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Article: Britain is different: But maybe not as different as the Tories hope.
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- November 6, 1999
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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WHO do you think you are today, John Bull? Few Britons say they are "Britons". They tell foreigners they are British, or "Brits". At home, they might call themselves English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish or Ulstermen. Even those who consider themselves British first would seldom say "Britons". Fine to belt it out in lusty renderings of patriotic anthems such as James Thomson's "Rule Britannia". But in ordinary conversation? "Briton" evokes Queen Boadicea, painted with woad. It strikes a false note in a nation that is in no sense an ethnic nation but a political union of separate nations.
This union has lasted for three centuries, but it is not immortal. In 1992, Linda ...