Letter to the Guardian in response to "Britishness" article.

Being British means suppressing your Englishness and pretending that you have a lot in common with the Scottish, Welsh, Irish and ethnic minorities.

You don't, of course, because none of these people actually like you. They are free to dislike you, and say they dislike you, without being labelled racists.

If you reciprocated and told them that the feeling was mutual, you are instantly labelled "racist" and ENGLISH.

It's at that point that you realise the truth. You are actually ENGLISH and there is no such thing as British.

Which is why the Guardian is unlikely to publish this post - it might give too many English people out there some "dangerous ideas" about who or what they really are.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/17/how-to-be-british-hadley-freeman