It has nothing to do with ones citizenship or ones parents' citizenship. The term "Mother Country" simply means parent country. Britain was the parent country of its colonies.
Anglosphere
Britain was the parent country of its colonies.
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Yes, "was".
But when you read sentences like these:
"Citizens from Commonwealth countries have long since felt the same irritation - seeing EU "foreigners" being treated more leniently and casually than they themselves while waiting to enter the so called "Mother Country"."
It feels like we still consider UK like our "Mother Country". I don't care about UK. It's not my "mother country".
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Yes, "was".
But when you read sentences like these:
"Citizens from Commonwealth countries have long since felt the same irritation - seeing EU "foreigners" being treated more leniently and casually than they themselves while waiting to enter the so called "Mother Country"."
It feels like we still consider UK like our "Mother Country". I don't care about UK. It's not my "mother country".
Back when the colonies were just colonies, it was indeed the mother country. Today, it is a fellow English-speaking country that has the same cultural roots as its former colonies. Anyway I don't see how you could pretend to be offended by the term, as it is in quotation marks and proceded by the phrase "the so called".
The "mother country" is where the governing body is located. Since the government of the colonies was based in Great Britain, Great Britain was the "mother country". Now that Great Britain doesn't have any direct control over its former colonies it is no longer the mother country: except to places like the Isle of Man. But in any event, the term isn't used much anymore.
Italian.....Dutch......American......hmmmmm.......the last time I looked neither Italy nor the Netherlands nor the United States of America have any connection with the British Commonwealth of Nations at all...they are complete outsiders in that respect, so by the same token they have no affiliation with Great Britain either in that sense.
Both Italy and the Netherlands are now very strongly linked to the UK through the common membership of the European Union Family so at least they have a cast iron bond with us there. The United States doesn't even have that connection so you could say it is even more of an outsider and more foreign to Britain than the two European countries.
History has moved on enormously and many generations have come and gone since the Pilgrim Fathers sailed from England's wave-beat shores and subsequently became the Founding Fathers of the infant America. The Americans themselves irrevocably severed the umbilical cord on 04 July 1776.
Probably the only durable bond we now have with America in this new scenario is a common Language but there are shades of difference even there.
The only countries having the right, if they so wish at any time, to call Britain the Mother Country are those contained within the aforementioned Commonwealth. They are not bound to do so, of course.....as I said....they have the choice. The United States doesn't because it isn't because it's totally foreign in the international sense.
Both Italy and the Netherlands are now very strongly linked to the UK through the common membership of the European Union Family so at least they have a cast iron bond with us there. The United States doesn't even have that connection so you could say it is even more of an outsider and more foreign to Britain than the two European countries.
History has moved on enormously and many generations have come and gone since the Pilgrim Fathers sailed from England's wave-beat shores and subsequently became the Founding Fathers of the infant America. The Americans themselves irrevocably severed the umbilical cord on 04 July 1776.
Probably the only durable bond we now have with America in this new scenario is a common Language but there are shades of difference even there.
The only countries having the right, if they so wish at any time, to call Britain the Mother Country are those contained within the aforementioned Commonwealth. They are not bound to do so, of course.....as I said....they have the choice. The United States doesn't because it isn't because it's totally foreign in the international sense.
No that's not true at all. The Commonwealth is voluntary association (a club) of 53 sovereign countries. The United Kingdom cannot be considered the "mother country" as none of the Commonwealth countries are subordinate to the UK. Thus the countries of the Commonwealth cannot call the UK the "mother country"
I'm from Quebec and I feel a special bond with France, I don't know if I can consider France like a Mother country (I don't think so) but to have a common language create some kinship.
Yes, having a common language, and especially having common cultural roots does create a very special kindship with another country. Québec is sort of a special case. Btw, how do people from Québec feel when they travel to the US? Does it seem strange? I would imagine that it would. Overall in most ways the US is rather the same as Canada, but how does it feel to travel to a not-so-foreign country but with everyone speaking a different language? Aside from the areas of the US that are adjacent to Quebec where a lot of people speak French, and especially places like that strange library and opera house that they deliberately built through the Québec-Vermont border, so it's half in Quebec and half in Vermont, and where all the staff are bilingual. (That's an interesting place. They even mark a diagonal line in the floor where the US-Canada border is, although you can cross it without declaring customs as long as when you make sure to leave the library through the same door that you came in.) Also what is it like for people from Québec to travel to the UK? I would image that they wouldn't have any "border" angst, like an English-speaking Canadian or American, as the UK would seem like a foreign country--more so than France. Does the average person from Québec speak better English than the average French person?
