During a relatively brief radio interview at the weekend, Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP deputy leader, used the phrase “the people of Scotland” at least a dozen times. You don’t have to listen for long to a US politician, from the president downwards, before you hear the words “the American people” uttered. Yet can you imagine a mainstream political discussion here in which the “people of England” are routinely invoked?
While others proudly assert their nationhood, Englishness is the identity that hardly dares to speak its name. As Richard Wyn Jones, professor of politics at Cardiff University and author of a report on Englishness to be published by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), said yesterday: “The British political class is very uncomfortable in dealing with England as England.” (Telegraph.)
One might well ask WHY?
The answer is clear. The 'DeEnglishisation' of the country has been a highly successful leftist tactic. They have succeeded in making us embarrassed by our heritage; they have made 'patriotism' into something disgusting; they have declared that it is the equivalent of 'extreme nationalism'; people are made to feel that they are one step from fascism.
Ironically, the self same people endorse and encourage national consciousness in the other home nations - and indeed across the rest of the world.
Standard patriotism unites a nation!
One might well ask WHY?
The answer is clear. The 'DeEnglishisation' of the country has been a highly successful leftist tactic. They have succeeded in making us embarrassed by our heritage; they have made 'patriotism' into something disgusting; they have declared that it is the equivalent of 'extreme nationalism'; people are made to feel that they are one step from fascism.
Ironically, the self same people endorse and encourage national consciousness in the other home nations - and indeed across the rest of the world.
Standard patriotism unites a nation!
