Britishness not taught to kids

I don't think you can define 'Britishness'. Britain is, let us not forget, four countries, and I find it hard to give British people proper "values" and "stereotypes".

Now, let's think, why would anyone not want to live in Britain? Does it give you a clue if I just pluck a few ideas from the air? Rotten schools and desperate teachers? Rotten hospitals and demoralised doctors? Unbridled immigration? The biggest prison population in Europe and still there's not enough room? Vicious national and local government that thinks nothing of victimising those members of its electorate who have the misfortune to be British and white? Rampant crime and disorder in our city streets? A demoralised and ineffective police force who know exactly what to do and how to do it, but aren't allowed in case they infringe some criminal's rights?

No, it's no good. Can't understand it at all.

Is britishness getting drunk on thurs days ,fridays,throwing up in the street,fighting,thinking its funny to swear,damage peoples property on the way home,I am 42 years old & love the uk ,why would you live anywhere else? british people have a cracking sense of humour,love footy,going to the pub on sunday.BUT this country is full of some serious twots

This country is full of complete idiots, I blame the education system and the media outlets for filling their heads with total nonsense.......

John Howard hasn't been PM of Australia for over 2 years

You Sir are a fool, that’s the problem with the internet; idiots get too much opportunity to voice blinkered liberal views.

If a family simply moved in and then imposed their cultural rules upon your family home YOU would be INFURIATED, yet it’s OK to take place, just as long as it’s outside your doorstep and doesn’t DIRECTLY effect YOU and even IF damaging your nations whole history and structure.

Yes YOU will only realise and complain once it’s walking up your particular driveway and has finally to come along to change YOU’RE (Mr ABC's) home.

You’re a genius...and a traitor.

Promote the ways and values that created the modern world - British (1st) and European (2nd)

I think they point being made here is that we are losing an identity as a nation; we are condemned as "racist" for flying the flag of St George, if we visited other countries we would have to abide by their rules, yet we are not allowed to conduct the same policies. And sorry, I have to agree with MikeP on the isssue of spelling...what are schools teaching these days? Part of the reason I don't want kids!

The values of Britishness? Does anyone actually know what the values of Britishness are? When I think of Britain, I think of tea, a country where we can embrace all we meet and some poorly elected prime ministers (mentioning no names). Don't mock me for the tea. Have some, it'll cheer you up. Unless you're a coffee person. In which case, have a coffee.

I think we need to look beyond something as trivial as spelling. Why do we have to bash someone if we disagree with the person? What happened to the days of arguing a point without criticising the tiny things which don't really matter?

Enough babbling from me about the small things. As someone who is experiencing British schooling, I have my own views on how schools educate. How is it proposed we teach Britishness? Is it a separate subject? The days where ladies had separate lessons in etiquette are over. However, we are all taught manners in lessons (e.g. you don't get something unless you say please) and this should be something that is first established at home.

I don't think extra lessons should be wasted on Britishness. Why do these things need to be taught at school? Do parents not play any part in their child's lives? I am proud to be British. But I'm also aware that our history isn't as great as it could be. There are things to be regretted. However, at the end of the day, a person is a person, regardless of where they come from.

One more point to add, all the things I said I thought of when thinking of Britain, are better applied to England. Britain, or the United Kingdom, is still very much divided. And Britishness or English, is just another division. By all means be proud of where you come from and what you stand for, but don't try to force those views upon others.

To MikeP,
Mate, you need to chill! Relax a little, I reccommend aromatherapy. It's great you have such strong views but be a little less agressive in your comments. You may not mean it but it comes over that way! I'm exactly like you, I'm always correcting people! I just can't help it. It's my weakness!:)

:Have you tried the Life in Britain test for immigrants. I have just tried a sample of the questions and I do not agree with one of their answers. They asked what jobs British Children should do A) Manual, Supermarket work Paper deliveries. Their answer was Paper Deliveries and Supermarket work. Well last time I went to the high street our shops are not all supermarkets and children can do manual work on farms.So to any immigrants taking this test do not take this rubbish as gospel and good luck.

"And don't you, MikeP, go on correcting my mistakes, because to be quite honest I don't realy care!!! No effence MikeP but you don't half sound stuck up!"

