In England, if someone was sitting on a park bench and there was a space next to them, traditionally, before occupying it, and to be polite, you would ask if you could sit there. Frequently, this would evoke the light-hearted response, “It’s a free country.” Such a reply broke the ice with a stranger and fellow Englishman and indicated that you were friendly and up for a chat. It was a reflection of positive ethnocentrism; you were both Englishmen together whiling away your three-score and ten, so why not inject a bit of levity into life? It also alluded to a core element of English identity; that we are a free country, while European nations have a tendency to descend into various forms of totalitarianism.
