Moist Design: The only truly English person left in England is the Queen

The other day on the walk to the ICA from LCC I got talking to Veronika in my year from Russia. Now I am one of those annoying people who tends to bombard people with questions when I first meet them and so we got on to the subject of her perceptions of England before she moved here. She said moving to England was the biggest disappointment she has ever had. Obviously I took this personally and became quite defensive about it but when she explained why it really made sense.

From Martin Parr's Common Sense

In Russia when you start school everyone not only has to learn the English language but they also have our traditions and values drummed into them to prevent them ‘acting like monkeys’ when they come to England. They have been painted a picture of high society, where everyone follows etiquette, there is an over use of manners and a place where women are ladies and men are gentlemen. Obviously their idea is a bit backward and we have moved on a lot since then, but she felt that England isn’t England anymore it’s just another European country and we have lost everything that makes us quintessentially English. When she first arrived here her grandma called and said,’ How is it, is it everything we ever dreamed of?’ and she replied,”Grandma the only truly English person left in England is the Queen.”

The Queen

In her opinion she thinks we have lost our identity due to immigrants, but aren’t we so lucky to experience such a rich mix and variety of other cultures? Is it wrong that us as a country have lost our identity as a result? Or surely we have created a much fairer better identity?

"We are a British nation with British characteristics. Every country can take some small minorities and in many ways they add to the richness and variety of this country. The moment the minority threatens to become a big one, people get frightened." - Margaret Thatcher 30/01/1979

Though I am sure people will agree that the idea that men and gentlemen and women are ladies is quickly fragmented on the daily commute, I have personally experienced this when being pulled off a packed tube by a business men so he could jump on. I do think that our society has altered and changed a lot over the years, especially with the recession people cant afford to do things out of the kindness of their heart and working longer, harder hours, for nothing just to keep their jobs so they probably aren’t going to be happy. But at the same time I don’t think we would want to go back to where we were.