What makes the British British ?

Men wearing socks with sandals.
Definitely queuing, agree with you all there.
Irony and sarcasm.
Dog walkers stopping to chat to each other, did that this afternoon.
Bonfire Night.
Our wonderful poetry and literature - from all four nations.
British tv and comedy programmes.
The Shipping Forecast and Radio 4
Pooh Sticks
Last Night of the Proms

When we go out with Dutch or German people in Portugal, they are all completely nonplussed by “your British humour”!! They can’t understand it, can’t see anything funny but love that we are entertaining them! They repeat “there you go, British humour”!

It does seem very difficult now to be proud to be British, and even more difficult to be proud to be English. Fly the cross of St George outside your house or on your car, and it will be assumed that you are a football/rugby supporter if there is an international match on, or failing that a racist, which I find terribly sad.

If I say I am proud to be British (I can't say English as half Scots,) then I get shot down with all the things people perceive as wrong with the Country. Yet we do have an amazing Country and people. I would just love someone to stand up for us!

I do hope Sarahellen that our identity is not watered down in any way as time time goes by. I admire the Americans for their loyalty to their country.

My sister who misses living in the UK always stands if she hears the National Anthem.

Pecs So what stops you.? Keep your beliefs. I don't have to follow suit no more than you have to follow mine.Cannot your identity be your own choice ?Do you have to become some one else?
Neither should we question another if they wish to be different to ourselves ?It is known as live and let live.
Were I for some reason living in another country would I have to follow others traditions . ? We have choices or should have. My identity is of my choosing so yours should be yours. The difference seems bigger because you allow it to.

We make and drink Tea at every opportunity regardless of the time of day or the climate.

When things go wrong or disaster strikes (war, accidents, floods etc.) we just brace ourselves and get on with it as best we can. Helping others if needed.

We maintain our sense of humour and and a smile whatever happens.

Eccentricity.
In what other country would you find competitions in gravy-wrestling, conkers, cheese rolling, snail racing, worm charming, egg throwing, tossing pancakes, bog-snorkelling and gurning (pulling silly faces) to name but a few?
We Brits have always had a name for eccentricity.

sarahellen but what is that identity? If those who hold certain traditions / behaviours/ food dear keep them going they will still exist!
I had a person challenge me at work (school) about "you always celebrate the foreign fetivals but neve 'ours' "

I listed Christmas celebrations, Easter events, Mother's Day, St George's Day, Maypole dancing, country dancing etc. and all our regular assemblies which talked about current afffairs e.g Queen's Jubilee, Remembrance Day as opposed to one assembly for Diwali/Eid etc.

We notice difference not the familiar. The difference always seems bigger than the familiar.

I like to feel I have identity and can understand why so many U.S citizens fly the flag of their or their parents motherland although making their home and raising children in a country they have now become citizens of.
If I were to/ or had to move to another country I could not become un British and this is not a new feeling but one that has always been with me when travelling abroad for my work or on holiday.As the aircraft flew over the UK I would feel a great sense of peace .This was home and always would be.

A believer in the mutually beneficial Union of one country from four Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England.

Anyone who worries about the Americans should read Bill Bryson and be reassured.

Nankate I agree with you on what makes us stand out..
Just how British one is comes down to in the majority of cases to how old that person is We are vastly becoming a race with different cultures, views ideas etc although looking back over the centuries we were a mixture of Romans, Vikings, Normans any one who landed on our shores.
I do feel, and sad at the thought, that we are quickly becoming as our cousins over the pond with its diverse population and will eventually lose our identity.

PS: The American writer Bill Bryson describes us beautifully in his "Letters from a Small Island".

I've never clicked on that - it doesn't work then Teddy

When it said add comment,I thought I was commenting on Sparklefizz post about Antique Road Show .

Politics are a major topic of conversation to the British
We walked into a café on the other side of the world and were asked by two Australians whom we'd never met before how we voted in the referendum!

