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To me 'English' is toxic.
Really? That seems a bit harsh. You can be English without the tattoos and flags.
Like @snottyotter said, it's really just an ethnicity/origin that's true, whether you want it to be or not. That doesn't mean you can't also identify with a specific area (Cornwall, Yorkshire, London, whatever). The thing is with Englishness that it's inherently a bit of a European ethnic mashup if you go far enough back. Angles, Jutes, Celts, Normans, Vikings, Hugenots, etc. all of us are going to have a fair blend of that so "English" is a pretty broad church anyway.
"Real Londoner" on the other hand is a totally toxic identification.
ffm
That's sort of my point though. I identify as most of those things to some extent (Manchester is the only place other than London I've lived) but not English.
To me 'English' is toxic.