Norm is trying to define Englishness. That alone marks him out as a foreigner as we simply don\’t.
As to the description he\’s looking for that\’s simple and should resonate given his place of birth. We English are simply those wityh the winning lottery tickers. All others are, by definition, simply losers.
This is why we don\’t blame foreigners, hate them or even dislike them. But we do of course pity them which could well explain why so many of them despise us. Nothing like being condescended to to inspire hatred.
Nor do Hilary Benn or Wallace quite get it. An Englishman cannot when he’s honest see being English as any particular achievement. An accident of birth is nice, but nothing to be proud of.
That’s a particular problem for Americans to understand, but also it seems our own would-be post-liberal populists.
Guy
I think it’s more complicated. My father was welsh, my mother scots / danish. I’m english? My wife is jamaican, my children…
And none of us gives a hoot about the footie results but WE’RE ENGLISH, so there!
Well maybe I should have written ‘an accident of life’ – but I suggest the same principle applies… by whatever assimilation process you get to be English it is a contingent characteristic, not an achievement.
Damned if I know whether you’re joking or not these days.