago, mjmooney said:

Even worse, it's often 'Scotch-Irish'. 

I used to think that was a broad, umbrella type term used in the USA for Scottish or Irish people until I found out that it’s actually a reference to native Scottish people who settled in Ireland, mostly Ulster, in the 17 and 1800s,  then emigrated to the USA.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch-Irish_Americans

Quote

Scotch-Irish (or Scots-Irish) Americans are American descendants of primarily Ulster Scots people[5] who emigrated from Ulster (Ireland's northernmost province) to the United States during the 18th and 19th centuries. Their ancestors had originally migrated to Ulster, mainly from the Scottish Lowlands and Northern England in the 17th century.[6][7] In the 2017 American Community Survey, 5.39 million (1.7% of the population) reported Scottish ancestry, an additional 3 million (0.9% of the population) identified more specifically with Scotch-Irish ancestry, and many people who claim "American ancestry" may actually be of Scotch-Irish ancestry.

 

[mjmooney]

Scotch is a drink. 

[icouldtelltheworld]

12 hours ago, Chindie said:

As I said 4 years ago, I'm not saying Australia is some monoculture, but it's a nation of 20m people who has historically drawn most of its immigration from small pockets of the earth in the last 150 years and only of any great amounts in the last 100 (arguably less), whereas America is literally hundreds of years of embracing every people there is and growing massively - 15 times the population maybe?

Obviously Australia is a modern and increasingly diverse country, but it's not America. And that isn't a bad thing by any means - it has it's own character and seems less keen to crow about 'the old country', even though a decent chunk of its people have very recent links elsewhere.

Australia is America with better PR

[PaulC]

5 hours ago, Follyfoot said:

I remember they used to play the National Anthem at the end of programming for the day on BBC 1 each night (don't think they did on BBC2 as the early hours were filled with beardy boffins playing with the fabric of the existence each night) not sure if they do now as rarely up that late and hardly ever watch the beeb anyway 

Yes and we all stood up in our household. 

[AJG23]

5 minutes ago, PaulC said:

Yes and we all stood up in our household. 

One of my friends used to do that, seriously.
Back in the 1980s.
He was born in Scotland with English parents and in those days he actually referred to himself as English.

Nowadays he is as fanatical an SNP supporter as you could possibly meet.

Edited September 8 by AJG23