Changing Political Priorities?

Professor Arthur Aughey, University of the Ulster, is an academic interested in the rising English political conciousness and how the concept of Britishness is changing with the various devolution projects. He is the author of “The Politics of Englishness” and was also instrumental in the setting up of the "What English Means to Me" website.

Here he’s interviewed by Christine Constable of the English Democrats.

It’s a relatively short interview, worth following through to the end. Aughey’s main persuasive argument is that the core political debate in the UK is now moving away from the old left-right, socialist-capitalist, conservative-liberal dichotomies towards questions more of national identity and societal cohesion.

I think that’s essentially true; I mean, try sitting down and write down, for example, the economic and social policy differences between the Labour and Conservative party. However, I also think it is very easy to exaggerate how much a person’s sense of their "Englishness", "Scottishness" or "Welshness" determines their overall voting preferences- check out the support for independence with the % voting for Plaid Cymru or the SNP. There’s a quite substantial gap there and we're still waiting for a specifically English nationalist party to emerge

And in view of my last post, I’m also (obviously) delighted to note, that according to Ms Constable anyway, Ireland, as a political entity, has rejoined The British Nation.

Hurrah for that!
Cry "God for Liz, the United Kingdom and St George/David/Patrick/Andrew!"