That british thing

I have been thinking what a tough race we Brits are, it must come from the weather we have to endure, or maybe its an island race thing. If you think about it we haven't been successfully invaded since 1066 ( dam Normand's). In fact in the last hundred odd years only one chump bothered and he got told to get lost. But we do have this unusual resilience, not seen in other cultures.

In times past it was call "the British stiff upper lip" and in Carry on up the Khyber they took it to extreme. I can't watch that final dinner party scene without crying with laughter.. if you haven't seen it, do so if just for those final ten minutes. Because it actually has a point, we Brits can just carry on when all else is falling around us. Think the 7/7 bombings or even the 9/11 attacks. We got on with it, yes people got seriously hurt and worse, but as a nation we healed and toughened up to it. Some of us will have grown up with the nail bombs in the 1970s and so we returned to our youth and that awareness , others referred back to the 1939-45 war. What ever generation we just pick ourselves up brush the dust off and keep going.

I notice in the last 4/5 years the old Keep Calm and Carry on message has become popular, almost as a social two fingered salute to the attacks.Taking a old World War propaganda message and making it a fashion and social statement. We have developed the message and make jokes with it like "keep calm and eat cupcakes" or twist it "now freak out and panic" basically as a society we have adapted it to every ones need. But if you think about it this is just the spirit that has taken some of the injured from either 7/7 or the armed forces to the paraolympics. Its the same spirit that made it the most successful Olympics ever especially as we are the 1st games in the Western World since the attacks. Its the same spirit that got us through those riots last year. We are a tough breed, whether you be Anglo, Scot, Celt or any of the other races that make up the British nation.

That may be why we fight for everything, for equality, for the NHS and so on, some one tries to mess the status quo and suddenly a community unites against this.  Suddenly we realise we have a wonderful collection of undervalued armed forces and we start to work to improve their circumstances, where they are neglected by those in power. We don't just roll over and play dead. Nor should we, as |I grew up for a little while we lost this national pride and fighting spirit and it was a very dark place to live, the 1980s may have been great money wise, morally and socially it did little for us as a country. What was worse was the fear of wearing the St Georges flag as it had been used to symbolise some violent antisocial message. Now 30 years later we are paying for that greed and times are hard. But never have I seen so many pull together as a nation. And our flags individually and the Union Jack are something to be proud of. Sure we all have a moan here and there, but think what we have achieved and the whole vibe of the year, it has been fantastic. The harder it gets, the tougher we get.

I am not saying we are a super race or are any better than anyone else, each culture has their own coping patterns and socially accepted way of dealing, I am just saying I love being a Brit, because we can actually find a warped sense of humour amid that stiff upper lip. Long may it last, it is a British as a mug of tea or toast and marmite. I am proud to be British as it has given me the toughness to carry on.