'tis true. england is nice because it's familiar. we know the rules (and regularly break them
) it's not considered polite to discuss religion and politics - yet, everyone does all the time - and we all get cross and fall out and no-one minds because the next day we do it all again.
i would like to live in a variety of different countries, mainly italy because i like the climate and wonderful hypocricy of the catholics - they are fab! sin like a B****** all week and confess on sunday. makes me smile.
on a more serious note, the vast majority of brits are perfectly aware of the actions of our fore-parents in the world and most have no illusions as to our status in the here and now. i'm perfectly happy to be part of europe and though don't like some of the EU policies, prefer to think that a united europe is better than disunity and in-fighting, which is what we've had for the last goodness knows how many centuries.
i describe myself as european before british/english, because i admire europe and share a great many commonalities with her; history, blood, ideology etc.,
i like england but don't 'love' her. she's a progressive country, ever changing, but with pockets of old fasioned chocolate box lovliness contrasting with underprivilaged urban sprawl. i have been lucky enough to experience both. few institutions have remained intact, yet, there will probably always
be a veneer of tradition that non-brits will tend to latch on to.
the days of the raj are long gone - thankfully and i don't really think anyone thinks or yearns for them - i haven't met any, anyway.
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offended mistress of the illuminati