5 July 2004

The very best of being British?

It seems to me that it would be pretty easy to come up with a list of things that are great about Britain. The first things that come to mind are the usual:

• London’s sights:  Big Ben, the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace

• The Beatles

• The Rolling Stones

• Snooker

• Monty Python’s Flying Circus

• Princess Diana

• Stonehenge

• Double-decker buses

• The Tube (subway)

• The rolling countryside

• British gardens

• The British accent

• The newspapers.

What made me think about all of this is a show I saw advertised on TV that runs soon.  Everyone will get a chance to vote for their favorite ideas of what is British by calling up, going to a website or sending a text message on their mobile phone (“texting” is cheap and popular). 

To get things started a panel of five “British” experts compiled a list of 100 candidates for the British list.  These were then voted on by 1,000 of the public (they are big on voting to create a “majority rules” mentality) in a survey conducted by pollsters TNS RSGB on behalf of Tanqueray Gin.

 Some of the top 100 most British aren’t well known to Americans but the results are still interesting.  I’ve listed a few of them according to their rating.

1. Roast beef & Yorkshire pudding or fish and chips (French fries) got 73%
2. The Queen (73%)
3. Buckingham Palace (58%)
4. Cooked English breakfast (56%) (grilled tomato and mushroom, plus eggs, potatoes, sausage and bacon)
5. The Beatles and Houses of Parliament tied (55%)

10.    Drinking tea (51%)

11.    British Airways (49%)

13.  Sunday roast beef lunch, and Rolls Royce tied (43%)

15.  Prince Charles (42%)

21.    Talking about the weather and Winston Churchill tied (35%)

28.    William Shakespeare

32.    BBC

42.    The Rolling Stones

44.  Stonehenge

51.    Princess Diana, bitter (real ale) and the rock band Queen tied with double-decker busses, Windsor Castle (20%)

The one thing this all pointed out to me was how very similar we are to the British.  We definitely like our food, our entertainment and our celebrities.  I guess that’s why people from America like to come here, yet they feel Britain is just foreign enough.

On the other hand the survey results also points out to me that Britain, in many ways has become a colony of the US.  We export our culture to them through entertainment and advertising.  The world seems to be growing smaller every day.