The results of a study of 5,000 adults have recently been released by global research company OnePoll.com, listing the 50 top characteristics that make us quintessentially British.
Talking about the weather was our most commonly-shared trait, while sarcasm, watching soaps and getting drunk also featured highly on the list.
As well as a long list of negative characteristics, such as moaning, curtain-twitching, enjoying others’ misfortune and looking uncomfortable on the dance floor, there was also a healthy dose of positive traits that make us proud to be British.
According to the survey, Brits are great at hunting out bargains, have a clever sense of humour, keep their homes tidy and love a good ramble in the countryside.
Scroll through our gallery below to see the list in full.
Yes . . . Jon still is the voice 
National Service parade - in pictures 
Nightclub death tributes - in pictures 
County murder inquiry - in pictures 
Sun shines on river racers 
30 Comments
i completely agree with everything on this list!!
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i completely disagree with everything on the list!!!
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I am completely apathetic about everything on this list!!!!
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I completely agree that you disagree with whatever Kate agreed with. Probably.
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things that make me feel
british
1 supporting the shrews in spite of last saturday
2 collecting dinky toys
3 hating nearly everything on tv except countryfile
4 harold peasebody’s blogs
5 the luxury of returning to gods own county now and then
6 being able to read the star online
7 real ale
8 slow food
9 ludlow town council for making me laugh
10 finally all the bloggers on these sites.
floreat salopia to you all
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I haven’t bothered to read the list, so I might agree or I might disagree - who knows?
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i think being british is about NOT BEING IN THE EU and making our own decisions, without foregners taking over everything
god save the queen
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The media’s love of lists must be on the list
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Although the British have changed considerably, since I left 25 yrs ago, they are still perhaps the most individual of People. The most British thing that holds them together is their Towns and their Countryside. That is, except for the erosion of their ‘Pubs’ and pub-life. Stop it before you regret it.
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not ALL of us are like that so i disagree with a lot of points it’s a certain ‘type’ of person who gets obsessed with fake tan, cheap holidays, tv soaps and celebrity lifestyles.
and not ALL of us like booze!
for my part the only thing i’d say makes us typical brits is the complete inability to properly complain and express anger, hence road rage.
if we started acting a bit more like american and european drivers and honked our horns a bit more when stuck behind ridiculously slow moving drivers, i’m sure road rage would considerably diminish, but we’re too polite.
the worst thing about being british is having to be so politically correct and the loss of true freedom of speech.
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Have now made the effort to read the list, and I was surprised that football hooliganism isnt up there. My German friend say that we are nolonger rated as Europes worst football fans - in their eyes we have slipped to a paltry second behind those clog wearing, tulip growing, bicycle riding Dutch.
Is there nothing we can excel at these days?
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Being in amaricas back pocket is what makes me feel british..
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Shouldnt the list be what makes people feel “English”!!!
The British are the celtic original inhabitant of this Island
ie Mainly the Welsh and Cornwall.
So the British are the Welsh.
Note Wales or Waleus is the English (saxons) names for the original British (Welsh) meaning outsiders.
Calling the entire of the UK British is wrong and is mainly a PC term intoruced when England wanted a united Wales, England and Scotland.
Hence none of these definations of British apply to the true British they may applay to the English but please do not lump the Welsh into being similar to English.
History lesson over.
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Tory boy, you’re right…
Casual, mindless, ignorant xenophobia should have made the list too. Sadly, it’s one of the things a section of our community does best.
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Being in Americas back pocket, more like in the Irish back pocket - Barak O’Barma will be pulling the harp stings!
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That is the worst list i have even seen! was this just one man/woman bored and come up with 50 things…. truely aweful….
and Lucy W - the worst hooligans come from Italy…. last season they stopped all fans entering the pitches as they had to much trouble…
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Y Mab: Did you enyoy your walk up Caer Caradoc?
http://www.shropshirestar.com/2008/11/04/hope-for-wrekin-visitor-centre/#comment-55769
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Lucy W - Could I correct you.
The English are the worst hooligans in Europe
Do not include the welsh or Scots in your generalization please
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Y Mab; Yes I stand corrected. But its only because the Province of Wales doesn’t ever qualify for major interbational competitions. How was up walk up that fantastic Shropshire hill, Caer Caradoc by the way?
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Y Mab, there are two ways of looking at it really.
You can look at it from a geographical point of view, i.e. the inhabitants of Great *Britain*, part of the *British* Isles, are called British simply because of where they live, in the same way that Americans call us Europeans because of the continent we are a part of. Or you can look at it from a political point of view, i.e. *British* nationality law refers to all *British* citizens as *British*.
Either way, whinging about ancient history won’t change anything. And yes, the English do have the best/worst hooligans in all of Britain. We have to do *something* well, after all.
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I just find it offensive when people say british are the worst hooligans in Europe
It is the english not British.
Same as whenever a Welsh or Scottish does well they are British.
Does’nt really matter at the end of the day as everyone in this part of the country Shropshire have welsh background.
shropshire used to be part of wales until the Norman conquest.
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horay for the Normans
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I find it offensive when people say that the British are hooligans as well. I’m not a hooligan, and I sure don’t want to be associated with those who are either, and it shames me that we are. But at the end of the day, saying ‘Britain is home to the worst football hooligans’ isn’t entirely inaccurate, as England is part of Britain too.
And let’s face it the other constituent countries of the UK have their fair share of hooligans as well. Did you see Manchester after the Rangers had paid them a visit?!
Besides, the list we’re commenting on says that we have the ability to laugh at ourselves, and I don’t think I’d be wrong in saying the Scotts, Welsh or Irish (Northern) are any different in that particular regard to the English. So laugh it up and get on with our lives, I say…
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macca glad you like the French so much matey
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Y Mab hasn’t walked through certain parts Telford if he believes that “everyone” in Shropshire has a Welsh Background.
How stereotypically racially ignorant can you get? Makes the BNP look like Community Workers!!
At lot of people will be offended by your racial grouping, Y Mab!
Does anyone know if Y Mab walked up Caer Caradoc to see if its better then the Wrekin, becuase he wont tell me.
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Y Mab Darogan have you ever been to a Cardiff v Swansea game? a Celtic v Rangers game? they can make the English fans look tame in comparison! I spend quite a bit of time in Cardiff and believe there some aggressive lads down there! and some lovely people like everywhere else. Our County is a magical place compared to half of the Country! just spent two days in London it was great to back to Shropshire.
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Y Mab not “everyone” in Shropshire has a Welsh Background, try widening your view a little. If everyone was Welsh in Shropshire (including all english and scots people habiting it) then your rationale won’t stand would it because British would in fact include Welsh.
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KarenK My point was if you go back into history before 1066 Shropshire was a part of Wales so all the people in Shropshire who have relatives who have lived here since AD 800 have welsh blood in them.
Thats my point.
and if Owain Glyndwr and Percy Hotspur had defeated Henry IV in 1400 - 1405 this part of Shropshire would have been in Wales again - the treaty stated that if Henry IV was defeated at the balle of Shrewbury then Wales would have a new border of the River Severn.
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From much of this selection here - its not having interest in factual history or even a memory longer than the Daily Wails headlines.
Oh - agreed on the being bored with lists of things, its such cheap journalism, it costs so little imagination and never strays beyond Google.
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Y MAB - have you never heard how bad swansea and cardiff hooligans are…. come on…. so when they say british it does include wales and scotland every club has a handful of followers that like to spoil things for others….
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