Can we have a nice thread about British culture?

[Gobbeldegook]

Without goady fuckers spoiling all the niceness.
I vote seaside fish and chips.

Our horses - from shetlands to shires, via the thoroughbred, and everything in between.
The pint of beer
The pint of milk
The fact that, although I'm born and bred in England, I have a GGGFather from Scotland and I have a tartan.
Maypole dancing
Guy Fawkes night
Stonehenge
Wimbledon (both the tennis and the Wombles)
Hot Cross buns
The longest-serving Monarch in the world today
Blackadder
Seaside rock
Henry Moore
Cheddar cheese

OH! and our collective nouns thing!
A Fighting of Beggars. 15th century.
A Rascal of Boys. 15th century.
I love this next one!!
A Gaggle of Gossips. Early 15th century.
I love our National Trust, but I also thank, in my head at least, the people who started it. Those people, who had the vision. I don't have any vision, I'm not anything, but I hope I incited education in my children.

Why am I being asked to rename the thread @speakout.
British. I'm British. I love Britain. All of the British isles. I want to hear about why everyone else loves our wonderful BRITISH culture.

Bonfire night
Being excited by snow
Queuing
Not overly familiar with strangers

All the volunteers that have stepped up to help in a million different ways the past 12 months.

Bloody love fish and chips!

I love the changing of seasons. I spent a year in Oz and hadn’t thought about it til then. I love seeing the spring bulbs pop up and dreaming of hot summer days, then autumn coming with all the beautiful colours and looking forward to dark nights and cosy fires.

Aren't the majority of the things you like about being British just English? British just means English to me. If Westminster brought in an act of parliament that meant Welsh, Cornish, Gaelic were on an equal footing to English then I may be persuaded to change my mind. I won't hold my breath.

As an Australian with a English husband I’ve been a few places in the UK.
I love the supermarkets, better variety of food, cheaper and love trying the different brands and some of the clothes are good too. Cheese and fish are way cheaper there.
I love the soft lighting of the sky and the cold winters because the houses are heated so well.
I love the different stone/brick used in different town and comparing them as you travel.
I think the fabric used in clothes feels better on your skin.
The villages that are scattered around, you can be in a city then in the countryside surrounded by green and I love the sheep with the black faces and cows with the longer hair.
May all sound trivial to you all but really interesting as a traveller.

Welsh Male voice choirs
Silver bands
Eisteddfods
Druids
Mabinogion
Slate and mining industries and the relics left for us to see and understand how bloody hard they worked for very little pay.
Mountains
Coastline
Agriculture

And the pubs. English pubs are the best! Oz pubs are just not the same.

Fish n chips
Scones with jam n cream (and dh and I always arguing jam first or cream?) & Earl grey tea
Welsh rarebit - recipe nicked from my favourite welsh cafe (had for lunch today - yum)
Sunday roast with proper roasties and Yorkshire pud
Panto at Christmas
National trust
Our rich architectural history in general
Sitting in a dark, low-beamed pub with a roaring log fire and a pint in winter
Portmeirion (so odd - but so good)
St Ives & Cornwall in general (plus the Tate and Barbara Hepworth gallery)
The thwack of a cricket bat hitting the ball on a summers day (pref with a pimms in hand)
The boat race
Crufts
Agatha Christie
British comedy

British music - it’s the best in the world. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, led zeppelin, pink floyd, pulp, oasis, blur, the arctic monkeys, fairport convention, echo and the bunnymen, Dusty Springfield, David Bowie, the cure...I can go on and on and on....

The font of the road signs.
Street name signs
Pubs with roaring fires and where you don’t feel rushed.
Comforting food, good sandwiches.
Really good telly, not that many adverts even on commercial TV. Actually, adverts are often really good.
Shopping - department stores are often welcoming and have good prices.
A proper night out getting dressed up.
Alcohol culture (sorry, but it can make for a fun night).
Even the most po-faced individuals still have a bit of a sense of humour - usually when overhearing a conversation it doesn’t take long for both parties to laugh and smile.
Getting in from the cold into a cosy warm place with central heating (radiators).
Ice cream vans.
Swimming in the sea even when it’s cold.
Sitting on deckchairs.
Having a little moan.
Pier and amusement arcades with 2p machines in.
Diverse music.
Comedy nights.
Steam railways.
Horses and horse racing.
Little ferries where you have to hold up a board to call the boat over.
Cafes with room to sit in comfortably with a long coffee.
Craft beer.
Nice gardens that people open up for visitors.
Free museums, churches, toilets.
John Lewis.
A massive buffet e.g at work where everyone brings tons of stuff in to share.
Lots of food and drink stuff!

Charity shops.

Tea

Trifle

Christmas (nativities, Christingle, pantomimes)

Village fêtes

Norman churches

Gothic architecture

Dungeness

Whitby

Loch Ness Monster

Highland Games

Highland Dancing

Our language - I teach, and I thank dog every day that it's my mother tongue and I don't have to learn it

The countryside - big Oak trees, conkers, hedges, narrow country lanes, the spooky roads around Oundle in Northamptonshire (over the border into Cambridgeshire...?) that on a clear night with a full moon and slight ground mist, you could swear you saw dandy highwaymen!

