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Arg! The England/Britain thing really gets my dander up. I don't know if you're referring to the Union Jack (the British flag) or the cross of St. George (the flag of England). If the latter you should be away that moslems aren't the only ones who object. The English in the UK are like WASP's in the US: they are forbidden from showing any nationalism but required to approve of everyone else's. The Scots and Welsh are proud of their own flags but they bristle at any evidence of English identity or English nationalism by labelling it "racist."

Basically, England doesn't exist. Scotland and Wales do (they have their own parliament/assembly) but England is merely the abstract Federal District of the United Kingdom (the Westminster Parliament is the parliament of Britain; England doesn't have one). This is partialy their own fault, of course, since it was the English who were the catalysts of the Union and thus they more than the other two countries consider themselves merely "British" (like American WASP's consider themselves "just American"). This is so much the case that anti-Unionist Welsh and Scots actually refer to the English as "Brits" even though the Scots are just as British and the Welsh are the most British people in the Union!

Sorry, Alouette. I know this isn't what you pinged me for but it just aggravates the menel out of me! Just the other day I was scanning the names of great authors in the World Almanac and noticed that if they were Welsh or Scots or Irish they were labelled "Welsh" or "Scots" or "Irish," but if they were English they were labelled "British"--and I don't mean just since the Union of 1707, but all the way back to Geoffrey Chaucer!!! Eeee does that sling my hash!

I still maintain that England needs independence from the UK more than Scotland or Wales do, but the identity of the English is so subsumed into that of being "British" that it will never happen.

I wonder if lefty moslems object to the politically correct cross of St. Andrew (the Scots flag)?

"The English in the UK are like WASP's in the US: they are forbidden from showing any nationalism but required to approve of everyone else's."

Utter rubbish.

"The Scots and Welsh are proud of their own flags but they bristle at any evidence of English identity or English nationalism by labelling it "racist.""

I've never heard a Scot or Welsh person do this. Do you have any examples?

"Basically, England doesn't exist"

Utter rubbish.

"This is so much the case that anti-Unionist Welsh and Scots actually refer to the English as "Brits" "

I live in Wales and have never heard a Welsh person do this. What are you basing your assertion on?