THE number of people in England, Wales and Scotland who see themselves as British is in decline, David Cameron has declared.
Except he hasn’t. What he has "declared" was:
"I believe we should be honest about the problems our union faces. It's not just that the SNP are running Scotland; it goes deeper than that. There is no doubt that the number of people who see themselves as British – ahead of Scottish, Welsh or English – is in decline."
In Northern Ireland, that percentage seems to have remained pretty constant over the last decade or so, but including that fact would have diminished Dave’s point, which was...
"It is in fact about identity. You see it all over Europe, all over the world. People are seeking a clear identity; often a more localised identity. Just look at the rise of Cornish nationalists. I think we shouldn't fight that; I think we should build on top of that to create an inclusive British identity."
Yes and no. The British identity is already "inclusive", it is multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and to an extent, multi-national- it is the localised and regional nationalism of various descriptions, which is trying to limit peoples’ right to choose whatever identity or mix of identities they want. Cameron should be concentrating on that fact and the Tories should be starting to put the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the SDLP and Sinn Fein under the same spotlight that they’ve been shining on the Little Ulstermen wing of the DUP. It is a basic human right that people should be allowed to regard themselves as English, (Northern) Irish, Scottish, Welsh AND British and there should be no compromises, pacts or unwritten agreements with the narrow-minded whose ultimate target is to deny us, as British citizens, that inalienable right.
3 comments:
That the "British" identity is inclusive is probably down to the fact that the "English" identity has long been inclusive. After all, we "Anglo-Saxons" were hyphenated from the start - not forgetting the Jutes, Celts, Romano-British, Danes, Norwegians and all the rest.
"Englishness" has never been about ethnicity - the Victorian English were even happy to boast that we were a "mongrel" breed with all the hybrid vigour that meant.
On the other hand, others on these islands prefer to make a big fuss about their "Celtic" origins...
On the other hand, others on these islands prefer to make a big fuss about their "Celtic" origins...
There's nothing wrong with a pride in your origins- although I suspect there are as few *pure* 100% Celts as there are *pure* 100%Anglo-Saxons. It's when that "pride" in origins becomes a badge of exclusive identity that we start moving onto dodgy ground.
I quite agree O'Neill. That was actually the point I was making - us "Anglo-Saxons" have always acknowledged that we're a mixture of different peoples. We aren't the ones making a point of defining ourselves as separate to others on these Isles.
Or at least, we weren't...
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