"Dial 999 and call up the search teams. Posted missing, days before the European elections, is a satisfactory cliché for English identity. The Welsh have their leeks, the Irish their leprechaun outfits, the Scots their kilts, the Germans their lederhosen. And the English, well...the English don't really have anything, do they?
We seek it here, we seek it there, but all that is to be found right now is the squalor of the BNP and the jelly-bellied flag-flappers of English First and UKIP, all seizing the iconography of Englishness in the hope that votes will follow."
Not the greatest of introductions, but Melanie Reid’s article commenting on the recent recommendation by the Institute for Public Policy Research which dealt with English national identity, the "reclaimation" of the English flag and the promotion of St George's Day, does go on to make several worthwhile points.
First, there must be serious attempts made to officially recognise English cultural expressions such as St George's Day, an English national anthem, the Cross of St George. The cack-handed attempts made by the present government to impose a standard *Britishness* have illustrated well that for "such reforms to be credible they cannot simply be imposed top-down by the State".
Secondly, the old chestnut of the "English democratic deficit" brought into stark focus by the inequities arising from the Devolution Experiment; as the report from the House of Commons Justice Committee stated:
""England as the “unfinished business of devolution” - “stuck in a timewarp” while the rest of the UK has moved on.""
The IPPR, the Justice Committee and Reid are convinced that at least one omnipresent, tangible, evidence of that "deficit", The Barnett Formula has got to go- if nothing else then it's clear by now the "busted flush" method of allocating expenditure has not and cannot lead to s strengthening of the ties of the Union.
Solve the two above problems (easy I know!) and you’re halfway on the road to dealing with the growing resentment fuelling the rise of far-right extremists in the BNP and elsewhere.
Where Ms Reid gets it wrong though is with this:
For me, Englishness resides in character, not anything physical. It is an indefinable stew of tolerance, decency, resourcefulness and humour that only manifests itself when called upon. Englishness means being determinedly unshowy; modest to the point, often, of crashing dullness. Englishness means possessing a deep sense of fairness, usually completely inarticulated, and a prize-winning ability for a good moan. Englishness may be vulgar: whether it be shell suits and pitbulls; or monogrammed initials on your well cover - God bless you, Sir Peter Viggers - but on the whole it would rather do you a good turn than a bad.
All of those qualities are not specific to English (or indeed British) identity; the problem is that once you assume that they are, then how exactly do you then propose to protect, nurture and develop that identity? You can’t.
Rather than set up narrow indefinable parameters, concentrate more on the concrete, St George’s Day would be a good start. Give the people the freedom to develop individually their Englishness within the widest of boundaries. If British-Chinese folk wish to celebrate St George’s Day by bringing a dragon along to the local village parade, then that’s excellent news, but first you need the permission of the local council first to have both the parade and the metaphorical right wave the flag- that's the kind of battle which all forces should be concentrating on at the minute.
The IPPR essay is here.
8 comments:
Good stuff. As is usually the case, her attempt to define Englishness is totally flawed. England is the most cosmopolitan nation on the face of the earth, with the most cosmopolitan city in that world as its capital. To try to describe a set of common characteristics that apply to a young, second-generation immigrant black woman living in Hackney and a middle-aged white bloke living in rural England (e.g. me)runs out of steam after we've counted limbs and realised we are divided by a common language ;-). But if we have a common commitment to the future development of this wonderful country, then that's English enough for me. I want wide-scale democratic reform; PR, less MPs, an end to the sovereignty of the executive and the taking of appropriate steps to enable a reinvigoration of the Union. And I see English empowerment as central to this process. Hell, if Cameron could go the extra mile on this one, I may even vote for him!
St George's day is trivia as far as I'm concerned. More important is the balkanisation of England via the English regions project. The financial deficit that values Scottish lives at worth £1500 more than an English life. And of course the democratic deficit and the lack of an English Parliament.
And this of course:
http://forengland.org/blog/?p=210
Insightful stuff
The trick though in reviving englishness at a popular level is wider than just constitutional. The english, like the scots the ( southern) Irish and the Welsh - and most other countries -, must work out a way of making Englishness progreessive outward looking idea rather than an inward looking reactionary one. I would no for one minute say Engliash nationalsists or British nationalsits are all "right wingers", closet neo fascists, Bt it remaions an uncomfortable reality that those who wave th Union Jack and The St George' Cross highest are largely on the far right or are cranks
Iy was not far off that in Scotland 50 years ago,but the English could learn a lot from how our symbols of national identy have bee transformed over the decades into something near wholly positive. And I anti being flippant or superficial here, but to me it's encaspsulated in the Tartan Army - "if you wear the shirt, you're in the team", attitude, thta trancend ethnicisity, folks the world overcan relate to, support!
