Dogs Horses and Englishness

Sunda Katwala was disappointed to read that the Mail regards it as a mistake to consider that the children or grandchildren of immigrants are British,they would classify us as “second or third generation immigrants”.
He picks on this poor sentence and has a lot of quite legitimate fun with Churchill `s American mother not to say the Royal family . I like Sunda`s stuff and much of what he writes has the reasonableness I rarely show but admire in others . The old Bernard Manning line gets dragged out and treated with splenetic contempt by a commenter ...“Just because a dog is born in a stable doesn’t mean it becomes a horse.”
I loathed Bernard Manning but there is a kernel of truth here is there not ? Where a community has failed to integrate with the main stream ,that has an impact of on the character of the country no matter what generations have passed .Some may feel this is a good thing and that a multicultural England is something we should all be grateful for. Many people , however share my concerns at the rate of change , and at all events would like to see figures that reflect the current state of play. . The Mail is clumsily essaying a corrective to the hoax that starts "immigration"' in its wider sense at zero every few years .It has a point .
The Mail is misguided because it includes an “genetic “,content and thus open themselves to the charge of racism . This is no doubt the cause of much delight in “Progressive “circles who wish to equate all Nationalism with the holocaust , even when it is a pride in the very country that stood alone against the Nazis . In reality this is only a slip . Mixed race families like mine (not English ?) are a fast growing group but they are a group, which is not a “Community” . We are simply English and regard skin pigment of no more importance that nose length, freckliness of pallor and so on. I would suggest starting from the other direction....
What are the components of Englishness ?
It has a floating set of meanings with differing amounts of importance .Race is a small associative inference but not in a “racist “ sense . A typical Englishman is unlikely to be pictured as Black. .The phrase “ An English beauty” is unlikely to be applied to Mrs N for example . Nonetheless she is English ( and beautiful )and such expectations are just part of the usual flux of language . So it is not an all or nothing but this is really a minor matter exaggerated so as to attack the more important English values and shared culture.
Does English include a component of what we might call sharing English values ?Certainly, and religious values that conflict with them are important in defining who is not “English” .The history of Common Law Parliament literature , even visual art betray a certain habit of mind we find clearly from Chaucer to Orwel .To tell such a people that the country is no more than a car park they happened to park in , and that they have change to suit people that turned up yesterday, is not reasonable . There must be tolerance ,but it must also not be abused .There must be a recognition that this is a home and inheritance not just a scrap of land . To deny the word “ English’ means more than simply having been born here is to abuse language , sense and a nation with nothing to be ashamed of and much to be proud of . ” Just because a dog is born in a stable doesn’t mean it becomes a horse.” ....Well does it ?