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Surely your nationality is set by where you were born. If you are born in a country that is internationally recognised as a national entity in it's own right, then surely that is your nationality. The real question should be, are any of the four parts of the United Kingdom independant countries in their own right.
ReplyDeleteNation is defined in the Chambers dictionary as:
nation noun 1 the people living in, belonging to, and together forming, a single state. 2 a race of people of common descent, history, language or culture, etc, but not necessarily bound by defined territorial limits of a state. 3 a Native American tribe or federation of tribes. nationhood noun.
I would deduce from that description that you could therefore define Murray as being Scots as he is from a race of people of common descent.
However I was born in Fife, and also descended from people of a common descent. Therefore that makes me a Fifer, and yet I could also be classed as a Scot. However my passport says I am British.
I have been British when I have to be, Scottish when required and a Fifer when I get tipsy.
I would never regard myself as English, but I am proud to be British. I am also proud to be Scottish, despite the sport results sometime.
The perception of a Scottish sports person becoming British with success and vice versa with failure, is nothing new. The London based media has done that for years, personally it makes no difference to me.
I do hope Murray wins, and secures his place as sports personality of the year, regardless of anything anyone does for the rest of the year.
Since 'Britain' is a geographical entity rather than a political one -which is the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'- then Andy Murray is obviously British. However, I do notice that English people get rather twitchy about Scots calling themselves 'Scottish' -but if you ask said English for THEIR nationality they will almost always say 'English', and see no contradiction
ReplyDeleteDrop the bait in the water and ...... your up to your elbow in Celts ... they can't resist the trap LOL
ReplyDelete"whether you are really Scottish, English or Welsh first, or just British?"
ReplyDeleteThe question was a fair enough one, and not specifically aimed at Scots or at Murray, nor did I indicate what I thought the answer was. I simply asked the question ... ultimately we all have to decide who we are at our core.
I used to be 'British' until I discovered to my great surprise that the Welsh, Scots and Northern Irish nearly all supported the opposition whenever English sports teams played anyone (especially at Rugby, or Football).
Up until then, I had naively supported all the British teams (usually by adopting them via a player I liked such as 'Willie Morgan' or 'Martin Buchan' for Scotland, or Sammy McElroy for Northern Ireland etc etc), and only showed preference when one of them played England. I genuinely had assumed that this was the case elsewhere.
After I found out that I was largely in a minority of one (literally in some instances), in supporting ALL the British teams, I became 'English' and stopped supporting the other teams ... except Northern Ireland and Eire at football, because I am of Irish stock, and call of the blood can't be left unanswered.
I fear that 'Britishness' has been much devalued by the 'PC left' for quite a while, so it has been lost as an identity in most of the country ... in England there has been a distinct rise in 'Englishness' as an ethnic grouping during the 13 yr Labour rule, in a direct response to the collapse of 'Britishness'.
As I said at the beginning its purely a personal journey .... it doesn't mean that you are disrespecting other nations in the union if you have opted for identity with one part rather than the whole.
NB: Novak Djokovic beat Andy Murray, so I guess that makes Andy Murray 'British' again on the BBC .... 'joking'