Why I'm Not Proud To Be English

Today on Twitter someone asked if there is anyone out there who feels proud to be English, and if so why are they proud?

Here is why I am NOT proud to be English. Hold your horses UKIP; it may not be what you are expecting to read.

I was born in a small South London suburb, set firmly in that chunk of rock known as England. My mum was a cleaner, my dad was a lorry driver and my big sister went to the local state school. So to all intents and purposes I was not only from South London, I was English. Now fortunately my mum and dad never expressed any pro-England or anti-everywhere else opinions, not that I can recall anyway. All that mattered to my parents was bringing up their family in a safe home with enough food to eat, enough clothes to wear, and the ability to read and write before I got to school at the age of five. My mum taught me to read with Janet and John Books; my dad taught me the time by drawing circles around saucers and getting me to write the numbers on the clock and putting the hands in the right places.

As I grew older I made friends with children from all different racial backgrounds. As far as I was concerned they were my friends and that was all that mattered. It never occurred to me this was MY England. I couldn't really give a damn what the piece of rock was called, and I still can't.

So why am I not proud to be English? Well, apart from the obvious jingoistic connotation there is another reason. I am not proud to be English because I had no say in the matter. I did not choose to be born here, just as I did not choose to be born in Whitehall, Kentucky or New Guinea.

The only way I could have taken any pride in the matter would have been if I'd got into a time machine, went back to 1960 and by some careful manipulation made sure mum and dad were in South London during that particular year. Not only that, they would also have had to have got jobs as cleaner and lorry driver to ensure I was born into the not too wealthy part of London.

And this may not be relevant to what I have said above but I also have no time for the melting pot theory or patronising thoughts of "tolerating" other people from other parts of the world. We are all people, end of. We need to take it for granted that we are all people and we all matter.

My ideal world would be represented by a globe with no place names on it.*

* I realise this may present a problem when booking holidays. I'll go to that bit over there - no, not that bit, that bit!