# If parliament effectively runs the UK.....what governing body runs England, Scotland etc **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 14, 2023, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-parliament-effectively-runs-the-uk-what-governing-body-runs-england-scotland-etc/985527 "2023-06-14T23:18:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-parliament-effectively-runs-the-uk-what-governing-body-runs-england-scotland-etc/985527/41 "2023-06-18T03:43:06Z")
DrDrake’s analysis matches my understanding. Ethnicity isn’t hereditary. It’s social. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-parliament-effectively-runs-the-uk-what-governing-body-runs-england-scotland-etc/985527/42 "2023-06-18T04:59:22Z")
In America, it’s pretty common for people to use “ethnicity” as a slightly more distanced way of saying “race.” There’s also a lot of vagueness in public discourse, because a lot of people (without really articulating it) tend to think that one’s culture and one’s genes kind of go together, as in the marketing for all those DNA tests. In academic discourse in the social sciences, though, my usage is pretty standard. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-parliament-effectively-runs-the-uk-what-governing-body-runs-england-scotland-etc/985527/43 "2023-06-18T07:17:17Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > your exemplar kid would be 100% indelibly ethnically Polish, but could possibly be culturally English if he really assimilated far more than most and affirmatively rejected the culture of his parents. No, you and bump are overlooking what I wrote about this being a very sensitive political matter in the UK. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-parliament-effectively-runs-the-uk-what-governing-body-runs-england-scotland-etc/985527/44 "2023-06-18T08:01:20Z")
> [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](#): > > And while Scottish rugby fans might have a bit more time for the Welsh rugby team, we all laughed as much as Brian Moore did when they fecked up their grand slam in the last minute in 2021, for reasons specific to the way that that season had played out By way of supporting evidence for the above, I just had to explain to my wife what I was reading that made me snort with laughter. As to ethnicity, both of my kids have pals whose Polish parents moved here when they (the pals) were infants and the idea that they’re not British is somewhere between laughable and insulting. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-parliament-effectively-runs-the-uk-what-governing-body-runs-england-scotland-etc/985527/45 "2023-06-18T08:37:01Z")
And of course, the notion that the exemplar Polish kids are “pure” Polish is nonsense. Poland has been overrun by many invaders over the centuries so their genetic makeup is likely to be an amalgam of many European tribes. We’re all immigrants under the skin. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-parliament-effectively-runs-the-uk-what-governing-body-runs-england-scotland-etc/985527/46 "2023-06-18T08:53:38Z")
> [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](#): > > If he wants to declare himself to be English, he is English. If he says he is Polish, no one but the far right would argue. This point is very important to understand in the context of large scale post WW2 migration to the UK from the Commonwealth, and the extreme racism that those immigrants and their descendants have suffered. Concur. We’ve seen rather too many cases of bigots pressing British citizens to answer questions like “Yes, but where are you _ **really** _ from?”, just on the basis of skin colour or some other trait. The individual’s own sense of their nationality/ethnicity supersedes any right I might think I have to make generalised assumptions about it. Case in point: [Lady Susan Hussey meets charity boss to apologise over reception comments | UK News | Metro News](https://metro.co.uk/2022/12/16/lady-susan-hussey-meets-charity-boss-to-apologise-over-reception-comments-17952461/) > **Lady SH:** ‘Where are you from?’ > **Ms Fulani:** ‘Sistah Space.’ > **SH:** ‘No where do you come from? > **Ms Fulani:** ‘We’re based in Hackney.’ > **SH:** ‘No, what part of Africa are YOU from?’ > **Ms Fulani:** ‘I don’t know, they didn’t leave any records.’ > **SH:** ‘Well, you must know where you’re from, I spent time in France. Where are you from?’ > **Ms Fulani:** ‘Here, UK’ > **SH:** ‘No, but what Nationality are you?’ > **Ms Fulani:** ‘I am born here and am British.’ > **SH:‘** No, but where do you really come from, where do your people come from?’ > **Ms Fulani: ‘** “My people”, lady, what is this?’ > **SH:** ‘Oh I can see I am going to have a challenge getting you to say where you’re from. When did you first come here?’ > **Ms Fulani:** ‘Lady! I am a British national, my parents came here in the 50’s when…’ > **SH:** ‘Oh, I knew we’d get there in the end, you’re Caribbean!’ > **Ms Fulani:** ‘No lady, I am of African heritage, Caribbean descent and British nationality.’ > **SH:** ‘Oh so you’re from….’ ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-parliament-effectively-runs-the-uk-what-governing-body-runs-england-scotland-etc/985527/47 "2023-06-18T11:27:21Z")
And Ms Fulani nailed it talking to the Lady: > [@Mangetout](#): > > ‘No lady, I am of African heritage, Caribbean descent and British nationality.’ The reason we don’t always list those three things when we meet a stranger is because most of us make massive assumptions based on first impressions of superficial visual clues like skin colour. I can’t imagine Lady Hussy having the same conversation with a white-skinned person, because of the assumption that they BELONG and others don’t. As the child of migrants into a dominant culture I still wrestle with the ‘what are you’ question, and the best i can offer is that it entirely depends on who I’m talking to and what i think they’re trying to ask without actually asking. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-parliament-effectively-runs-the-uk-what-governing-body-runs-england-scotland-etc/985527/48 "2023-06-18T11:53:12Z")
Whilst I think 'what are you? ’ might indeed have concrete answers in some contexts and also might be pretty difficult to pin down in others, I’m fairly sure it’s just a question that hardly ever belongs in conversations with people you’ve only just met and know nothing about. For me it’s just up there with questions like ‘OMG why do you only have one leg?’ or something. Not everything that flits through the mind should immediately erupt out of the mouth. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-parliament-effectively-runs-the-uk-what-governing-body-runs-england-scotland-etc/985527/49 "2023-06-18T12:25:47Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > In America, it’s pretty common for people to use “ethnicity” as a slightly more distanced way of saying “race.” There’s also a lot of vagueness in public discourse, because a lot of people (without really articulating it) tend to think that one’s culture and one’s genes kind of go together, as in the marketing for all those DNA tests. > > In academic discourse in the social sciences, though, my usage is pretty standard. Thanks for the education. I’m not one who tied culture to genetics in anything beyond a statistical sense in the first generation or two. But I had not understood the rest. Thanks again. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-parliament-effectively-runs-the-uk-what-governing-body-runs-england-scotland-etc/985527.md?page=2)