Our rich history, I especially love reading about the Romans and Vikings, I've travelled down many Roman roads, seen Hadrian's wall, visited Bath, seen the remains under Waterstones in Canterbury.

Our national love and fear of the Dalex

Things I missed when I lived in America:
Our news and papers
The bbc
NHS
Cricket
National trust
Packed sandwiches in supermarkets
M and S
Great curry
Sarcasm
How we generally accept socialism and want to help each other (trust me we do compared to many other nations!)
We’re generally well travelled and accepting of others
Radio 4 (and the shipping forecast sending me to sleep)
Getting drunk at the cricket/rugby/a cider festival/ a scarecrow competition/ a fete!
I missed the UK more than I thought I would!

Humour
Fairness
Social conscience
Charity
Pragmatis
Pride
Stiff upper lip (as in let's not make a drama)
Rainy days out
Tea
Football
Cricket
Wearing wrong clothes for weather
Resilience
Adaptable
Progressive
Loyal

I'm not British,

Open air theatres like the Minack in Cornwall, despite our weather!

Stuff I now appreciate about British culture:

• British primary classrooms, where kids sit around a round table, not in Victorian rows.
• British tolerance of difference - disability, clothing, sexuality, race...lots of ways
• daft jokes that are not too obvious and are gently pointing fun...but gently!
• silly puns that people know are terrible but say anyway
• British drinking culture
• a sort of tolerance of, but very little active interest in, religion.
• daffodils
• proudly tended and tiny front gardens with gnomes
• pavements that change building material every five yards

-yards

Love from an EU expat yearning for home xxx

AND!! Honestly, to me, British encompasses us all. My friend Vinu has lived here for far longer than me. He and his family are more British than me. He laughed, so much, when I said that. Probably at my naivety.
He's 63, I'm 56. But, he has been in Britain, longer than me. He was a great a friend to me. I can only hope that I was a great friend to him. I probably wasn't. We had SUCH a laugh. Him, gently taking the piss, me, laughing my socks off at some of the things he said, which was actually quite right. His smile. Us both, siting down in the garden, and just looking up. I still miss him.
I'm British dammit.

Our food! So many wonderful cheeses, local delicacies such as Melton Mowbray pork pies, the Parmo, haggis neeps and tatties, tea by the gallon!
No insects/animals that want to kill us!
Dogs/cats/pets in general
Our beautiful and wildly varied countryside
People are always up for a chat/moan/giggle.
Pubs. The joy that is real ale. With proper crisps and a pickled egg!
I love living here.

Fish and chips
Pies
Chutneys
Gastro pubs
Oohh british puddings! Crumble and custard, sticky toffee pudding...
Cheese
Cider
Pizza express (dont get good pizza often where I am)
Cottage pie
Fish pie

Beutifully illustrated childrens books - brambly hedge, bt potter, my naughty little sister, the mousehole cat.

Availability of high culture - musicals, concerts, choirs, the british choral tradition, folk music that is clearly related yet a separate style.

Comedy. I dont laugh very often. If Im with other Brits its gag after gag.

Village fetes with bunting and soak the bloke
Country dancing
Cricket
Bonfire night

Open air theatres like the Minack in Cornwall

Oh, how could I forget the Minack. Our dc’s have been all around the world but the Minack is one of the places they always talk about.

The Proms season.
Radios 3 and 4
Fish & Chips in the rain. Egg sandwiches on the beach.
Tea
Roast dinner
More tea
crumble and custard
The NHS, The voluntary Sector, Policing by consent
The countryside, the national trust and glorious beaches
Museums for pencils and lawnmowers
Cultural Diversity.
Freedom to practice religions and none.

(Irish Gt Grandfather, Welsh Granny, Conceived in Scotland, born in England).

Im going to list some British dishes as I actually think we produce some awesome food:

Fish pie
Shepherds pie
Irish stew
Roasts
Lancashire Hotpot
Bakewell Tart
Cornish Ice Cream

I am of Indian heritage though so I may be guilty of using quite a bit of Worcester sauce, mustard, garlic, stock and herbs to really give the savoury dishes some oomph though 😬 .

History - absolutely bloody everywhere.

I love that I can look at my house, my road, the square mile I live in and can find stories....WW2 bombs left their mark in the next road along, I can dig in the garden and find a Victorian bit of tile and there's a Bronze Age settlement 5 mins down the road. I'm surrounded by stories.

Britain is so rich for stories and heritage. You really don't have to go far to find something fascinating.

@niynycachu

Aren't the majority of the things you like about being British just English? British just means English to me. If Westminster brought in an act of parliament that meant Welsh, Cornish, Gaelic were on an equal footing to English then I may be persuaded to change my mind. I won't hold my breath.

Can I ask in what way? Do you mean taught in all schools or able to work across industries etc?