English Icons

[Ken L]

Stonehenge

Punch and Judy

SS Empire Windrush

Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII

Cup of tea

FA Cup

Alice in Wonderland

Routemaster bus

King James Bible

The Angel of the North

Spitfire

Jerusalem

The Notting Hill Carnival

Hadrian's Wall

The mini-skirt

Cricket

Morris dancing

The pub

Blackpool Tower

The Eden Project

Big Ben

Nelson's flagship HMS Victory

Constable's painting The Hay Wain

Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice

The Globe Theatre

The Sutton Hoo helmet

The Machin

and York Minster are all suposedly English icons.

 

SS Empire Windrush, The Notting Hill Carnival, Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII, Alice in Wonderland, Constable's painting The Hay Wain, The Globe Theatre,The Sutton Hoo helmet and The Machin; Do me a favour. The Globe is less than 10 years old for chrissakes

 

As for, The Angel of the North, The Eden Project and Blackpool Tower, they're purely regional.

Edited April 28, 2006 by Ken L

[BoozleBear]

What about...

 

FISHING!!!!!!

All Day Breakfast

St George's Day (or is it racist to mention it nowadays?!)

Sunday Roast

 

And a few more

Curry

Queues

Hoodies

Mugging for mobiles (not indigenous to the UK but I am sure we pioneered it and are still the best)

Unnecessarily large amounts of traffic cones near roadworks

Train delays

Binge drinking

[Tony U]

Nothing wrong with including Morris Dancing, it is an English dance form using traditional English Music.

[Ken L]

Nothing wrong with including Morris Dancing, it is an English dance form using traditional English Music.

 

I agree. It's the PC BS that I have a major issue with. I reckon that less than 1 in 5,000 people in this country could reckognise the SS Windrush from a photo. Then, there simply has to be some stuff from the regions and a celebration of ethnic "culture".

[gozzer]

Nothing wrong with including Morris Dancing, it is an English dance form using traditional English Music.

 

Nothing wrong with it at all Tony, a few years ago I read that a village I used to go to a lot in my youth, was having 'an open garden day'. I hadn't seen the place for 20 odd years, so we went. A great day but the thing that caught my eye most was the stamina of the Morris Dancers. They started with a drink at the pub at the top of the village, danced 30yds to the next had a drink, and so on at all 5 pubs, turned round and danced back again, stopping for a drink at each one, and so on all afternoon, apart from a break for something to eat ....and a drink at a..... pub! I don't recall them missing a beat, but some of the leg work and waving got a bit erratic towards late afternoon.

[Tony U]

My leg work gets erotic after a few pints and I wave at anything in a skirt.

 

We have the sweeps festival on in Rochester this weekend. Over fifty sides will be dancing over the weekend including our lot. I should manage to limp round a few dances and drink a few beers.

 

 

Tony