its a tricky question.

My favourites are the ones who can fully pass themselves off as English while also being able to pass themselves off as a different identity. I know some Hungarians who speak London English and also perfect Hungarian......are they English ?

In London there are many Welsh, Scottish & irish who get confused for English....The accent is not always a giveaway...Tony Blair, Terry Jones, or Shane McGowan being three examples.

Foreigners living in London have zero interest in the subtle differences between peoples from the British Isles and daub us all with the English brush.

That French Actor in 'The King' did a perfect plummy English accent...and increasingly more and more 'foreigners' can speak better English than the rest of us.

Richard Dawkins isnt English.....even though he sounds English. There are many others.

Charlize Theron can sound fully american or English.....and she is neither. Englishmen from Tyneside, the Mersey or other places can be incomprehensible to understand.

Poshest accent i ever heard was a bloke brought up in Dubai - he identified himself as Scottish.

in summary....there are people who seem very English but are not. and other people who ARE English , much to the confusion of many. and yet my answer deliberately avoided the minefield of Ethnicity & living in the UK.
Its confusing. Anjem Choudary is more English than Pierce Brosnan - and yet the latter played James Bond.

first attempt .....DNA ? i know families where the older kids have one nationality and the younger kids a different one. The Van Tulleken brothers have not one drop of British blood, and yet you would never guess.

Sadiq Khan ? yes he is English. More English than Andrew Sachs.

so DNA doesnt answer the question.

second attempt.....a link to the English working classes. Yes, better. Cos any git can talk posh, but a good Croydon accent & network of family and friends. It cannot be fabricated.

identity. Marxists are trying to tell us that a Martian, landed 5 minutes ago at Dublin Airport is 'new irish'. Something similar happening in Germany - new Germans.

English ? how about the London 7/7 bombers ? Or the blokes who murdered Lee Rigby.

third attempt....passport, National insurance number, & paperwork. Shemima Begum fell a cropper. Martin McGuinness was not British, and yet he also was.

fourth attempt....Allegiance. Jack Grealish wore the football shirt of two nations.....is he still fully English ? Noel Gallagher says he talks Mancunian but he is irish.

fifth attempt....place of birth, so is Joanna Lumley not English ?

sixth attempt.....time spent in England, especially at a young age. Is Andrew Sachs really German ? and Prince Phillip really Greek ?

Final Answer : Vindaloo and Sticky-back plastic. Plus the ability to form an orderly queue at a bus-stop.

Edited by PalazioVecchio (15 Jun 2024 12.43am)

Edited by PalazioVecchio (15 Jun 2024 1.03am)

Kayla did Anfield & Old Trafford

So are they Cornish or English?

You are such a knob.

Palace since 19 August 1972. Palace 1 (Tony Taylor) Liverpool 1 (Emlyn Hughes)

I saw your post and laughed out loud.

You do realise that Cornwall is not a country?

I wondered how long it would be before being “white” crept into the argument. Creepy being entirely appropriate!

So because I have a French grandmother I am now to be regarded as “mostly English”!

That must mean everyone, you included, are only “mostly English” because it’s a nailed on certainly that everyone has many strands in their bloodline which originate in another country. Many not that long ago! We are all partly “something else” by this definition. Everyone of us.

Which means in your eyes the English don’t exist! Glad we cleared that up!

I have no problem at all with anyone being proud of English culture, heritage and history. How they acquire that pride is a matter for them. Not anyone else.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

No settled answer.

Some think only Cornish. Some both. Others just English.

Take your pick.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

The Duchy of Lancaster doesn't just cover a town. It includes areas of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire and Lincolnshire and is older than Cornwall too.

I'm South London and Proud. Dad was brought up in Mitcham and his dad's brother worked at the Crystal Palace. Mum, one of 13 kids, came from Sunderland where her father was a docker.

I'm English, full stop.

Dad and I watched games standing on the muddy slope of the Holmesdale Road end. He cheered and I rattled.

My post answered all this.

You are just repeating the same point.

As for Noel Gallagher, I very much doubt that a DNA test would show no English DNA but if he's 100 percent Irish then cool. No problem....the Beatles had lots of Irish DNA as well.

Most, if not all of the native people on these isles will have lineages connecting them to its various parts.

The only thing I'd say about him is that someone who claims to be pure Irish should at least live there or have lived there and not instead move from Manchester to Hampshire. Sounds more plastic paddy than Irish but good luck to him.

Edited by Stirlingsays (15 Jun 2024 10.27am)

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

England is a nation that has existed for a thousand years. It's a disgrace that the elite are trying to replace it first with British and then European.

Scotland became a nation around the same time as England yet I don't see anyone declaring no such thing as Scottish.

One more point

I know you have a problem accepting that Northern Europeans are White. You also seem to have a problem people who are White and like it.

A bit sad really.

So your self loathing aside, there is no doubt that the question of Englishness becomes more complex when you introduce people of mixed race or nationality.

Cutting through all your bulls***, the simple fact is that the vast majority of people in Britain can trace their heritage back through thousands of years. Obviously, when Europe was one landmass, people could wander across it. Since that time our genetic make up has been changed, in small degrees by European invasions.
No significant change has occurred for 1500 years and that was relatively small. That is, until the last 30 years.

Now if you want to simply be perceived as 'English' you need to speak English, adopt English customs and culture, support English sports teams, refer to yourself as an Englishman, not adhere to religions or behaviour that is anti English or runs counter to our Christian based values.

Your ethnicity is not necessarily a factor, but it helps to be recognised as English if you look like an Englishman.

Some well known examples were not Northern European but were perceived as English. Some people not born in England have been considered English by parentage.

In the end, most English want to preserve the England they had and reject the schisms, backward alien religions, the crime, the violence and the endless nonsense about racial etiquette that mass immigration has brought us.

That is all far more significant than squabbling over what English means.