Theresa May 3

Official figures, daphne. Got it from ONS, roughly 50% have German blood.

Hmmm....interesting!

Approximately 13% of the UK population comes from Asia or Africa, so I can understand that they wouldn't have German ancestors. I wonder how far the ONS went back. Official records only exist dating from the sixteenth century, so it's difficult to go back any further. Did the ONS base their figure on DNA tests or paper records?

Those with Irish ancestors are quite interesting and possibly don't have German blood. Irish nationalists destroyed many records, so the English couldn't get their hands on them, but DNA tests show that many of them are descended from the tribes which inhabited the island of Great Britain before the Angles, Saxons, Jutes (and later Vikings and Normans) arrived, so they possibly have a claim to be more English than the English.

Some Welsh are descended from the original Britons and also have Spanish DNA from the days when the Spanish invaded. Scots from the East Coast have different DNA patterns from those on the West Coast. Those on the East coast are likely to have Danish DNA.

This is all nonsense anyway, because mobility has meant that most of us are mongrels.

I spent years researching my family history, so I have details of about 12 generations (over 8000 names). I was born with an unusual surname, which was easy to research, my paternal grandmother's family owned many acres of land, so there are legal records, and my mother's family all stayed in the same villages for centuries.

That's how I can claim to be English to the core, but I don't know (and will probably never know) where most of my sixteenth century ancestors came from. I have files of paper records, so I am legally English, but who knows whether any of my ancestors were born as a result of clandestine relationships?

It's probable that we all came from Africa. Countries and nationality are man-made concepts.

Where did your ancestors come from Mair? Are you one of the 50% with German blood? Heaven forefend that any of your ancestors came from Ireland or some outlandish place.

I think mair may be referring to the Angles, Saxons and Jutes when she says the English come from Germanic tribes. Our language, English, also reflects the Germanic (northern European) origins of much of Englishness.

Saying this does not mean there are not other aspects of modern Englishness Britishness, such as Celtic and, more recently, Asian.

Go back far enough and all our ancestors were African because that is where our species evolved. The ones that emigrated north had to evolve paler skin in order to avoid rickets. Survival of the fittest would have acted very rapidly because rickets damages the pelvis, often leading to maternal and infant death once the rickets-sufferer tries to breed.. Hence the pale skins in N Europe and N China.
Since then there has been rather a lot of travelling.
All my great grandfathers were economic migrants. This after centuries of working as agricultural labourers.

I'm Celtic and consider myself as a descendant one of the original inhabitants of these islands. All the rest of you are immigrants. Hope you aren't living off the state or using the health services.

Oh! Wait someone is telling me that actually way back my ancestors came from Africa. Blimey that makes us all immigrants!!!! Well we've all shaken down pretty well I suppose over the millennia. I have a lot of faith in our ability to continue to do so.

Of course there are, thatbags. That's my point really. I don't understand the obsession with ethnic purity or parents born abroad - not sure where I was reading about this. Apparently over 30% of UK residents have at least one parent born abroad, including:

Prince Charles & siblings
Boris Johnson
Nigel Farage's children
Jeremy Hunt's children
Nick Clegg's children
Margaret Hodge (who was also born abroad)
Sajid Javid
Priti Patel
Ed Miliband
Bradley Wiggins
Jess Ennis-Hill
Zoe Wanamaker
Eric Clapton
...

Yes. Quite. To the last three comments. I only commented, mildly, at all because I didn't like the tone directed against Mair because of what was a perfectly reasonable thing to say.

It might encourage more people to post on political threads if they were not so snappy. I'm sure plenty of people have an interest in politics. It's very exciting at the moment, after all.

Nobody, nobody is always right or wrong when it comes to politics. Everything is complicated and subtle.

I'll bugger off again now. ?

Love the way the young are taking part in the poster protest and the women's march. Lifted my heart to hear their tolerance and determination that this awful far right politics spreading throughout Europe will not prevail.

thatbags

Don't bugger off for too long, you at least answer questions.

Agreed, whitewave. Oh, to be young again.
I watched Obama's last press conference yesterday with my grandson, and he had tears in his eyes. He felt very sad that he wouldn't be able to watch Obama again.

