My family is originally from Denmark - my great-grandfather changed the family name from Rasmussen when he moved to Wales to work in the mines at the beginning of last century. As far as we know, he was an economic migrant - he came to the UK in search of a better life. It's a random accident and incidental to my identity but I've always been secretly proud if it. I'm also conscious that had my great-grandfather been from, say, Barbados then certain elements in this country would be trying to send me back.
Anyway, all this notwithstanding, I do like being British and something I heard on the radio perfectly illustrates why. I was listening to iPM and the ever-wonderful Eddie Mair was interviewing a woman who had recently recovered from a serious illness. At one point, she claimed, despite being in a coma she was aware of the doctors discussing the possibility of switching off her life-support machines and letting her die. She remembers being afraid of this and of not feeling ready to go and, shortly after, she emerged from her coma. Despite the doctors predicting that she would spend at least six months in hospital, recovering, she was actually able to leave after three weeks. She summed it up by saying, with a chuckle in her voice, that she was "too stupid" to realise how ill she was.
I laughed (I literally lolled) when I heard that and thought, how typically British. In the face of a life-threatening illness, after a near-death experience and an almost miraculous recovery, her response was wonderfully humorous and self-depricating. What other country in the world would respond in that way? I love them (well, some of them, anyway) but can you imagine an American saying the same thing in the same circumstances? Only the the UK, I'm certain...
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