On Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:44:00 +0100, Dirk Bruere at NeoPax
 wrote:

>Svenne wrote:
>> On Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:57:30 +1300, Roger Dewhurst
>>  wrote:
>> 
>>> Svenne wrote:
>>>> On Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:41:12 +0100, Maria 
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Jon Green wrote:
>>>>>> Maria, I think we're actually agreeing furiously!  The only particularly
>>>>>> valid definition of English is "lives in England, and considers
>>>>>> him/herself English".  Likewise Scots, likewise Irish, likewise Welsh.
>>>>> Ok, we agree on that!
>>>> I would add "someone who identifies with the cultural/historical
>>>> continuity of England."
>> 
>>> That is a nice definition.
>> 
>> But hard to accept for someone who denies there is such a thing as an
>> English identity and strangely enough a lot of people do that. Wierd.

>Personally, I favor honor killings, book burnings, vote rigging, 
>nepotism, the subjugation of women, stoning of homosexuals and death to 
>apostates. Am I English?

Of course you are English, anybody on the planet is. Whatever your
background, language, beliefs or other personal attributes you are
just as English as Robert Mugabe and president Ahmadinejad, who in
turn are as thoroughly English as Sir Francis Drake and Oliver
Cromwell since there is no way at all of telling them apart from
anyone born in what is laughingly called "England."

Svenne