Going to Mums today so will be able to see our poster on Shoreham flyover.

Are you watching the bridgesnotwalls facebook page?

There's a picture of one in Brighton supporting migrants.

Mair
I read your post of 23.14 yesterday as insinuating that what Soros had to say was invalid because the electorate was rebelling against him and his ilk. While I am as against wealthy manipulators of the money markets as many other people (being as I am also one of the 'electorate', though not one who confused protesting about Tory austerity with a vote to sever ties with an institution that had nothing to do with that policy) I am prepared to give credence to what they say because they are a bit more expert than me at predicting how markets will behave. That's how they got to be so rich.

Merkel, jackboots

It seems that some among us don't seem to have recovered from WW2.

Interesting geneaological diversion, dj
Not quite sure what it proves apart from the fact that we're a very racially diverse nation and should reflect on that before 'othering' people.

(My mother was born 'abroad', though it was classed as British then, being part of the Empire. I get far more recent African descent from her as she had some slave ancestry on her maternal side. My children even more 'mixed' as their father has German inheritance from a 19th century immigration from Prussia)

Experts disagree about how markets will behave. Even the Bank of England guy, Mark Carney, has admitted his predictions about markets immediately post-Brexit were wrong.

maizie "Othering" love it!!! will certainly be useful on some of the threads on here.

Daphne Dill and Thatbags
I note you've attributed to me the line I quoted from DJ. My point was what has that got to do with anything? The Angles Saxons and Jutes arrived here over a millenium ago. They have long lost their original identities interbred and are part of the ethnic British gene pool and culture.

Thatbags, I am pleased you noted that DD is being hostile and snipey, yet again, but amused that you think some posters such as her even want more people to join the political threads. Certain posters it would seem only wish to talk to people who hold their own views and to silence those who do not. It makes for some very dull threads!

DJ
I am curious about the ONS figures you mention detailing the genetic roots of the indigenous British. Can you post the link?
Thank you.

I can see all too clearly the agenda being pushed by the left wing globalists in this diversion into genetic roots of the British. IT is a stale old chestnut of the left to attack the indigenous British identity and imply that unlike other ethnic groups our identity is a 'phoney' one. Like so many of their beliefs it is a nonsense!

The indigenous British, lying as we do in the remote North West of Europe, are rather less genetically 'mixed' than most European ethnic groups. We are outliers, with less ancient admix from elsewhere than most continental countries. We have every right to consider ourselves an ethnic group both as a British pan ethnicity and as English Welsh Scottish and Irish , although the four medieval nations are much interbred with each other and have always been so.

The idea that all the people of the world have African origins around 100 million years ago before the peopling of the world took place somehow 'negates' modern day ethnic identities is utter nonsense. All mammals evolved from small shrew like animals and yet we are now over five thousand species!

But I think you will find bags that economists are in total admiration at the way he intervened and handled the situation. Without this intervention on q/e etc we would be in a much more parlous state.

That's why I didn't claim he was right when I posted the link to what he said. Somebody had asked about the reaction to May's speech at Davos, so I posted one reaction.

It was Andy Haldane, the BoE's Chief Economist, who admitted he'd got things wrong post-Brexit. However, he still thinks it was only the timing he got wrong. Only time will tell, I suppose.

*maizie" Lots of "othering" once again being attempted.

Maizie D

Interesting geneaological diversion, dj grin
Not quite sure what it proves apart from the fact that we're a very racially diverse nation

Actually it proves nothing.
As regards our being a "racially diverse nation", that is a very recent development, almost entirely limited to post world war two immigration. Prior to that large scale immigration to Britain had been minimal for over a thousand years, and before anyone sites examples of Africans in medieval Britain, yes, I am sure we are all aware there were some isolated examples (a certain royal trumpeter is often cited) but they were individual exceptions, not part of any 'mass' immigration and certainly not numerous enough to support the 'mongrel nation' lie beloved of the open borders left to denigrate the British ethnic identity.

Mair good post about origins.
bags yes, do keep posting your sensible comments.
Once again a thread is degenerating into snippy-ness, and the ganging up mentality
Because their own views are challenged.Put a sock in it.

Mark Carney admitted he was wrong when he was before the select committee on the 10th of January.