A decent answer. I think the notion of belonging to a nation is just the human need to belong to somthing. like supporting a football team. I think you have explained the roots of the nation very well and in simpleton terms that make your point very clear. But i think England sailed the world and spread its ideas like sports such as football, cricket, rugby and the americans perferred to use are language instead of german, helped spread the language. This spreading of are culture ment that to the english people that there culture was diluted, not having its own language, car industry or a cause to rally around like independance. The empire probably used to fill this hole but this has know gone and people no longer means what the english are, (the goverments need to try and make us embrace europe is doing further damage and causing stern resistance)which this debate proves. But we seem to be willing to try anything, how many indian and chinese resturants would you find on the continent, baseball caps and rap music. we seem to be able to meet things head on and try other cultures out with ease. "England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality. In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at everything from horse racing to suet pudding. It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during God Save the King than of stealing from the poor box." George Orwell