Frank McGrath makes some good points, except for this frankly bizarre claim, however:

Since the Norman invasions in the 11th c., "English" people, ie., South East England, are really emigrant French.

Not so!  All the Norman Conquest did was import a new "top layer" of aristocracy, and an "official" administrative language; very few Norman French (who were in any case mostly immigrants -a few generations back- from Scandinavia) actually came to live here, as compared to the existing population, who mostly stayed put.  Historically, cultures that migrate to these islands either assimilate the previous population (as in the case of the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Celtic Britain) or are themselves assimilated (as in most other cases so far, including the Danish and Norman invasions) and wind up adopting the local language.

None of this, of course, has any bearing on the discussion or on the substance of the article I pointed to; just couldn't let it go unchallenged.  You know how it is.

Malcolm