What would you say is culturally English?

This is a great question. One I’ve thought a lot about growing up in wales and then moving to England. The best argument I’ve heard is from the Irish writer Fintan O’ Toole “English culture is a victim of it own success”. It relates to English and British imperialism. When most countries were having a cultural revival like your Celtic (Gaelic) revival and trying to push a sense of unified identity, England did the complete opposite and pushed its culture on everyone else (quite successfully). Many great cultural things have been invented in England but they became either British, European or western. The language certainly isn’t just of England. What about food. The fry up is an English invention but clearly is now British. Pubs were from Romano-British ale houses than became taverns then pubs (now it’s a British thing). Old festival food like roasted birds with root veg and gravy were served on old English thanksgiving tradition yet is now associated with America. For clothes, the suit was invented by the Englishman (beau Brummell) but is now global culture. White wedding dresses are from queen Victoria (though arguably that’s British in the first place then becoming global). Music wise what’s British and what’s English? All the best of English music became the British Invasion or Brit pop. The Beatles, Bowie, the stones. Is it English music or British music? There are countless more examples of things that could have become English culture. What’s left to be just English is the stuff that isn’t good enough to be adopted abroad or is too regional to even expand to the whole of England. Then there’s the awful fact that English identity has been co-opted by nutters. I now know some people who don’t think England is a country and refuse to identity as English because of the nutters. If you’re curious about this I’d suggest reading about JRR Tolkein. Tolkein was obsessed with the lack of English mythology and wanted to create more English culture. He repeatedly argued that he was English not British (though would acknowledge being British if pushed). Happy to discuss this more if you want. I tend to find people who have only ever lived in England don’t quite get the situation. They tend to think it’s about size yet it’s clear there is Russian, Chinese and french culture despite them being bigger. I’m English now but I do miss the sense of collective pride and shared culture I had as a Welshman.