New icons of Englishness unveiled.

[brigadier Biggles]

The Notting Hill Carnival, Hadrian's Wall, the mini-skirt, cricket, Morris dancing and the pub have all been added to a list celebrating icons of England.

Blackpool Tower, the Eden Project, Big Ben and York Minster are also among 21 new additions to the list.

The ICONS - A Portrait of England project celebrates things which symbolise the nation, with nominations and votes made by the public.

The online list will be expanded to 100 icons by the end of 2006.

'National treasures'

The other icons to be added to the list on Friday include the flag of St George, London's famous curry road Brick Lane, the Lindisfarne Gospels, Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species and The Domesday Book.

FIRST 12 ICONS
Stonehenge
Punch and Judy
SS Empire Windrush
Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII
Cup of tea
FA Cup
Alice in Wonderland
Routemaster bus
King James Bible
Angel of the North
Spitfire
Jerusalem

Nelson's flagship HMS Victory, Constable's painting The Hay Wain, Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice, the Globe Theatre, the Sutton Hoo helmet and the Machin (Queen's head) stamp complete the list.

The first 12 icons were announced in January and included the Routemaster bus, Stonehenge and the cup of tea.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/4952920.stm

bit outdated imo, pakis representing england in sporting events and english flags being taken down by council officials are both missing.

[Dan Dare]

The SS Empire Windrush? An English icon? Surely they jest.

These pathetic idiots know diddly-poo about history, the Windrush was a German ship captured by the British in 1945.

It's only subsequent claim to fame was in ferrying the first batch of West Indians to Britain in 1948, and for that it is elevated to icon status for the English?

Words fail me.

[Dan Dare]

On further investigation, it seems that the 12 icons listed above are those selected by "The Committee", which explains the bizarre inclusion of the SS Empire Windrush.

Here is a list of the 21 most popular, as voted for by the public. The Empire Windrush does not appear in this list, although the suspiciously high placing for the Notting Hill Carnival and Brick Lane does carry a whiff of behind-the-scenes tampering.

• St George's Flag
• Hadrian's Wall
• The Lindisfarne Gospels
• Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species
• The Notting Hill Carnival
• Brick Lane
• Morris Dancing
• The Domesday Book
• HMS Victory
• The miniskirt
• John Constable's The Hay Wain
• Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
• The Eden Project
• The pub
• Blackpool Tower
• The Globe
• Cricket
• The Sutton Hoo helmet
• York Minster
• The Machin (Queen's head) postage stamp
• Big Ben

Source (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/04/28/nenglish128.xml)

[infoterror]

Jerusalem?

[brigadier Biggles]

Jerusalem?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_did_those_feet_in_ancient_time

[brigadier Biggles]

i'm a bit dismayed HMS Hood isnt on there, no other ship did more to "show the flag" for Britain in the inter war years than her, and she was sunk with 1400 british seamen, surely more important than tugging some immigrants to settle here.

[007]

That's for DAMN SURE!!