Post
by Khun Paul » January 19, 2015, 8:56 pm
In its legal sense, the term 'nationality' is generally understood to
describe the relationship between an individual and the nation State to which he
or she belongs and owes allegiance.
It seems that use
of the term 'English' as a description of nationality began to decline with the
union of the Scottish and English Crowns in 1603, and ceased altogether after
the passing of the Act of Union in 1707. It was this latter Act which
created the "United Kingdom of Great Britain", the political unit of which
England has since been a constituent part. The addition of Ireland to form
the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" followed in 1801. A
statute of 1536 -the Laws of Wales Act- had brought about the earlier union of
England and Wales.
One of the functions of the modern British
Nationality Acts has been to identify those who, by virtue of their connection
with the United Kingdom, are British nationals and as such are eligible for
British passports and other associated rights and privileges. The current
law –the British Nationality Act 1981- continues that tradition. It
identifies 6 categories of British nationality as follows: British
citizenship, British overseas territories citizenship, British Overseas
citizenship, and the statuses of British National (Overseas), British subject
and British protected person. The first two reflect the holder’s close
connection (i.e. through birth, adoption, ancestry, registration or
naturalisation) with either the United Kingdom or a remaining British overseas
territory such as Gibraltar. The others reflect similar connections with
former colonies such as India or Malaysia or with foreign territories which were
formerly under British jurisdiction such as Tanzania or the Republic of
Ireland.
Further information about the British Nationality Act 1981
may be obtained by writing to the Nationality Enquiries Section, Home Office
Nationality Group, 3rd floor India Buildings, Water Street, Liverpool L2
0QN. The telephone number is 0845 010 5200.
The legislation
on devolution envisages that nationality law will continue to be made and
administered on a United Kingdom basis, and that there will be no abandonment of
British citizenship in favour of separate English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern
Irish citizenships.
So although under law there is in fact no separate nationality for any of the constituent parts of the United Kingdom , but we allow the Scots and the irish and the Welsh to call themselves Scottish, Irish and Welsh therefore JS I call myself English as it was a nationality and having traced my family back over 500 years in ENGLAND , I am ENGLISH 100% and I defy you to say otherwise, unless of course you invoke the Nationality law, which applies to every member of the United Kingdom.
But whatever I am certainly British as well .