It seems that following a thorough mauling in the blogsphere, Mr White is to be Neu Labour’s sacrificial lamb. Well, I guess, someone has to pay and he did author the offending email. However, while Mr White is going (gone?) the general ignorance and bigotry towards the English remains. Indeed, I see no point in repeating what others have commented on this particular piece. Read, for example; the England Project or The Campaign for an English Parliament’s News Blog for a more detailed analysis of the article.
National identity may well be a tool used by extremists. Certainly politicians have been quick to use it when it suits their ends. However, a sense of national identity is a natural human trait – it only becomes wrong when used in the Orwellian sense.
“Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, not for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality.”
Identifying myself as English is recognizing my cultural heritage – it is not the same thing that Orwell rails against. Indeed, I empathize with his statement – there is something repugnant about the unthinking, flag waving desire to oppress others in the name of one’s own nationality.
On the matter of flag waving, the cross of Saint George is not, as the Friday project maintains, a “wretched flag” any more than is the saltire of Saint Andrew or the Dragon of Wales. The accusation of football hooliganism is identifying a minority and applying the resultant slur to the majority. There is nothing wrong with identifying oneself as English rather than British if that is how we see ourselves. We all have multifaceted views of our cultural identity – I am English, British, European – and, if you really want to pin it down, I’m a Man of Kent.
Does any of it matter? To most of us, no, it doesn’t. To the Neu Labour Apparatchicks, Englishness is something dirty, to be frowned upon. After all, Englishness is the root of all evil; soccer hooliganism at the one extreme and “Middle England” with all the inverted class snobbery that the term invokes (real or otherwise) at the other. No, being English means that we may be labelled as oppressors with impunity. Every nasty regime needs a scapegoat. Today, the English will do nicely, it seems.
So NuLabour are sacking White? Big deal. The disgusting bigotry and intolerance toward by far the biggest and most populous nation of the UK – England – remains.
In that case, I recognise myself as Lancastrian first, English second and British third. European? Never, never, never!
”’Longrider replies: Given that the UK is part of the European continent, you don’t have too much choice… ;-)”’