If 'stuck up' is your term for someone who speaks and writes English correctly, then I am stuck up and proudly so. I certainly don't take 'effence' (sic) at being referred to as 'stuck up', but you could benefit from having your English corrected. If you have so little pride in yourself that you don't care, then it's your problem.

jamie123
Going back to the disscusion made before, Jamie123, I agree with sam and mikeP and I do think that you do come of as very very agressive!!! BUT who cares if you spell something wrong, after all there are many bristolian peole in the uk, even if your not bristolian it doesn't matter how your grammer is, at the end of the day it's the point your trying to get across! i'm sorry to hear about your english teacher! And don't you, MikeP, go on correcting my mistakes, because to be quite honest I don't realy care!!! No effence MikeP but you don't half sound stuck up!

How do you teach someone to be British? Do you sit them in a classroom and tell them to write an essay about why England rocks?!?! I don't think you can teach Britishness but you can identify yourself as someone who is proud of their heritage, as I am! I myself am still at school and I have never been taught to be British but I just know I am and wouldn't to be anything else! National pride is what makes you realise you are British. Not what you speak or learn but how you feel about your country! You don't have to love it or agree with the policies, you just have to realise who you are and like it!!!!

As an English woman living in Scotland I can tell you now that so called 'Britishness' is a myth. I have not met one single Scottish person yet that would describe themselves as British the same as I would always describe myself as English. I think the British are something of a minority who have deluded themselves into believing that somehow the 4 nations that share this land mass we call the United Kingdom are actually united. Im sorry but as far as I can see its just a matter of geography. It is my strong belief that the Scots, the Welsh and the Northern Irish would prefer to be a million miles away from England if they could. To quote Renton from Trainspotting (you must have seen it!) " Some people hate the English.I don't,they're just w*nkers. We on the other hand are colonised by w*nkers! We can't even find a decent civilization to be colonised by!" That to me rings completely true! You can bet your last penny that 'British' was a phrase coined by the English to try and make all the other nations we ran rough shot over feel a bit better! And yet it is us, the English that now find ourselves in the position that now we do not feel that we cannot celebrate our patron saints day or display our national flag without the fear of being labelled as racist or being targeted for abuse. I feel we have more to fear from our celtic cousins than from any of the ethnic minorities that have descended on to our shores over the years.

Well I never! Plans for a "Britishness Day" have been dropped, it has emerged.

The plan for a national holiday, like July 4 in the US or Bastille Day in France, was proposed as part of Gordon Brown's plan to celebrate Britishness.

It was one of the key recommendations of a citizenship review he commissioned from Lord Goldsmith last year.

Don't want to go upsetting all those so called 'non British', those that carry a UK passport now do we?

MikeP.. You make an excellent point there.. Just think for one minute though.. Jamie123 might be so poorly educated in written English.. as he probably has had..the pleasure of been taught by "Sylvain Abou-Shehada"..You know.. the teacher at his school.. that cannot even speak the language. He also seems very aggressive when someone brings up a valid point!

Do they have lessons in maturity at schools now?

No Jamie I'm not stuck up nor a w*nker, I just find it ironic that you are criticising others who can't speak the language, whilst your written English is so poor.

If you really have not had the opportunity to have a better education then I am sorry for you and I admire you for having the guts to go on a bulletin board and express your feelings as you do. The points you make are valid and well expressed, it's your poor grammar that lets you down.

mike p : you sound like a bit of a stuck up w*nker if you were to meet me and seen where I am from you woodnt be so stuck up then

jamie 123 : I totally agree with the point you are making, but your written English is atrocious and not much of an example for anyone to follow.

Here is your paragraph corrected. I have only corrected punctuation and spelling, the sentence construction is poor too.

How are children supposed to learn "Britishness" if all around them are foreigners, and even English teachers are foreign now in my school? One example "Sylvain Abou- shehada" (she is an English teacher) don't know why, she can't even speak the language.

0/10 mate!

how are children supposed to learn "britishness" if all that is around them is foriegners and even english teachers are foriegn now in my school one example "Sylvain Abou- shehada" (she is an English teacher) dont no why she cant even speak the language