Sociology

Nationality defines a group of people who possess a common identity based on a common language, culture, geographical territory and history. Considering this definition then, can we say that there is something like a British nationality  For Britain to qualify to have a common nationality for all those within its territory, all the people must have a reasonable combination of these factors. The British national can have four different identities namely English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh. Any of these identities is recognised as British, which makes one question the validity of a single British nationality. Merriam Webster dictionary defines nationality as a status belonging to a given or specific nation through a process, which can be by either birth or naturalisation, and the British nationality fails to meet this definition.
    To address this question, one needs to individually look at each of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom using the different aspects of nationality as we have specified above.  The purpose this is to get rid of the perception that has always equated the British to English. This is a wrong perception because the people referred to as English come from England, which is one of the countries that make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
On the other hand, British refer to the people who live in the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom. Hence, the question that needs to be addressed is whether the people who live in these four countries and are referred to as British meet the criteria of a common nationality.
    Of the four England is the largest of the four. The occupants of this country are called English. They are the most dominant of the four groups and that perhaps explains the fact that they always dominate other groups. The terms English and British are used interchangeably and in a confusing manner. The English are better known as a nation that loves football with some of Europes top clubs such as Manchester United, Arsenal, and Nottingham Forest being found here. However, the English have had a hard time trying to curve out their own identities distinct from the other four groups because of the confusion between the terms English and British (Kumar, 20032). Yet the English have their own way of speaking (accents) and culture that differentiates them from the rest. However, this ethnic group forms the core of the British empire and that probably explains the reason as to why they have always be mistaken as British (Kumar, 20039).
    The other constituent nation that makes up the United Kingdom is Scottland. It joined the British empire in the 18th century and its people are easily identified from their accents (all have their accents) and their dress also known as the tartan. Scottland has its own legal, education, banking, language, church and even its own trade union congress  (Hanham, 1969). All these instituitions inform national culture and that is why the scottish have always managed to curve out a disticnt identity.
    Wales joined the United Kingdom in 1536 and was thereafter administered from the British empire (Moll-Gymnasium, 2009). Compared to other three members, the welsh have the least conspicous identity. They are probably known as a rugby playing nation but other than that the country has not curved a distinct identity from England. The country has been under the complete rule of Britain for so many years but is now trying to manage its own affairs. The country passed the Welsh language act in 1993 and thereafer in 1997 the country voted in favor of more devolution of power to its new assembly (Moll-Gymnasium, 2009).
    Ireland is home to Irish commuity, a part of the British empire that has always been associated with catholic and protestant movement. In other words, Irish nationalism is mainly based on religion because this is the factor that has for long defined this population. The native language of the Irish is the irish language also known as Gailge. According to  (yourIrish.com, 2009) a third of the population have a degree of fluency in Irish.
Where is the British nationality
    Having looked at the countries and cultures that comprise the British Empire we then want to locate the idea of a British nationality from it. The noticeable thing from this analysis is that scotland and Ireland have always maintained distinct identinties from England. In other words, their national identinties as Irish or Scottish have always been preserved. England on the other hand has found it hard to distinguish itself from the larger british identity because the line between British and English has remained blurred.
    From our definition of nationality, British nationality cannot be said to exist if the word is considered in its truest sense. We have four groups of people who have different histories, cultures and live in different territories. According to (Hastings, 199723) the constituent groups or countries that live within the UK have evolved their own unique characteristics out of their unique customs and ways of life that have developed over the years.
    It is worth noting that the British Empire moved from England outwards and pulled in the other groups, which means that the groups were brought in together in the interest of expanding the empire and not as a way of bringing together people with common cultures. As a result, the groups are still distinct from each other and now they are even growing more distinct. A good example is the citizenry of Wales. They voted to have more devolved powers and enacted a legislation to promote their native language. That is a sign that they want to identify more as Welsh. (Nairn, 200381) cites a survey done in a national census where a majority of the Welsh identified preferred to identify themselves more as Welsh as opposed to British as a sign that they like their Welsh identity more. This is indicative of the fact that the citizens in the four countries identify more with their individual nationalities than they do with the British nationality. In sum, the common British identity is just artificial and was only useful for the administration of the former British Empire and beyond that, the groups have different nationalities and cultures to match.