Quote:
Originally Posted by steeljack
Not really , but would have thought it would matter if the instant "new' population had no idea/comprehension/understanding about such things as the Magna Carta, Hereward the Wake , Bodecia , War of the Roses, all the stuff that was knocked into my generations head about what it was to be English , I'm sure Scottish and Welsh kids had similar stuff about their own national history taught to them, stuff which is absorbed/assimilated into the family psyche over more than one generation, now it seems all this stuff is 'verboten' and the "heros" are folks like Mandela and Ghandi .
Think the best example I can use are the Brits who emigrated to Australia/Canada/New Zealand in the 50s and 60s , the parents still had their British roots but the next generation are pure Oz/Canuk/Kiwi , this doesn't seem to be happening to the 'new' British.
hope that made sense  |
If the British Cultural Heritage is worth anything ... and I happen to believe it is ... it will survive, regardless. Canada's cultural heritage (and it's Canuck, by the way) is of relatively new manufacture and is still being forged. We are a country of immigrants, one which is coming to terms to the debt owed to our First Nations. Most Canadians who volunteered to fight in WWl did so because they were recent immigrants from the Mother Country. All of them returned Canadians, proud of what they had accomplished. And it is from that recent point in history that we can date our growth as a nation with a distinct identity. A fairly recent poll discovered that over 80% of English Canadians considered themselves "Patriotic Canadians" .... surprisingly, over 60% of Quebecois also placed themselves in this category. If this ramble has any significance, it does suggest that a nation in it's formative period can absorb new cultural "additives" quite smoothly as it works to form itself. In the UK, immigrants arrive and settle in a country which has already created an identity, one which has taken centuries to create. I can understand that there is resentment among many in Britain that the certainties of heritage are being modified .... the ones who are oppose to change would say "undermined", the ones who support change would stress that it is an improvement.
By the way, I am a strong Labour supporter .... I am a member of the New Deomocratic Party, which is a heck of a lot like "Old Labour."