"What does it mean to be British?" | Essay

Engelsk Aflevering – What does it mean to be British? What does it mean two be British?

“What Does It Mean To Be British” is the question and the topic that the three journalists Ned Tomko, Jo Revil and Amelia Hill try to grasp in an article. The article was published in the magazine The Observer on the 10th of June 2007. The Observer is a weekly newspaper that has been published and distributed every Sunday in Britain since 1791. Thereby The Observer is the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper and very believable for the readers. The article raises the discussion: “What does it mean to be British?” because Gordon Brown and other politicians were planning to introduce an official British Day. It is clear that the writers are critical of the idea. They write that it is “fevered efforts to bind an increasingly diverse nation together”. The writers underline their opinions by starting the article with a description of the very multicultural area Luton where it is estimated that more than 140 different nationalities live together. By this introduction the writers indirectly say that the attempt of the politicians to calibrate British identity is fake. The writers believe there is no shared British identity, because the country consists of many different types of people with very different backgrounds.

The journalists ask many different people their opinions’ on the subject. An immigrant from Pakistan says that Britain doesn’t have a clearly defined culture. An African Muslim immigrant says that it is hard to absorb the British culture even if one is willing to, because it is difficult to know what it is. The immigrant says that the Muslim religion offers a much clearer identity that the British identity. So it is easier to be a Muslim than a Brit. But because a large proportion of immigrants have a different religion, they are not considered "real" British citizens. The African Muslim immigrant says that even though they have a different religion it does not mean that their loyalty to Britain is different.

Graham Garrett is around sixty years old and has lived in Luton for many years, does not think the Brits stick together or have anything in common anymore. Graham believes he knows what Britishness is, but the problem is that people do not have it in common anymore. Engelsk Aflevering – What does it mean to be British?