I don't regard what you said there as racist particularly. But I'm well aware that if you had changed those nationalities around someone would have accused you of it.

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

But you get why that's not a viable way of determining someones nationality.

In my experience if you get 10 people in a room, you'll get at least 11 different answers....

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
[Link]

If the room is in Tower Hamlets perhaps.

By your reckoning, democracy is non viable. Intellectual definitions are not what count in the national perception. If it did then a council of wise
elders would decide policy and define how we should think.

I agree.
We have safe guards in place to stop stupid people making our decisions but we are also governed by self interested parties who do not necessarily put the interests of the majority above their own.
At least, democracy allows us to put a spanner in the works of the selfish bourgeoisie once in a while.

Democracy might be the least worse option as a system but when determining perceptions of who is who, it has the final word. Telling us a bloke who came from pakistan last week(figuratively) is British because he has a British passport means nothing in the real world if no one buys it.

Well, there are a hell of a lot of people with British passports who technically qualify as British that personally I don't accept as British.

For me my qualification is, 'who would you fight for...or support if you had to'. Tebbit was right...It really is the cricket test and always has been....There are some tricky areas accepted...people with parents of different nationalities and so on...There are exceptions to every rule if you are going to try to be fair.

Nationality is where the heart is....which is normally down to your cultural upbringing. Personally I like how Japan regard nationality....to them it's important...I wouldn't have exactly the same system though. Being a low level nationalist it is to me as well....But that doesn't mean I think I'm better than someone else just because I call myself English...That's absurd and an argument from some opponents who only see a caricature.

I've taught foreign students I've encouraged to live here because they are truly excellent people who love the country and others that I've privately really wished wouldn't be here.

But we can't issue passports on what people say, because people lie to gain advantage all the time....So it's parents, etc etc.

But that don't mean sh1t in my book.

Edited by Stirlingsays (11 Aug 2017 6.57am)

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

Well, if he has a British passport, then he must have been born to, and raised by British citizens though. You don't just get a British passport for being top of a list, there is quite a process to go through - You have to apply for, and qualify for British citizenship. Even if your an asylum applicant - you have to first get through the asylum application process, be approved (and even then that doesn't guarantee you citizenship - mostly its temporary asylum - and then you have to live in the UK for about 5 years before you can claim citizenship.

My wife went through this. To get a working residence in the UK in 1998, she had to show she had enough money to sustain her in the UK for six months, a profession. She paid to qualify as a British Teacher, taught in the UK from 98-2005 and applied for citizenship and passed the citizenship test.

Obtaining a British Passport, legally, isn't easy if your a foreign national.

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
[Link]