Ive also been on more than a few asylum right marches and for me ( and for others whatever they think of asylum seeking in general) must be heartedened by the numbers of recent immigrants who turn up with Saltires, happy to identify positvely with the country where the seek refuge. They dinna need no Government tersts. he day asylum seekers and the like satrt turning up at similar protest in England waving Sty George's crosse or Union Jacks wil be the day England/Britain wil have cracked it
In tihs reagrd I think England has a far better chance that Britian. The Union Jack not just has negative here and now connotations - just look at the BNP literature, the types that carry the falg ,plant it in their front garden- but also historically bad ones - the flag of Empire, colonisation, and in many cases oppression
So good luck to the English. Britain for me is long dead, but for many it was never even alive i in the first place -there is nowt to revive. Yet Broon will at best give Englishmenees only token encourgagement as it does not fit in with his world view. But like GB himslef Britain has all but ran its course
I dont mean it wil end tomorrow , or necessarily even when Eck get his refeendum....it's just it no longer has any point, its just historical baggage as an increasing number of Scots, English Irish and Welsh are finmding out. The last generation for whom Britain meant something real positve - the WW2 generation and to a lesser extent the post war boomers are, god bless them , passing on.
Whatever is against us, time is on the good guys' side and that includes the stil infant English nats.. Shakepeare, Shelly, Cobbett, The Beatles ...beat that And try singing "All We Need is Love! at a BNP rally!
Interesting. I agree with your "Balkanisation of England" view but I can't (fairly predictably)agree with your view that the idea of a United Kingdom is conceptually finished. It's a well-rehearsed argument, but we have collectively historically punched massively above our individual weights because of our unity. The world has undoubtedly changed since ensuring that we did that was life-or-death 70 years ago. And I think that what we've achieved in this country since then means that we increasingly need less government to control our lives. And I'm also supportive of the idea of shifting that (reducing) governance to a more local level. But if we want to retain any influence on the world stage, our unity is key. We want influence because (a) its in our interests and (b) if we really had developed an ethical foreign policy (instead of one based on illegal use of force)under Labour, I think the world would be a better place (e.g. it's in other people's interests as well). I have massive respect and affection for the individual nations of our Union. And I'm generally in favour of them having increased control over their own affairs. But this should NEVER in my view be allowed to force a default breakdown of the United Kingdom. The issue of English democratic defecit needs to be rectified to ensure this. But as I know only too well, English people are so sceptical of politicians that even when people in my region were offered a real regional assembly, they turned it down - largely to bloody said politicians noses. Of course the politicians response was to "punish" our region by bundling up decision making into an even less democratic format when it gave increased power to the RDA One North East. In fact it's lucky that we have such good beaches here - they provided ample sand for the collective political head-burying that followed the vote in Netherworld.
Bt it remaions an uncomfortable reality that those who wave th Union Jack and The St George' Cross highest are largely on the far right or are cranksabsolute nonsense. The only association with the CoSG or Englishness with the right wing are those made by mud slingers wanting to repress English nationalism.
Well said Terry. Do the people of the Republic of Ireland have to constantly defend their flag because terrorists and their sympathisers insist on using it?
So why is this charge only ever levied against the English? Because the facts of the matter are that the right-wingers are the ones waving the UNION flag, not the Cross of St. George.
"Aye we Can":
I do get rather cross when people come along primping and preening about their own nationalisms. When I was a child in the 1970s, the Union Flag was the cross of EVERYTHING in England, racism, national pride, EVERYTHING. I never even SAW a St George's flag until the football promotion in the 1990s.
Recent reports also show that the vast majority of migrants to Britain settle in England - so I really don't see where this Scots superiority complex comes in. England is amazingly cosmopolitan and vibrant, there are amazingly few problems.
And as far as Scotland and racism goes, let's not forget Lucy Newman, eh?
I just love the difficulty you civic English mob are having.
You want English to be non definable so that we can be a multi cultural, multi racial multi everything England yet when you find your little experiment is falling flat on its face you try to 'appear' to backpeddle without actually backpeddling.
For so long we the ethnic English majority have been treated as second class people in our own country,devolution and the barnett formula are only a part of the problem,
Black police federation
Black housing federation
Black music awards
Black Miss England awards
and on and on and on
who represents us the indiginouse white people? Oh thats right the BNP.
And you wonder why thier support is growing. Why your civic experiment is beginning to crack.
92% of immigration is to England so our identity not the Scots or Welsh identity are under threat from mass immigration. Immigration no one will give us a say on...oh thats right we can turn to the BNP.
Your pathetic attempt to appease the growing resentment of the ethnic English is too little too late.
If you truely wanted to combat the growing anger (Luton March for England available on youtube)
Then
1)remove all positive discrimination if we can have black organisations we can have white organisations.
2)Give us our English parliament or remove the Scottish and Welsh ones.
3)Stop all immigration and asylum to England we are the most densly populated nation in Europe, let Scotland and Wales take some of the strain.
But you wont do anything of the sort, you will keep blaming the jelly bellied (I wonder why that was not picked on as abusive) Ethnic English for your failed experiment. You will keep bleating about fairness while ignoring the inequality you have heaped upon the ethnic English.
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