The thing about Quebec is that, at least from the perspective of here in the northern US, that it is actually, well, a distinct nation within North America, while English Canada is really barely distinct from the northern US at all. Hell, the view is practically that the border between the US and English Canada is purely a political border, and little would actually change "on the ground" were the US and English Canada politically united. On the other hand, while Quebec is legally part of Canada, it is treated here as if it were a nation independent from Canada aside from the fact that it does not have an independent foreign policy or customs at the present. And culturally, Quebec is seen as having a very distinct identity of its own, while English Canada is seen as essentially culturally one and the same with the US - with all attempts to try to play up a "Canadian" identity being seen as essentially artificial, hollow, and purely political in reality.
Well, I do not know enough about that to say, so please do not ask me specifically repeatedly.
Much of the Caribbean is, or was - not too sure which now - called the BWI - the British West Indies - as a fair number of all those islands belong to the Commonwealth of Nations, and as a result Enlish is the primary Language there.
Take Jamaica for instance - it's capital is Kingston - you couldn't have a more English English name than that - a fair sized suburb in the South West of the Greater London area is called Kingston-on-Thames. A large city on the north bank of the Humber Estuary, in East Yorkshire, England, is officially called Kingston-upon-Hull but everyone knows it simply as Hull.
Jamaican English is a sort of pidgin English for want of a better word - and way back in the 1950s many thousands of Jamaicans - all of them black of course - came over to England (mainly) and settled here and now the third or perhaps fourth generation is growing up in many of the inner city metropolitan areas - especially London - you could say they have formed ghettoes, as there are areas of London where the Caribbean black population is as high as 60 to 70% - districts such as Brixton, Clapham, Camberwell, Peckham, Tottenham, Wood Green, Lambeth, Streatham etc.
Although many of these people have local accents (eg Saaahf Landun - South London) many younger back males adopt their own form of speech - rapper style - based on the original Jamaican creole style, and I've heard it regularly. A good place to hear it is on the tube - especially on the Victoria line between Victoria and Brixton or on the Northern Line between Embankment station and Morden.
They have their own vocabulary and being called a snowflake is not a new experience for me.
Jamaica is divided into counties - or whatever they call them - all with English names such as Cornwall and Middlesex among others.
Many of these islands of the WI seem to be quite British in character, and even though the Bahamas are so close to the coast of Florida they still retain many aspects of British life in all that lovely sunshine such as left hand driving, having a Governor General who flies the Union flag outside his residence and who probably takes tea and muffins with the locals. The same can be said for Bermuda - again a little piece of Britain not that far away from the American coastline. It's capital is a reeal name from English history - Hamilton. There is a sizeable town here in Scotland called Hamilton, where the local football team is called Hamilton Academicals.
Trinidad is a bit of a maverick in that eespect though - it's capital is Port of Spain, and the reason for that is well known!
Take Jamaica for instance - it's capital is Kingston - you couldn't have a more English English name than that - a fair sized suburb in the South West of the Greater London area is called Kingston-on-Thames. A large city on the north bank of the Humber Estuary, in East Yorkshire, England, is officially called Kingston-upon-Hull but everyone knows it simply as Hull.
Jamaican English is a sort of pidgin English for want of a better word - and way back in the 1950s many thousands of Jamaicans - all of them black of course - came over to England (mainly) and settled here and now the third or perhaps fourth generation is growing up in many of the inner city metropolitan areas - especially London - you could say they have formed ghettoes, as there are areas of London where the Caribbean black population is as high as 60 to 70% - districts such as Brixton, Clapham, Camberwell, Peckham, Tottenham, Wood Green, Lambeth, Streatham etc.
Although many of these people have local accents (eg Saaahf Landun - South London) many younger back males adopt their own form of speech - rapper style - based on the original Jamaican creole style, and I've heard it regularly. A good place to hear it is on the tube - especially on the Victoria line between Victoria and Brixton or on the Northern Line between Embankment station and Morden.
They have their own vocabulary and being called a snowflake is not a new experience for me.
Jamaica is divided into counties - or whatever they call them - all with English names such as Cornwall and Middlesex among others.
Many of these islands of the WI seem to be quite British in character, and even though the Bahamas are so close to the coast of Florida they still retain many aspects of British life in all that lovely sunshine such as left hand driving, having a Governor General who flies the Union flag outside his residence and who probably takes tea and muffins with the locals. The same can be said for Bermuda - again a little piece of Britain not that far away from the American coastline. It's capital is a reeal name from English history - Hamilton. There is a sizeable town here in Scotland called Hamilton, where the local football team is called Hamilton Academicals.
Trinidad is a bit of a maverick in that eespect though - it's capital is Port of Spain, and the reason for that is well known!