Being British

JIM in EBORACUM:

You are right......the welcome roadsigns for "England" are smaller than the ones proclaiming entrance to both Scotland and Wales. Maybe that is a sign of English "modesty"......you know, being the Big Bro of the Family, sort of thing. Anyway, the ones saying "Welcome to Wales" have to be extra big because they are bi-lingual...they have to accommodate the "Croeso i Gymru" bit as well (the Welsh for Welcome to Wales) on the same sign, then another separate sign welcoming you to the respective county, or Region in the case of Scotland.

I said Hi! as I passed to the west of York on the A1M on the way down. Going home by way of a change I went up the west side - up the M6. I sort of blew a raspberry to Adam when I saw the name Bolton on the roadsigns.....

Allegiances. Jim! ;-) One thing I did learn when at Leeds uni....how proud and independently minded Yorkshire people are.......I think Yorkshire must be a sort of "English Texas", if you know what I'm getting at, only less brash and certainly less excruciatingly loud.......and without the stetsons ;-)

Dublin is a cool cosmo city.....I want to go back......Ireland has a really great atmosphere....and they use the euro!

You probably would have passed my old house if you went down the A1.

Ive heard the comparison with Texas before, dunno how happy I am with that ;)

"I sort of blew a raspberry to Adam when I saw the name Bolton on the roadsigns..... "

I often walk up to the Lancashire border and scream and rant, shaking my fist in the air.

Yeah Ireland looks great, I'll have to visit someday.

Personally, I'd say that I am firstly European; then I'm not sure if I consider myself to be more English or more British. However, if I were to renounce my British citizenship in favour of, say, Belgian citizenship, I would consider myself completely Belgian — I would not consider myself English or British at all anymore in that circumstance.

I sometimes wonder if my mentality of identifying with the more general terms first comes from the fact that I am *not* generally accepted by others as a 'Brummie', even though I've always lived in Birmingham (as has my dad, as did his parents and probably their parents as well). Why? Because I speak RP — I'm always being asked where I'm from; South Africa seems to be a popular suggestion, for some reason.

<<After all, more Americans seem to think they are Irish than there are Irish in Ireland.>>

That's because there probably ARE more Americans of Irish descent than there are actual inhabitants of Ireland! The same goes for Azoreans -- there are more Americans of that extraction than the population of the Azores.

<<I think Yorkshire must be a sort of "English Texas", if you know what I'm getting at, only less brash and certainly less excruciatingly loud.......and without the stetsons ;-) >>

In what way?

"<<I think Yorkshire must be a sort of "English Texas", if you know what I'm getting at, only less brash and certainly less excruciatingly loud.......and without the stetsons ;-) >>

In what way? "

Ive never got it really, I think its because we are the largest county of sorts (split into several large counties, used to be three very large ridings, and one gargantuan kingdom....ok not gargantuan, but you get the idea)
And we are just short of being a seperate country anyway, well we act that way at any rate. Other than that there is nowt else in common, no oil, no desert, no George W Bush types....

"That's because there probably ARE more Americans of Irish descent than there are actual inhabitants of Ireland!"

Well yeah thats what i'm saying, Sky News Ireland put it at 60 million Americans refering to them selves as Irish, it might have been 40 million actualy...erm.. well a shed load of them anyway. Skynews Ireland said "more than in Ireland" so a hope no one takes me the wrong way again ;)

Actually, the story here is that there are more individuals of Irish descent *in the city of Chicago alone* than there are Irish in Ireland. I do not have the particular figures to see whether such is actually true, but that is the story at least.

Yes, Yorkshire is a wee bit like Texas must be in the USA.....one the largest County in England, the other the largest State in the USA.

Yorkshiremen (mostly men, isn't it ever the case?) and Texans (again, probably mostly the dudes..isn't it ever the case?) boast and brag about being "the biggest". There the similarity ends......what I meant was this: the Yorkshireman's vocally boastful pride is probably a wee bit more muted than the Texan's. I could post a link here right now to illustrate this point, bearing in mind it was a high profile news item here in the UK during this past week, in the press and on TV, but I dinnae think I will somehow........


