These days, if you say you’re English, you’re thrown on telly In truth, Englishness has a weak hold on Britain. This is no sur
prise when the concept is so poorly defined. In “England Your Eng
land”, George Orwell summed up the nation by reeling off sights
common in any industrial country (“queues outside the labour ex
changes”) and values shared by many (“reverence for law”). The re
sult leaves England’s finest essayist sounding like Alan Partridge, a
boorish fictional
TV
presenter who wrote a ridiculous poem about
workingclass life: “Giros, gluesniffing, dogs on ropes/But I see
people with dreams and hopes.”
If Orwell stumbled, it is little surprise that today’s writers fail.
Two visions of English nationalism are offered. One defines it as a
bitter ideology that detests its European neighbours and resents
its Celtic partners. The other offers a more benign version of civic
nationalism, with Gareth Southgate, the eloquent and intelligent
manager of the England football team, as its patron saint. English
ness becomes little more than a conspiracy of male writers, des
perate to combine their love of football with a degree in English
literature. Neither picture fits the facts.
English nationalism is absent because there is no need for it.
Nationalism flourishes when people feel thwarted. But what Eng
land wants, England gets. England, usually, prefers a Conservative
government and so Britain, usually, has one. England wanted out
of the
eu
, and Britain did leave. Having your own way is not a reci
pe for resentment. So on St George’s Day, do the most English thing
of all: forget about England. It still has not spoken yet.
n
Bagehot If English nationalism is on the rise, no one has told the English
012
27
The Economist
April 22nd 2023
Europe
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