The United Kingdom is in the middle of an identity crisis, which in itself calls into question the aforementioned official title. Perhaps "Great Britain" would be a better reference. No....actually, let's just use to term "Britain" from here on.
It is a succession of recent television series that leads me to jibe at the use of "United Kingdom". I actually think the appropriately misspelled Untied Kingdom would be more appropriate, but I'll try to stay PC here.
Of course, everyone around the world has a solid preconception of what "Britishness" is (and I already realize that an American prescription of Britishness may infuriate many to no end and be completely inappropriate for some, but please take it as it is -- based on more than 6 months of personal observation). Of course, we all think of cups of tea, red phone booths, bad weather and umbrellas, queues, Hackney Carriages, terrible food (have no idea where that one came from though), country cottages, and of course, that posh, intelligent-sounding accent. However, living in the UK will dispel any of these stereotypes of Britishness one may hold in their mind.
Perhaps my perceptions have been jaded because I have been living in London (which I am convinced is the most diverse and cosmopolitan city on the planet, hands down). But Britishness is none of these things, apparently. Sure, people drink lots of tea. And there are Hackney Carriages everywhere. And bad weather. And queues (If you're up there, thank you, God). But that's about as far as it goes. Being British is, apparently...........a dodgy question. For the residents of this country, at least.
I watched a couple TV programs recently. One was called Make Bradford British, the other Proud and Prejudiced. In Make Bradford British, some of Bradford's British residents (some white ladies and chaps) were made to live with some other British residents of the town (headscarfed Muslim woman, buff Islamist bodybuilder, razzy black chap, etc.). The point of the show was to make the people overcome their racial differences. In worked for the most part in the end, but the most interesting thing about the show -- and the topic that was most prevalent -- was the idea of "Britishness": the characters battled furiously about who was or wasn't British, despite all of the participants being born and bred under the Union Jack.
Similarly, Proud and Prejudiced documented two different groups of extremists in an English town (I believe it was Luton): far right English Nationalists EDL, who called for the expulsion of Muslims from the country, and Islamic extremists, who called for death to all English police. Naturally, both groups are "British". Yet their distinctly separate radical ideologies blurred any specific national identification.
Such polarized anger and a weekend out on the town in England might convince you that belligerence is what makes one British: the whites hate the non-whites, the non-whites despise the whites, the English English go out at the weekend and get unbelievably pissed and destroy the towns, vomiting over everything in the process (Britons behave badly at home, too), Muslims plotting attacks against their countrymen.....the list goes on. Underneath it all, there is a pulsing vein of anger underneath the skin of British society - the drunken husband beating his wife, the Asian man killing his sister to preserve the "honor" of his family, the unbridled drunkenness fueled by corner shop cheap liquor, the rage directed at queue jumpers and loud talkers on the bus...it manifests itself in many ways. One might think that being pissed off is what constitutes Britishness.
But it's not fair to sell the British short like so. I'm sure its not as cut-and-dry and simplistic as my American proclivities might impel me, as American identity is a matter of black and white.
But one thing is for certain - despite stereotypes established by decades, it is clear that the British have a new, inchoate sense of identity, and are struggling not simply to come to terms with it, but to define it.
