@PalacinkyPDX If I was born there yes of course. If I had been British living in a foreign land (which I was for many years), I would consider myself to be British. But these ppl do not live in foreign lands, they live in the land of their birth, but still ellude to some ideas of the 'homeland' which defintely no longer exist.

@PalacinkyPDX I was born a long time after India gained independance. I was a Brit living overseas for long enough so I understand the yearn of the motherland. However I was born in England. These people are second or third generation Americans, with absolutely no ties to the land of their great grandparents. It wasn't that they yearned for the 'old country' . It was they did not see the irony of claiming patriotism and then describe themself as belonging to another nation entirely. I remember hearing Whoopie Goldberg saying, 'I've been to Africa. I am an American!' Its a very odd thing.

@PalacinkyPDX I absolutely have no experience of having to leave a country due to the forced starvation by destructive dictators. I have absolutely no experience of what it is like to be stolen from my home. I have the experience of being a working class girl from a country whose powers that be, were guilty of such atrocities. I understand people wishing to retain something of their heritage (like the muslim brothers and sisters near me). What I don't understand is the yearning for one thing and claiming an affiliation to something that by 3rd or 4th generation is utterly and completely alien to them. For example when I lived in USA, most people thought I was Irish because of my hair. Then tried to tell me I would 'hate' them because they 'are Irish', when they discovered, I am English. The thing is, way back, my family were Scandavian, my grandfather was a 'Stephenson', which is a derivative of a scandanvian name. I am tall, big boned, fair and definitely of Viking ancestory. I have never once described myself as Norwegian, or Danish, because I am English. I think after 3 or 4 generations you should stick with the country of yer birth. What was weird for me was people claiming to be 'Irish' or 'Italian' or whatever but waved the stars and stripes with tears in their eyes when the national anthem came on. I do not attribute any right or wrong, its just weird to me.

@PalacinkyPDX Something else you need to remember is that most English people aren't really into flag waving. You may see a few in NI or the saltire in Scotland. The union jack has been hijacked by the far right and the george cross only comes out at the football. Patriotism seems a bit ick and out of place in 2018, especially considering all the shitty things we did.

@PalacinkyPDX