I wouldn't say British people themselves really care (I don't).
It's just London especially has been around for so long that this sort of stuff just accumulates. The charity that exists purely to help look after just the Thames crossings in London that was doing this is itself almost 1000 years old for example. There is lots of old stuff - it's just part of life, not something that people go out of their way to give a shit about.
And as a Scot I should point out that Scotland is about a century older at 843 AD - but then neither have really existed as separate countries for centuries. ;-)
They establish continuous occupation by the same bloodlines, I asked what the definion of country is - there's oral history and law going back along with the paintings.
Bear in mind passports are only relatively recent objects.
Also worth pointing out the British tried that "I think you need something more" line with Terra Nullius .. and their own legal system ditched that as rubbish:
remained sovereign for tens of thousands of years.
Whereas, for example, the "United Kingdom" as a country (of four kingdoms) only dates back to 1801, prior to which there was a long history of contested sovereignty claims, there's some interesting paperwork declaring a King of Scotland as a the King of England, etc.
1066 was just another guy coming to claim the throne. You wouldn't say a company was abolished when it gets a new CEO, and you shouldn't say a country is no more when someone claims the throne.
to visit, absolutely. But you don't see the Americans insisting on getting their own ceremonial King as head of state in name only. They prefer to love that stuff at a visiting distance. This is also why "Downton Abbey" etc does so well in the USA.
> British people love old stuff like Americans love cars and guns.
As a British person who was involuntarily dragged around countless ruined Abbeys, castles, and monestaries for hours as a sprog by my parents, I can assure you that there exist plenty of British folk with an active disinterest in "old stuff", as you put it.
The city adjacent to me has a law that all heads of households must have a firearm. In response to the gun law, the next city over created a law everyone need to have a rake for leaves. Unlike the straw bale laws, we don’t take it seriously.
It’s also illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole or street lamp. In another city it’s illegal to eat fried chicken with anything but your hands.
I wish we had the back stories on more of these. Who was it who tied a giraffe to a telephone pole? What disaster ensued, such that "there oughtta be a law!"?
Dunno about Oklahoma, but Kennesaw, Georgia, does have a gun ownership requirement, passed in 1982 in response to Morton Grove, Illinois, banning handguns. Kennesaw's neighbor, Acworth, is the one with the rake ownership requirement -- passed in response to Kenneswaw's gun law -- though it is not immediately clear to me whether that ordinance is still in effect.
Kennesaw's law allowed for conscientious objection and had no penalty for non compliance so it was effectively dead when passed but did make quite the splash in the international press. Crime rates in Kennesaw did drop significantly after the law was passed but the same was true for surrounding communities without the law, most likely due to them becoming affluent bedroom communities for Atlanta's white collar class.
It is true that British people do make more of their identity about it, and they tend to ignore _really_ old stuff (i.e. most of the quirky stuff is Victorian, not _that_ old).
It's just London especially has been around for so long that this sort of stuff just accumulates. The charity that exists purely to help look after just the Thames crossings in London that was doing this is itself almost 1000 years old for example. There is lots of old stuff - it's just part of life, not something that people go out of their way to give a shit about.