What parts of our traditions and culture makes you feel like you belong in Britain

I think the sense of humour in this country is pretty special and unique . Irony, sarcasm and wit are all alive and well in the UK. Not so much in other European countries

I think the weather is actually a real plus. It's never boring and never extreme for too long.

I think the landscape is pretty special and very varied for such a small Island

Whilst I know things are changing for the worse, it is still one of the least racist, misogynistic and macho cultures I have experienced.That is not admittedly saying much but it is something. Of course class culture and prejudice is what we (or used to have) instead

I used to get really upset when people moaned about this country and about how terriible it is as I thought it was a great country and could not imagine living anywhere else when I was young. I have Italian heritage and despite liking to visit , I never ever wanted to live in Italy full time even as a child

Admittedly things are getting worse ( as they are everywhere) and I unfortunately agree things are not looking good at the moment but in general I am still glad I lve here

Beach huts! And U.K. seaside holidays in general.

The backs of houses and the suburban gardens as you pass them in the train: they don't look like those of any other country. It's the first sensation I get when emerging from the channel tunnel on the homeward journey.

You know that moment when Sherlock/Cumberbatch or James Bond/Daniel Craig return home, and they stand somewhere over the London and look down on the city, and feel they are home again? That's the feeling.
A cup of tea whenever I need it.
Long walks with my dogs.
Countryside.
Rain.
History. Oh my God, the history that goes so deep and wide, and you can still see it in buildings and everywhere else.
"You can't park there, mate" kind of jokes.
Lambswool knitwear.
Literature and art. Absolutely this.

I don’t think we had it particularly tough.
we were working class too, my mum worked all the hours god sent as a home care assistant and my dad was a labourer until his body was too knackered and then he drove taxis. Hardly saw either of them.
we were probably better dressed and fed than most of the kids I grew up around.
my brother joined the army and sacrificed his youth and his mental health for social mobility and I emigrated and found it much easier to build a ‘professional’ life abroad- more economic freedom and less social stigma for my origins.

i think the globally recognised British culture is mostly based on misty eyed childhood memories of the middle classes and myths of a time since past.

my parents both agree not much difference between Britain in the last ten years and the 70s other than the obvious tech and consumerism elements.

im just glad I’ve been able to give them a different life in retirement. Sunshine, access to decent healthcare (ironically still funded by the NHS) and more birds than rats.

Totally!

The Victorian prudery and love of 'respectablity' was very new - the previous eras, and particulartly the Georgians, had been very liberal in sexual matters compared to the their successors. We know that Shakespeare and Chaucer weren't restricted by prudishness!

I read an interesting theory about this change. Firstly, the Industrial Revolution brought the bourgeoisie to dominate things much more than the aristocracy and their sober, hard-working and respectable values came to the fore. Also, the French Revolution had terrified the living daylights out of the British government and there was a reaction against the frivolity in public life which was characteristic of the Ancien Regime. So, people at the top of society were no longer supposed to be sexually transgressive - they had to keep their mistresses and lovers private etc, and there was a change to monochrome clothes and sober suits for men, who a few years earlier would have been in silks and lace of every colour of the rainbow.

Go to another country and see things done differently - I think that's the way to see that what you see as 'normal' is the British you are looking for. Of course it varies by geography and by class etc, but it's there. I'm sure if I spent Christmas even in somewhere as culturally close to us as America or France it would strike me.

LOVE THIS!

I could support that chant...😀

Royal Family- I'd like to be a royalist but I feel every adult generation (& the late Queen & Prince Philip) is tainted with abuse again (Mountbatten, Andrew) & financial corruption. I hope George & maybe Charlotte & Louis can mark a new, positive era. They will need to be much more frugal.

I think there's hope, even after the Prince Andrew scandal. King Charles is elderly and ill, and has lots on his plate, but I think William has very different ideas about how the monarchy should be. I hope (and I believe) that he'll want to reform things, slim them down and make things more informal like the Scandinavian and Dutch monarchies. I think he'll do this not just for altruistic reasons, but because he wants a more balanced life for his family and particularly George. And William won't have the same attachment to places like Sandringham and Balmoral that the late Queen and Charles have. Plus - he's seen how other people live through his experience with Catherine's comparatively 'normal' middle-class family, and I think that's the model he'd like for his own children.

@Pranaon

That does sound very tough.

No, my background wasn't Downton or Heartbeat, though more like Heartbeat.

I grew up long, long ago in the countryside in the North of England and we were working class. But I went to a grammar school where disruption and misbehaviour wasn't tolerated so I suppose I had a privileged free education and that's a huge advantage in life.

I think I've been really lucky in my background, but people nowadays would be horrified at the lack of consumer goods, holidays, fashionable clothes (or any clothes really, apart from school uniform and one other outfit!!). My family and my school gave me lots of interests which have enriched my life and keep my happy and stimulated every day.

Sorry - this sounds very smug - it's not intended to. I'm just trying to explain that I don't come from a privileged background in material terms.

Or the difference between Steven Gerrard (Huyton) and Johnny Vegas (St Helens). They’re 6 miles apart but the accents aren’t even similar. It blows my mind!

