What is British Culture?

Like most countries and societies, Britain has a rich and varied culture, dating back to before the epic of Beowulf.

Shakespeare's a pretty obvious candidate, but we also have the works of Newton, the Pre-Rapaelite artists, Turner, Chaucer, Marlowe, the poets Coleridge, Byron and Wordsworth, the civil engineer Brunel and the genius who developed Computing Science, Alan Turing. We've also got the writers Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, the Bronte sisters, J.G Ballard, Charles Dickens, Alain de Botton, Anthony Burgess (A Clockwork Orange), Arthur Conan Doyle, Mervyn Peake (Gormenghast)...

Folklore includes Beowulf (mentioned above), the legends of King Arthur and St George (who displaced St Edmund as our patron saint), Herne the Hunter, Robin Hood and more recently Guy Fawkes.

Popular culture that has spread around the world a bit includes The Beatles, Dr Who, Queen, Punk, Goth and the works of Alan Moore (who gave us V for Vendetta and Watchmen) and JK Rowling who brought the world Harry Potter.

National sports include cricket and football. The Scots are well-known for their Whiskey, England for it's warm beer and real ales. Wine is rather patchy though.

Seriously, I've hardly scratched the surface here. There's a hell of a lot more if you dig around.

When people talk about 'Protecting British Culture' they're talking about making sure it doesn't all get lost and forgotten about amidst cultural imports, such as US TV series and high streets being taken over by companies like Starbucks.

It's very important to understand though that the idea of protecting British culture is *not* the same as promoting a British-only culture!

For my part I'm a big fan of French cinema (and, well, France), Japanese Cinema and culture and many US TV series (Battlestar Galatica is brilliant, for example), and regularly dine out for Indian, Chinese, Lebanese and Thai food. I also like to travel too.

However I find it mildly worrying when kids, many of whom don't know who Churchill is, think that '911' is the number to dial in an emergency... (in the UK it's '999')

Protecting British culture is pretty much keeping anything British. Whether it be the music, food, people and cultural traditions and beliefs.

There is also a nationalist side to this idea and how people from other nationalities are not considered British.

Also keeping their attitudes and beliefs alive, preventing multiculturalism, diversity and equal and fair rights for all.

What is British culture nowadays? A mish mash of English, European, Indian, Asian and American culture.

There wasn't much to begin with. Sunday roast, pubs, fish and chips, football, rugby, class system, xenophobia, benefits culture, etc

Our culture is intrinsic as all cultures are , it's something you have to live and is hard to explain . Our history as a people goes back 14,000 plus years , we invented virtually everything , including the modern world , modern democracy , modern legal system etc etc etc .

You are trying to peddle propaganda invented by the pro immigration lobby . They have been trying to tell us that we have no culture for years and we have no right to complain about our country being overrun by millions of third world immigrants .

If there is no such thing as British culture then there is no such thing as French , Spanish , German , Turkish , Arabic , African , Indian , Chinese , Japanese culture either . This is clearly not the case .

Why is Britain the only place in the world that isn't allowed to have a culture ? Think on that .

Put it this way - this morning I got up with my Japanese made alarm clark, ate my breakfast which was manufactured by a swiss company, watched a bit of an American TV show that I recorded last night on my Korean made TV. Later on I put on my Chinese produced T-shirt, my American made jeans, my Italian shoes, got into my German made car, filled up with petrol (probably from Saudi Arabia), went to an Italian ran restaurant where I had lunch with some friends, enjoying a Dutch beer, on the way home I stopped off at the Supermarket (which was in fact British) where I brought some french cheese and Australian wine for tea.

I am know typing this on a Japanese laptop.

I am British by birth but my culture is very defiantly global.

LOL i love it, ur question just highlights what utter nonsense the whole concept is

but i guess the people who harp on in this vein mean:

1) trying to bring back a golden era (that didnt really exist) where everyone pulled together and everyone had everything they could ask for and everything was happy like in a 1950s film

2) enjoyment of bacon by all and sundry, and anyone who will not (for any reason-religion, vegetarianism, poor) is not truly a brit (or doesnt truly believe in british culture...hmm)

3) wistful melancholy based on the weather and poor service (but deep down enjoyin it when it all goes wrong)

our foods come from cultures around the world from when we owned a 1/4 of it. other than that id say drinking, jokin about bad things, the way we dress, our ideas of stories and fairytales usually based on medieval concepts are all part of our culture along with history itself. relationship, rights, the way men act, the way women act, the way we look at the world, society, education...the list goes on

Food.

Fish & Chips.

Sunday Roast Dinner.

Believe it or not but Britain's most popular dish is a Curry which is actually Indian Culture; our culture is a mix of other Cultures when it comes to Food.

Islamic and Immigrants, British culture is dead.

Lets hope we get the bunting out big time on Friday and show the world Britain is still British!!

yes it as someone put, fish'n chips friday, roast on sunday. knowing the history of britain, and the geography. about our heritage and monarchy. our religion is important, christmas, easter, fireworks night etc, are all important. the national anthem, our symbolic flags and of course, a nice cuppa tea.

the food and lifestyles we have now is not part of the british culture.

We're pretty good at queueing. We have invented LOADS of ways of queueing for just about anything!