What makes you British

The last few months here in Briton have been the stories of nightmares. The fact it's made world news is even more concerning as it makes people fearful of coming here to visit, which compounds the problem. I won't deny we are in the midst of what feels like guerrilla warfare, and you need to keep your wits about you. But for my generation this is nothing new we grew up with the IRA trying to blow us up, and let be honest it's not just a UK problem but a western world issue. Germany France even Belgium  they have all suffered attacks.

The problem is other matters are also unsettling our great nation. Our internal politics are as desperate as another big country I can think of that's making world news . The truth is the world is changing in desperation and without regard for past lessons so easily forgotten. But there is one lesson I am proud to see us Britons don't seem to have forgotten. The same message hidden in the posters from ww2 saying dig for victory, that got the east end through devastating blitz and if you want dredge deeper into our history got us through the industrial revolution the great fire etc.  The ability to dig deep grit our teeth and get on with it. The keep calm and carry on message. In fact the actor John Cleese has written a brilliant article on our levels of annoyance with situations where his brilliant comic genius sums up the country to a t. It is worth a look and is flying round Facebook.

But there is a little fact that is being overlooked in all this. It's not what a brit does that matters at the moment it's the fact that the real definition is being whitewashed. To qualify for the the label has absolutely nothing to do with your skin tone or accent, your gender or even religion. I mean we are nation made up of many cultures before America was discovered, by 1066 we had our fill of invasions and have only allowed one since. Instead we welcome people into the country provided they play by our basic rules.

To call yourself a true brit,

 your major point of debate shouldn't be what religion you are ( the Tudors drive the country into exhaustion over that). No a proper British debate is the correct way of serving tea or how to pronounce the word scone.

A brit is never happy with the weather.. No I don't get this either we an island for goodness sake it's going to variable.

A brit will moan about anything and everything usually quietly. But when all hell truly breaks out they will soon forget these whims and do the seemly impossible. Especially if those in charge seem lacking. When it really turns turtle it's the little people who become our hero's.

And a brit with fight tooth and nail to keep our country ours. Sure we have had to adapt when our great empire wanted to be part of the nation, but wars were fought to keep us in tea so it's a fair deal, besides it gave us decent curries and Chinese takeaways. So we quickly adapted in the same way the Romans gave us plumbing and salt. But we don't like people terrorising us on our home soil. That does annoy us and hurt innocence and suddenly you find us Brits won't just take it. We get our own back and we can get really sneaky.

You see being British isn't a genetic thing it's a mental state of mind. If you can witness what we have, brush the dirt off yourself and get back on with normal life within often as little as hours, then well done you're British. If you can see the humour in a man running away from an attack still carrying his pint then yes you can carry the name .

So next time you question if a person is a card carrying brit don't looking at the quantifiable but instead at the emotional. ..