I’m 26, British and don’t have a problem with it. It raises interesting issues with regards children, which I’m completely ignorant to, but other than that I couldn’t care less.
I couldn’t tell you what other people think because it’s never really come up in conversation. If some footballer marries his cousin I’ll get back to you…
I’m really surprised by some of the responses in this thread. I’m English and everyone I know would find it super weird if they knew two first cousins who were dating. To use the options you used: the reactions would be along the lines of “shock” and “disgust”, certainly more than “concern” or “raised eyebrows”. It would get that reaction everywhere I’ve lived, in London, Bristol or Scotland.
To be honest before I’d read this thread I would have said the prevailing view of it over here roughly matches the US nowadays, the only exception being that it isn’t illegal. There are the same jokes about rural people “marrying their cousins” and so on. I had a friend who dated his half-sister (i.e. no blood relation) and he was mercilessly ripped for it. A lot of people actually found it disgusting, and they weren’t even blood related! I can’t imagine the grief he would have got if it had been his cousin.
Me too. I’ve never come across such an attitude in this country. Cousins dating? That would result in widespread disgust anywhere I’ve lived (Southampton, London, Nottingham, Torquay).
I’m not British, but want to give a data point any way. I think generally, in Europe, there are no “national standards” on how to react to romantically involved cousins, and people’s view varies by the individual family. Dating one’s cousin would be a source of shock and disgust within mine. There is a strong sense of being related to one’s cousins. The mothers of my female cousins are my mother’s sisters, and all of us descend from the same grandmother, fer chrissakes! Way dirty and wrong, and practically impossible, even if the law says it’s OK.
You’ve obviously never been to a Norwich City away game 
To the tune of The Addams Family:
“Your father is your brother
Your sister is your mother
You like to shag each other
The Norwich family”
It’s not just Pakistani communities.
I grew up in the Fens… the largest minority ethnic community in Cambridgeshire are Travellers, and cousin marriage is still very common amongst that community.
Certain genetic illnesses (e.g. Huntingdon’s disease) are much more prevalent in Fenland areas for this reason.
Do you have any reason for believing that?
Yes.
I’m a Brit and too lazy to look for a cite too but it’s well known to anyone interested in genetic diseases.
Consider me highly, highly skeptical. I’m having a hard time imagining how such a claim could even be tested, much less confirmed.
Come on guys - it’s not hard to look for evidence.
Heh I started googling immediately after I posted. It’s a matter of statistics. The table hasn’t copied properly, the first number after the disease refers to national prevalence the second to Norfolk.
As we see the prevalence in Norfolk is four times the national average. It’s not in fact the most dense occurence in the UK I think it’s just the unfortunate notoriety of Norfolk.
Kicks self for looking at Norfolk rather than East Anglia and thus being slower to find anything than Amarone.
It is a fact that Travellers are (one of) the largest single ethnic minority groups in the Fens, and it’s also a fact that Cambridgeshire is home to more Travellers than any other UK county.
http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/community/travellers/
Research indicates that Irish Traveller populations have a higher incidence of certain diseases than other ethnic and social groups.
e.g. article in Clinical Dysmorphology (Oct 2007): High prevalence of Cohen syndrome among Irish travellers
Travellers have a tradition of consanguinity, to the extent that many Traveller families will travel from Ireland to the UK to marry as some Irish bishops are now refusing to perform the ceremony for cousins.
http://www.paveepoint.ie/pav_consang.html
The UK Govt recognises the risks associated with consanguineous relationships amongst the Traveller community, to the extent that the UK Government “Task Force on Travellers” wrote that "Given that Travellers predominantly marry within their own community, marriage of close relatives is common. Accordingly, a specific, genetic counselling service to Travellers is required to address any risks associated with this".
So given that the Fens has more Travellers than any other part of the UK, and given that consanguinity is common in Traveller families, and also given that higher incidence of certain diseases have been noted in Traveller communities, I think it’s not an unreasonable claim.
I’m trying to figure out some arrangement of incestuous partners which would result in this situation, and failing. Near as I can tell, it implies that each of a Norwickian’s parents is older than the other.
Do you mean step-sister? Half-sister would mean they shared a parent.
I believe the sentiment (and the fact it rhymes and fits the metre of the original) was of more concern than accuracy.
There are also songs about webbed feet, extra fingers and the fact that the best way to make someone from Norfolk fall over is to fly a plane overhead… they’ll stand and point until they topple over.
Basically they are the closest we get to the Ozarks, except instead of mountains they have ague-ridden marshes.
I think it goes like this:
Father couples with sister, yielding child.
Brother of child’s sister is child’s brother (if you squint).
Sister of child’s brother is child’s sister (again…).
Or,
Father/daughter link would work as well.
hh
No…but moving *from *Norfolk is!
Many people find me witty!
hh
Only inbred folk, I’m guessin’. 
It may or may not be reasonable, but at this stage we have no evidence to support it. Does anybody have an actual reference that says that Huttingdon’s disease is more common in the Fenlands area because of cousin marriages.
Because at this stage the best we have is “given that the Fens has more alcoholics than any other part of the UK, and it also has more Baptist churches than any other part of the country, and given that Baptist churches encourage alcoholics to become members, and given that a higher number of public houses are found close to Baptist Churches, I think it’s not an unreasonable claim that the reason for the high incidence of alcoholism is due to the presence of the Baptist churches.”
It’s not really a compelling argument.