The English (People)

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England  | A Once and Future Realm; The making of the English was a funny business. Economist, Dec 13, 2014
www.economist.com/news/books-and ... ce-and-future-realm
(book review on Robert Tombs, The English and Their History. Allen Lane, 2014)

Quote: "The Act of Union in 1707, which linked England with Scotland and created the United Kingdom, did not create a federal state with new political institutions separate from and above those of England. Rather it created, in Robert Tombs’s words, a pantomime horse, with England providing the front legs, setting the common direction in domestic, foreign and imperial matters, and the back legs following, sometimes reluctantly, along.

Note:
(1) In both the subtitle of the Economist and the book title, "the English" refers not to the language, but to the people.

(2)
(q) The photo depicts Morris dance
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_dance(section 1 Name and origins; section 8 Kit and clothing)

can be performed by men or women; is not a social dance (joined by onlookers) but a ritual where pre-selected performers practice together.
(b) Compare:
The English and Scottish Morris: "from Maurice, an Old French personal name introduced to Britain by the Normans, Latin Mauritius, a derivative of Maurus [meaning: Moor (the people)] (see Moore). This was the name of several early Christian saints. In some cases it may be a nickname of the same derivation for someone with a swarthy complexion."
Dictionary of American Family Names, by Oxford University Press.

(3)
(a) The English surname Tombs: "variant of Toms, with a late intrusive -b-."
(b) "he [book author] is the leading professor of French history at Cambridge * * * Mr Tombs’s Cambridge College, St John’s"

St John's College, Cambridge
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_John's_College,_Cambridge
(a constituent college of the University of Cambridge; Established 1511; founded on the site of the 13th century Hospital of St John in Cambridge)

(4) "The boundaries between 'Britishness' and 'Englishness' are vague * * * But the distinctions are nevertheless real. The English would never order a British breakfast or misremember 'England expects' as 'Britain expects.'"
(a) For English breakfast, see full breakfast
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_breakfast
(The phrase "full breakfast" differentiates it from the European Continental breakfast, traditionally consisting of tea, milk or coffee and fruit juices with bread, croissants or pastries; section 2.1.2 England)
(b) England expects that every man will do his duty
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_expects_that_every_man_will_do_his_duty

(5) "he [book author] illustrates it with a remarkable collection of facts. Who knew that, in the 1880s, the English each used more than 14 pounds of soap a year whereas a French person used only six? * * * Or that Friedrich Engels’s 'Condition of the English Working Class,' which was written in the 1840s, did not come out in English until 1892?

Friedrich Engels
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Engels
(section 4.2 Major works; section 4.2 Condition of the English Working Class: was not translated [into English] until the end of the nineteenth century)

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(6) "England is arguably the world’s oldest nation state—it existed as a nation before nationalism existed as a notion—and it boasts some of the oldest institutions. Parliament, the monarchy, trial by jury, the law courts: all can claim deep roots in the Middle Ages."
(a) Parliament
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament
(section 1 Origins; section 3.1 England)
(b) jury
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury
(section 4 Historical roots: "The modern jury evolved out of the ancient custom of many ancient Germanic tribes whereby a group of men of good character was used to investigate crimes and/or judge the accused. The same custom evolved into the vehmic court system in medieval Germany. In Anglo-Saxon England, juries investigated crimes. After the Norman Conquest, some parts of the country preserved juries as the means of investigating crimes. The use of ordinary members of the community to consider crimes was unusual in ancient cultures, but was nonetheless also found in ancient Greece")

(7) "England’s history is as remarkable as it is old. England has not been subjugated since 1066. It has not been torn apart by civil war since the mid-17th century. Eleven people died in England’s notorious Peterloo massacre; 10,000 died in the Paris Commune. Yet this peaceable kingdom has been remarkably successful in projecting its power abroad. By the mid-19th century it ruled a quarter of the world’s population, using some brutality (its navy forced the Chinese to import opium) but mostly light-touch imperialism. In the late 19th century the Indian civil service employed no more than 2,000 people, fewer than the number who work today for Ofsted, the schools inspectorate."
(a) "England has not been subjugated since 1066."

Glorious Revolution
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorious_Revolution
(1988)
was the last successful invasion of the British Isles, but led by king James II's own daughter Mary (and her husband William).
(b) English Civil War
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Civil_War
(1642–1651; see Result in the right column)
(c) Peterloo Massacre
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterloo_Massacre
(occurred at St Peter's Field, Manchester on Aug 16, 1819; The massacre was given the name Peterloo in an ironic comparison to the Battle of Waterloo, which had taken place four years earlier)
(d) Ofsted
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ofsted
(Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills; Employees 1, 213)

(8) "Princess Diana’s death saw grown men blubbing like schoolgirls."
(a) blub (vi) "Chiefly British BLUBBER"
(b) blubber (vi): "to weep noisily"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blubber

(9) "For most of its history England was one of the most decentralised and voluntaristic countries in the world—with self-governing cities, powerful local governments, volunteers keeping the show on the road. Now, it is one of the most centralised and bureaucratic: the proportion of Britain’s public spending controlled by the centre is roughly twice that in France, Italy and Japan, and more than three times that in Germany."

For voluntaristic, see valuntarism (n): "the principle or system of doing something by or relying on voluntary action or volunteers"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/voluntarism
(10) "But some things might surely be described as basic to the national character: a willingness to prick pomposity, distrust for grand theoretical schemes, an instinctive enthusiasm for globalisation, an ability to balance tradition with change or Establishment frippery with Nonconformist efficiency, a fondness for compromise but a willingness to avoid fudging when necessary."

frippery (n):
"1: ornate or showy clothing or adornment
2: showiness; ostentation
3: unimportant considerations; trifles; trivia"
www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/frippery