# "I am an Englishman" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 24, 2010, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-an-englishman/540577 "2010-05-24T15:14:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-an-englishman/540577/1 "2010-05-24T15:14:43Z")
I looked at YouTube’s I am a Canadian, and then I am a Muslim! (not as good as it could have been) and of course the wonderful I am not a Canadian. Then I searched for I am an Englishman and got this: > **[I Am An Englishman of The EDL](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGIHoAkoBSshttp:%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch?v=NGIHoAkoBSs)** > > The events in Dudley and Bolton show how weak the state is against an idea whose time has come. It is a speech from some movie protesting about British immigration policy. It is nicely said, without regard to the politics. Any idea what movie it is from? What is the context? ---
**Author:** ![snowmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@snowmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowmaster)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-an-englishman/540577/2 "2010-05-24T15:17:25Z")
Well it’s surely to your credit… ---
**Author:** ![Rrose\_Selavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rrose\_Selavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rrose_Selavy)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-an-englishman/540577/3 "2010-05-24T15:33:55Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > I looked at YouTube’s I am a Canadian, and then I am a Muslim! (not as good as it could have been) and of course the wonderful I am not a Canadian. > > Then I searched for I am an Englishman and got this: > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGIHoAkoBSshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGIHoAkoBSs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGIHoAkoBSshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGIHoAkoBSs) > > It is a speech from some movie protesting about British immigration policy. It is nicely said, without regard to the politics. > > Any idea what movie it is from? What is the context? The EDL in the Youtube video title is a reference to The English Defence League > **[English Defence League](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Defence_League)** > > The English Defence League (EDL), was a far-right, Islamophobic organisation active in England from 2009 until the mid-late 2010s. A social movement and pressure group that employed street demonstrations as its main tactic, the EDL presented itself as a single-issue movement opposed to Islamism and Islamic extremism, although its rhetoric and actions targeted Islam and Muslims more widely. > Established in London, the EDL coalesced around several football hooligan firms protesting the public ... I recognise the actor (Marc Warren) but i can’t precisely place the cliip though I suspect that it might be from a performance of a Steven Berkoff play. > **[Steven Berkoff | Theatre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Berkoff#Theatre)** > > Berkoff started his theatre training in the Repertory Company at His Majesty's Theatre in Barrow-in-Furness, for approximately two months, in June and July 1962. > As well as an actor, Berkoff is a noted playwright and theatre director. His earliest plays are adaptations of works by Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis (1969); In the Penal Colony (1969), and The Trial (1971). In the 1970s and 1980s, he wrote a series of verse plays including East (1975), Greek (1980), and Decadence (1981), followed by W... but I could be totally wrong on the second point, the first is correct. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-an-englishman/540577/4 "2010-05-24T15:52:30Z")
> [@snowmaster](#): > > Well it’s surely to your credit… And he himself has said it… ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-an-englishman/540577/5 "2010-05-24T16:09:20Z")
(I feel as though I am being talked about unfavorably, and yet I do not catch the reference. I better not say anything.) ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-an-englishman/540577/6 "2010-05-24T16:17:01Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > And he himself has said it… In spite of all temptations ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-an-englishman/540577/7 "2010-05-24T16:18:34Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > (I feel as though I am being talked about unfavorably, and yet I do not catch the reference. I better not say anything.) [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/z2r9t6l_eE8/hqdefault.jpg "HE IS AN ENGLISHMAN - Australian version") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2r9t6l_eE8) ---
**Author:** ![Teacake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Teacake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teacake)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-an-englishman/540577/8 "2010-05-25T14:27:14Z")
Nicely said? It’s unoriginal, trite, and repetitive, and that’s without referring to the fact that the politics expressed and the quotations from Enoch Powell made me feel so physically sick (living as I do in Bermondsey) that I had to switch it off. Wish you hadn’t posted that. ---
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-an-englishman/540577/9 "2010-05-25T14:57:52Z")
I can enjoy rhetoric I disagree with without hyperventilating, and I thought it was pretty well done. Ironically, though, several parts seemed lifted from standard-issue anticolonialism or Marxist agitation. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-an-englishman/540577/10 "2010-05-26T02:47:23Z")
I am amazed I have stumped everyone. Does anyone even know who the actor is? We can work backward from that. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-an-englishman/540577/11 "2010-05-26T07:20:50Z")
Oh, that’s [Marc Warren,](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0912938/) but I don’t see anything on his imdb page that looks like the source of the clip. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-an-englishman/540577/12 "2010-05-26T07:49:03Z")
According to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWHPJ8hO-ZM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWHPJ8hO-ZM) it’s from an episode of NCS Manhunt ---
**Author:** ![Rrose\_Selavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rrose\_Selavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rrose_Selavy)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-an-englishman/540577/13 "2010-05-26T10:12:59Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > I am amazed I have stumped everyone. Does anyone even know who the actor is? We can work backward from that. JEEZ! - I already told you that . Do you actually read your own threads? ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-an-englishman/540577/14 "2010-05-26T14:03:32Z")
(mumble mumble apparently not, mumble mumble.) (my apologizes, mumble.) ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-an-englishman/540577/15 "2010-05-26T14:39:16Z")
I’m skeptical that a tribute to the views of Enoch Powell could be considered without respect to its politics. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-an-englishman/540577/16 "2010-05-27T03:14:02Z")
How remarkably wrong you are.