The People of the UK

The people of the UK in the past have been diverse,
And this in many countries still today is quite a curse,
But though their origins reflect the lands from which they came,
The people very quickly merged and all became the same.
The Romans and the Britons very quickly settled down
And many got together both in country and in town.
The Celt soon intermarried with the Angle and the Jute,
Something that no-one today would seriously dispute.
The Saxons and the Vikings disappeared as separate tribes,
And no-one to these people separate status now ascribes.
The Normans came and they as well soon changed to Englishmen
As widespread intermarriage worked its magic once again.
The Normans were succeeded as the centuries passed by
With many different peoples who to Britain sought to fly.
Lombards and Italians, also Dutch and Huguenots,
Flemings, Poles and Germans and the others who all chose
To come and live in Britain and then vanished out of sight,
So nothing but their names remain to indicate their flight.
The same’s not true in many lands, where ethnic lines divide
The many groups of people, and still tends to over-ride
A sense of common history, and of being a nation state,
And loyalty to their country is a thing they feel can wait.
It is as if a Norman with a Saxon never mixed,
And who belonged to every group had stayed forever fixed,
As happened in so many lands where centuries have passed,
And differences between the groups is still quite often vast.