No Polish child or French either would dream of addressing an adult by their given name.
That has changed since I was young (admittedly quite a while ago now). In those days children called everyone Mr/Mrs/Miss and their surname; friends' parents, their mothers acquaintances, neighbours etc. However, close friends of DM were called Aunty ***. I notice that the DGCs friends called me by my first name, although one or two call me 'Granny' or 'Nain' which is nice.

Italians are just the same about saying Goodbye a hundred times before leaving. My British sense of humour either has them rolling about laughing or just looking at me oddly. (A sense of humour seems to be 70%/ yes 30% no here in Italy.
The ability to say something totally ridiculous with a straight face: I was involved in a car accident and being taken to the hospital in an ambulance to be looked
at. I was totally unaware that I had blood pouring down my face (I was in a bit of shock) until the ambulance man approached me with some wet paper towel and said solemnly "Excuse me Madam. Do you mind if I just wipe your face? - Those idiots at the hospital can't bear the sight of blood." He had me laughing all the way to A&E.

I agree,thank you,really made me smile.I always try to watch it.

I’ve lived in London for 35 years and I’ve never, ever seen people queue at a bus stop. It’s a complete myth. We queue in lots of other places.

Sarah as you know, in London we have first-class public transport - my local bus stop serves seven routes so it's not practical to have seven separate queues; people just hover and move around as their bus approaches!

A nearby stop serves just one route and although passengers don't form an orderly queue (in a line) there is a sort of 'first come, first on, system'.

I think we're quite civilised in London, in the main! And we certainly have the best public transport system anywhere …. and it's all free for the over-60s, and mostly free for the under 18s

Maybe its just my family but there can never be enough "bye-bye's".

I drop my dad off at home...."bye then, I'm off" "bye see you soon" (gets to the end of the path) "bye", "bye" gets in the car "bye" reverses out (opens window) "bye" waves "bye"...... Its the same when anyone comes to mine....

Actually there is no word for please in Danish. They do plenty of taks ( thanks) but when asking for something in a shop they just ask for it. None of the please may I have...

I think our deadpan sense of humour and ironic remarks are characteristic and sometimes confuse visitots
We tend not to go over the top. Its hard to explain that Not bad means pretth good as in 'That meal wasn't bad'. We also tend to put ourselves down a lot. I agree about the overt display of affection. We don't do lot of kissing and hugging in public and hence are called reserved.

Thank you, grandtante, that is very interesting. As others see us ! ?

If I compare the British with citizens of other European countries I have worked or lived in the British are still shy of displaying emotions in public. Parents tend not to hug or kiss their children in public, except babies.

Politics are a major topic of conversation to the British, whereas in Scandinavia, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain you discuss politics with old friends or family, but not with more casual acquaintances or at a friend's for dinner. There you discuss books, films, the theatre or other cultural issues.

Scandinavians are always surprised by how little the British say thank you! Here we thank each other continually for meals, visits, outings, coffee, ice cream not only when food or drink is offered but before you part. Visitors are expected to say thank you for a lovely time, the next time they meet their hosts, even if the host is a sister or brother and not only on the way out of the door at the end of the evening.

You are also expected not only to wish the birthday boy or girl a happy birthday, but to congratulate the parents as well, or in the case of grown-ups the spouse. You are also expected to congratulate the parents as well as the child who has passed an exam.

None of this is considered necessary in Britain.

No Polish child or French either would dream of addressing an adult by their given name. A German child might just, but would not be surprised at being corrected for doing so and would still be expected to use the formal pronoun to an adult who is not a near relation.

So politeness as such is not a British trait, but the form it takes can well be.

Basically, the outside world equates London manners with Britain because they do not know that Welsh, Irish, Scottish and Northern English people do things differently.

We had a lovely German girl stay once to help with kids and she told me she’d been warned, “remember the English never say what they mean, in fact they more often say the complete opposite”
And it’s true.