My two penn'orth...

As someone who's away from her 'own land' (dispute as you will) and working as an English assistant (that's the language, not the nationality) it's been made even more obvious to me that it's important to be careful about what words you use (re British-English), ie the students and teachers find it difficult to distinguish between the concepts of British and English, no matter how much I explain it.

As for a 'British race' - I'd agree that I've always understood 'race' to be a biological rather than sociological term, to take the two extremes. If this is the definition of race, then therefore there can be no such thing as a British race, and much as I hate to say it I'll have to agree with Robin Cook (eek!). However, there are undeniably similarities between people (whether black, white, brown, green, purple etc) who have been brought up in or have spent a long time in the United Kingdom. With regard to first- and second-generation immigrants, for example, this must be due to socialization into a particular society or social group, rather than any inherent characteristics.

Example of socialization rather than inherent biological differences - when I first arrived in Russia, all the Russian students told me that I didn't look Russian at all, and this wasn't just due to my clothes but that they could see it in my face. However, I bought a big Russian coat and boots, got used to the procedures of where I was living, went about looking stroppy, and I'm now told that I look very Russian. Socialization, to a very minor extent.

So in my opinion (though this may be due to having studied Sociology and Psychology rather than Biology and Anthropology) there are a number of characteristics which can be found in many of the inhabitants of the United Kingdom. However, this does not mean that they are biologically inherent; if we had all been born in, say, Russia, we (though possibly having similar personal characters, but that's a different debate) would probably all behave a bit differently. Therefore, the question of whether a British race exists depends solely on whether you accept the term as solely biological, or as having other interpretations. I see it as biological, and therefore consider that a 'British race' cannot exist.

However, this doesn't mean that I don't miss Marmite, Eastenders, football, and people in shops occasionally smiling! ;)

Jayohjo in Russia XXX