"The Progressive Patriot" is a personal examination of Englishness/Britishness, with Bragg trying to answer the question:
"Is it possible to love your country without passing over the border into nationalist xenophobia?"
In an attempt to answer that question, he delves into the history of our country, explaining how certain events (e.g. the World Wars, the fight for the right to vote and the setting-up of the Welfare State) influenced his family's story and brings it all up to date with his own experiences of fighting racism and being brought up, living in and enjoying a multi-cultural society.
There’s a lot of varied stuff covered in a very short space and that leads to probably the book’s main weakness, its lack of cohesion and context; one minute Grandfather Bragg is giving his thoughts on the 1911 London dock strike, next minute the Clash are fighting the White Riot in Notting Hill 1977. There’s never a dull moment, even the story of Barking (from experience one of the most boring London suburb)’s development through the years is fascinating, but for most of the time I was baffled with Billy’s train of thought. He also never really achieves any kind of recognisable answer to the question I mentioned earlier.
Maybe that simply reflects Bragg’s own uncertainty about the subject, but despite that, he certainly does pose many open and at times, uncomfortable questions for those of us who love the United Kingdom and would consider ourselves to be British patriots. If he does reach a conclusion, it is that, yes, it’s perfectly Ok to love our country, but in the same way that a responsible parent should love their child, that is to say with a full realisation of his or her faults, but also not to be ashamed to acknowledge his or her successes and strengths.
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, Bragg’s style is engaging and he has succeeded in making me think more deeply about my country’s past, present and future. Whatever side of the political spectrum you may find yourself on buy the book (GBP 7.99), keep your mind open and you will definitely pull something from reading "The Progressive Patriot".
Establishing space rather than race as our foundation, we can imagine a Britishness which is the sum of every building, field, road, path; every food, custom, belief, culture; every person- in fcat everything that is in Britain today, a Britishness that can only be truly appreciated by understanding how and why these things came to be here.
The British identity is well placed to encompass such diversity.
I suppose I should really include one of his tunes as well....
New England at the Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival:
3 comments:
Interesting take on Bragg's perspectives, I've read snatches of the book myself and certainly Bragg's position on what the UK means is up for debate - at times he's the arch-British patriot at other moments he laughes at the artificial 'entity'.
My personal take on Bragg is that he is much more old-Labour than a neo-Unionist, he views the UK's cultural intersections as being a product of shared communal experiences, such as the establishment of the NHS and how those shared socio-cultural experiences are long past their sell by date.
Overall, I always got the impression of Bragg being the atypical 'English' nationalist. Someone who views his nationa in terms of proximity rather than lofty imperialistic baggage - in fact his songbook (I'm not a huge fan, but my Uncle) is if anything is anti-Union, pro-England.
Of course his position independent of his art is more complex, just as the break up of the UK will be a (very) long goodbye on all fronts of many twists, compromises and abstract structures eventually his vision of a 'New England' will come to pass. What Bragg means to understand is that the genie is out of the bottle and once it's out it's hard to lure it back in!
"My personal take on Bragg is that he is much more old-Labour than a neo-Unionist, he views the UK's cultural intersections as being a product of shared communal experiences, such as the establishment of the NHS and how those shared socio-cultural experiences are long past their sell by date."
No, definitely not a political unionist, his heart lies in primarily Barking, Dorset and England in that order. In fact, on Doughty Tv a month or so back, he was advocating a "nation of regions" within the wider context of the European Union, "parliaments" at a very localised level...completely unworkable but a pretty interesting concept nonetheless.
He needs to be careful though that he doesn't get hijacked by the wider English nationalist movement, who tend to hold him up as their token lefty as proof that their cause is not just the preserve of the right-wing.
I don't think the English nationalist community do hold Bragg up as a token lefty.
He used to be promising but now he's swallowed the Brown Britishness crap, including ID cards (for God's sake!).
In my book he's reduced to the level of a clown, albeit an engaging one.
My take on his book is here
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