Oh yes. See for example Ringo Starr vs Jamie Carragher

Wow everyone sounds like they grew up in heartbeat or downtown abbey.

my British youth?
trolleys and bags of puppies in the canal.
missing teenage girls found wrapped in carpets in the 1mile sq green patch near the canal.
ketamine.
rats running down the high street.
getting harassed by taxi drivers in the early hours of the morning.
not being able to fully pay my rent and my bills and fuel my car all in the same month.
getting horrendous chest infections one after another in the wi get and not being able to see a doctor.
kids at school fighting in lumps at the top of the school drive every day.
walking home from school in the pissing down rain and getting home to a freezing empty house.
taping up my letterbox at from mid October to end of November to prevent live fireworks being posted through.
walking to school to save my bus money to buy fags with my friends.
walking through town on a Saturday night to hundred of people wild eyed, vomitting, shouting, fighting
people asking your postcode and turning their nose up at you
being sexually harassed by the PE teacher as a female right of passage
rain. Rain. Gloom. Rain.

needless to say I don’t live there any more 😂

"What do we want? GRADUAL CHANGE!
When do we want it? IN DUE COURSE
Fair comment, another example of British humour.
Shall we go back to 1215 and the Forest Laws which led to Magna Carta?
The Break with Rome under Henry VIII. Celebrate that the Chancellor made Queen Elisabeth pay for the hospitality expenses of Mary Queen of Scots from her own purse not from taxation.

Dirty, I just can't resist this skit on an English revolution:

"What do we want? GRADUAL CHANGE!
When do we want it? IN DUE COURSE

Yes! We had the bloodless Glorious Revolution & then gradually transitioned to a constitutional monarchy with only soft power for monarch.

British history has lots of fascinating characters & events ofc : studying history now & it also makes me think that to some extent stereotypical British traits are often Victorian. Eg. Stereotypes of prudery don't really fit the medieval or Restoration or Georgian eras, among others. 'Stiff upper lip' arguably came from that era to some extent, whereas you had movements like the Romantics & others in the Georgian era who viewed deep emotion as noble (not to mention that in Elizabethan times, the English weren't noted by foreign visitors to be emotionally repressed). Arguably also ignore regional differences.

Few more....I mentioned the punk movement earlier as an example of culture that flourished due to British sense of eccentricity. Kate Bush would be another imo : extremely talented, and also resolutely offbeat. Plus her music often feels very rooted in English culture (Irish too- her mother was Irish & several of her songs have Irish musical influence) : Wuthering Heights & In Search Of Peter Pan obviously, then The Kick Inside, Babooshka & Get Out Of My House (all based on traditional English folksongs), The Infant Kiss & others inspired by old British films etc

Oh yes, I love British folklore!

Totally agree & love these suggestions.

Re Christianity, I'm C of E officially & do think British Christianity has a lot of positive things we should hang onto. It can still have a positive role for nonreligious & other religions, too : the best elements should focus on building community. Otoh I'm far more suspicious of the Church hierarchy due to the abuse scandals, among other reasons. I hope things are improving on that front. I wasn't keen on Welby at all but did appreciate his intervention on the dangerous assisted dying Bill.

Royal Family- I'd like to be a royalist but I feel every adult generation (& the late Queen & Prince Philip) is tainted with abuse again (Mountbatten, Andrew) & financial corruption. I hope George & maybe Charlotte & Louis can mark a new, positive era. They will need to be much more frugal. I also don't think they should be one of the MAIN uniting factors. It's unhealthy imo to idolise, & fame has never helped the royals themselves, either. I wish we had as the national anthem 'Rule Britannia' or 'Land Of Hope and Glory' or maybe 'I vow to thee my country'. Nothing wrong with 'God save the king' but I think an official anthem should focus on the people.

This is a fantastic thread and a real pleasure to read through.
I will contribute the myths, legends and sacred places that we have: Herne the Hunter, King Arthur, Robin Hood, the Wild Hunt, Lady Godiva, Elen of the Ways, all the various black dogs, fairy folk of various kinds, the Cerne Abbas giant, ley lines and holy wells, sacred hills and stone circles, chambered tombs, hill forts and ancient woods, to name but a few.

Engineering that started the Industrial Revolution. Many more of us could have warm coats of woven materials.
We had railways that increased trade and reduced prices.
Agriculturally we had a better land holding system than many other countries. In factories we paid wages in Cash.
We didn't have a mass revolution like the French or a Civil War like in USA.

Sorry to get heavy, but I hate the way various people and groups are constantly trying to find things which divide society. If this country is going to survive and even prosper we need to find things which unify us. This was easy 70-odd years ago: Christianity, the Royal Family, the pride in our role in defeating Hitler etc.

Things are very different now but we need something that almost every person of good will (you'll always have the nihilists who just want to smash the system) can support or enjoy:

• the English/Scottish/Welsh countryside
• the heritage of wonderful buildings both in the countryside and cities
• the literature from the British Isles, from Shakespeare to Wordsworth, Burns, Dickens, Hardy, Yeats etc etc
• music by native composers like Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Holst, Sullivan, Purcell...as well as the highly original pop music the British have produced
• the inventions and engineering achievements of Britons which powered the Industrial Revolution and basically created the modern world. We;re great bridge builders still - even the French have commissions British companies to build bridges for them!

And so much more. I really hope it's possible in the future to wrench back national pride from extremists and find things which make us appreciate our heritage without negativity and division.

Oooh - interesting. But I think we can blame the Vikings in any case! It's been Anglo-Saxonised as 'shriek', but I think it would have been skrike way back.

Is that the gorgeous accent from Bolton/Blackburn? It has a sort of burr to it, and a questioning intonation. I think Jane Horrocks has it? I love listening to it.