Aye, Yorkshire has been "cut down to size" as Jim says. There is a West Yorkshire, a North Yorkshire and a South Yorkshire. What happened to an East Yorkie then, Jim? I cannae find one on the map of your part of the country. Did it break off and drift away into the North Sea and join onto the Netherlands then?.....that'll shake the Dutch when they hear everyone say "'Ey oop! 'Ars thee bin?"

Yorkshire: The Great Ian Botham!

The Great Ian Botham? A new name for me so I looked the guy up to see what sort of Yorkshire megastar he is. Yorkshire isn't even mentioned in the site....according to that he was a cricketer (a game we Scots abhor as a bore), he was born in Cheshire, and played for England, Somerset and Worcestershire. Where is the Yorkshire connection? If he's known as Beefy by his mates (as the site says) then maybe he has a pash for Yorkshire puddings - that's the only connection I can make between Beefy and the County of the White Rose. {Perhaps I should read all of the site more closely but I don't have the time right now}

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/9163.html

Old Beefy used to own a big hotel in Asenby North Yorkshire, and his kids were educated here. I met him once.

It was the North Riding of Yorkshire, The West Riding of Yorkshire and The East Riding of Yorkshire, Riding comes from the Norse for third. The Kingdom of Lindsey, now the county of Linconshire was also split into Ridings. Then in 1974 or somewhere around that time, there was a big shake up of the borders, and local government all over the UK, Places like Hull and Middlesborough were split off into their own local government areas, North, East, South, and West Yorkshire were created, and the City of York was merged into North Yorkshire I think, but then alot of this was reversed recently, so if you're south of the tees and north of the Humber your in Yorkshire me lad....but not officialy. Bloody complicated eh.

"I often walk up to the Lancashire border and scream and rant, shaking my fist in the air."

Wishing you were a Lancastrian rather than a Yorkshireman?

"It was the North Riding of Yorkshire, The West Riding of Yorkshire and The East Riding of Yorkshire, Riding comes from the Norse for third. The Kingdom of Lindsey, now the county of Linconshire was also split into Ridings. Then in 1974 or somewhere around that time, there was a big shake up of the borders, and local government all over the UK, Places like Hull and Middlesborough were split off into their own local government areas, North, East, South, and West Yorkshire were created, and the City of York was merged into North Yorkshire I think, but then alot of this was reversed recently, so if you're south of the tees and north of the Humber your in Yorkshire me lad....but not officialy. Bloody complicated eh. "

Yorkshire used to be one hige county, then it split into North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire (I'm not sure about East Yorkshire), Cleveland, and the East Riding of Yorkshire (the stupidest name for a county in the whole of England), although North Yorkshire is still England's largest county.

Hull, even in the 1980s, was in Yorkshire. Then, recently, it was in East Riding of Yorkshire and now, this year, I've suddenly started hearing people say "Hull, East Yorkshire."

So now the poor people of Hull have now found there city in ANOTHER new county called East Yorkshire, whereas just last year they were in East Riding of Yorkshire.

If I was writing to someone in Hull I would just put "Hull, England" on the envelope. It would then be up to the postie down there to sort out which f****** Yorkshire to deliver it to. Get a grip down there, you Yorkie guys, and sort out all your Yorkshires once and for all.

I was in West Yorkshire at Leeds uni, that I know for sure....I kept seeing it on every sign and stuff. Even the coppers were West Yorkshire Police. Whichever of the other Yorkshires I went into in my three years down there, they were all really nice.....especially up Wharfedale and Wensleydale and all the other dales....a lot like Scotland in many ways, except that the sheep have a different accent.

What if the postman is an ardent nationalist who insists on his county being recognised with the correct address on the letter. Politics can be tricky!

Umm, guys, Texas is the SECOND-LARGEST state in the US. The real honors go to Alaska.

Alaska -- 1,593,444 sq km

Texas -- 695,248 sq km

Yes, that is one and a half MILLION square kilometers. Alaska is over twice the size of Texas!