THE BBC this week released the findings of a national survey to discover how people feel about being English.

Not entirely surprisingly, the older that people were, the prouder they felt to be English (the over-65s being the proudest), while under the age of about 30, national pride was rather thin on the ground, with respondents seeing themselves as more cosmopolitan than their seniors.

In recent years, patriotism has become something of a negatively perceived emotion, with people who display English flags often being denigrated.

The cross of St George has become synonymous with football thugs and Staffordshire bull terrier owners – or that is at least how it appears if you take any notice of what gets written in the Twittersphere.

I don’t go in for flag-flying at my home but I am very proud to be both English and British.

I’m proud that our language is the lingua franca; proud of our monarchy; and proud of our democratic history.

This sceptred isle really does have a lot to be proud of – no matter what those who would have us in a permanent state of apology for our imperial past might say.

National pride is an area of sweeping generalisations and cliches – but all the things that are trumpeted as Englishness, hold true for many of us.

Sense of humour, good-natured queuing, obsession with the weather, love of animals, roast dinners and the rule of law are just some of the much-vaunted aspects of Britishness that those of us who are proud of our country are, well, proud of.

Add cricket into the mix and Englishness is pretty much covered.

But what of county pride?

Yorkshire topped the poll in terms of pride in one’s home county, with straight-talking, the Yorkshire Dales, sense of community and the white rose of the county all being hailed as defining Yorkshireness.

Other counties such as Somerset (cider and Morris dancing), Cornwall (pasties) and Devon (cream teas) all scored highly in terms of local pride.

Where was Cumbria in all this? Our county didn’t seem to get much of a look in, despite the glory of the Lake District at our heart – and little wonder.

For Cumbria – that mid-1970s artificial construct – doesn’t really stir the heart of its people in the same way that Yorkshire does for its own.

You don’t really hear of “proud Cumbrians” in the same way you do of other counties.

Hardly surprising, given that so many of us still consider ourselves Lancastrians, which here in Barrow, Ulverston and Grange we were until 1974.

There is little if any affinity felt between Barrow and Carlisle at opposite ends of this sprawling county of ours; and the campaign to return the south of the county to Lancashire is as strong as ever.

As moves continue to restore the traditional counties of Westmorland and Cumberland, where does that leave us here in the Furness area?

Not in either of those two, surely. Back to Lancashire it is, then.

After all, a county that’s arguably most famous for its pies can’t be all bad.