The interesting thing about the Herald Scotland article by Ian Bell below, from the perspective of an English Nationalist, is that it clearly suggests that English Nationalism hasn't yet focussed on a political vehicle that is actually English Nationalist in perspective.
I suspect that this does represent merely a staging post for many people who are waking up to their English National Identity. When they fully do so, and are represented by a proper English Nationalist party, then English Nationalism may well become the dominant political force in English Politics!
I suspect that will be better for both Scotland and, more importantly from my point of view, England too.
When the Scots and English both want to be less British
Published on 18 May 2013
COMPLICATED, isn't it?
David Cameron calls Nigel Farage's Ukip a bunch of "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists". Mr Farage comes to Edinburgh and denounces demonstrators as racists after they accuse him of racism. He calls them scum, they call him a scumbag.
Having admitted before the English local elections that some of his candidates might be British National Party members, Mr Farage then draws the inference that some nationalists in Scotland are fascists, and scum, and anti-English racists. Gordon Brown recently likened Ukip's attitude towards immigrants to the provocations of Enoch Powell. Where does that leave the former Prime Minister on the crypto-fascist scale?
After his brush with a miniature version of the Edinburgh mob, Mr Farage asserted that he had never encountered such treatment before. That might be because elsewhere he has managed to present himself as the moderate, affable man in the pub who likes a laugh and a punitive immigration policy. Mr Farage's strategy is to portray Ukip as the mainstream party of "common sense". Some of us don't feel obliged to believe it.
Still, the speed with which Mr Farage translated jeers over immigration and homophobia into "anti-English racism" was mightily impressive. True, it appears that someone did suggest he could put his Union flag in a place where it would receive no salutes. True, someone else did demand that he should "Leave Scotland, go back to England", a sentiment your basic Ukip patriot wouldn't struggle to grasp.
But seriously: was there a row in the Royal Mile over the man or his policies? "Anti-English racism" has become the default position of a lot of right-wing folk trying and failing to import this or that piece of ideology. When all else fails – for surely the vote-winning policy can't be at fault – it becomes the only explanation they can grasp. Some even seem to find it congenial.
Let the sponging Scots go. Independence for England. Dissolve (this is one of Ukip's) the Holyrood Parliament. There's a lot of it about. According to some recent research, there has been a fascinating parallel increase in the numbers of people identifying themselves as English rather than British. One conclusion being drawn is that this might explain the Ukip phenomenon.
We are not short of racists in Scotland. We don't lack for those witless enough to believe that all their problems would be solved if "something was done" about immigration. There are handfuls of blood-and-soil types hanging around the fringes of nationalism. None of it has thus far amounted to anything. The BNP and its predecessors spent years trying to work out why they couldn't turn Scottish prejudices into support, even at football grounds.
Ukip has the same problem. Why won't proudly-British reactionary Scots flock to its cause? Mr Farage and his friends have a prejudice for every occasion. With barely a third of voters in the mood for independence, meanwhile, you can accuse a few dozen radicals on Edinburgh's High Street of being anti-English, if only as handy distraction, but it's a struggle to pin the label on the whole country.
Mr Farage is not what you would call anti-nationalist. At the last General Election he stood for this ambition (from the Ukip manifesto): "No longer will our country have to grovel to the EU for permission to spend our own money to save our post offices, car plants or power stations, or to negotiate our trade deals and determine our destiny".
The Ukip leader's conceptual difficulty is one of those squaring-the-circle problems. He shares it with all those Tory MPs who are giving David Cameron such grief. Seeking "independence" from the European Union is a proud and noble ambition. Seeking independence from the UK is but one step away from anti-English racism. Embattled in Embra, Mr Farage said: "Clearly this is anti-British, anti-English. They even hate the Union Jack".
The elision from British to English was, as always, fascinating. But if a chap doesn't know the difference between the Union flag and the Union Jack he's probably beyond help. Mr Farage's real problem is two-fold. First, you might find yourself detested if your policies are detestable. Secondly, what he calls anti-English racism is better explained by Ukip's success in making itself a repository for English identity.
Don't take my word for it. The research mentioned has been carried out by the universities of Edinburgh and Cardiff – non-aligned observers, you might say – along with the Institute for Public Policy Research for a work called the Future of England Survey. The full results mined from the 2011 census have yet to be released, but there are preliminary conclusions.
For example: in the census "70% per cent of the English population identified themselves as either solely English or English in combination with some other national identity. Just 29% of respondents identified themselves as feeling any sense of British national identity". Fully 55% of Ukip's supporters said they were "English not British".
Equally, when people were asked: "Which party best stands up for English interests?", Ukip topped the list, scoring 21% to 19% for Labour and 17% for the Tories. Writing in the Spectator earlier this month, Guy Lodge, Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) associate director, commented that "it is exactly those voters who feel more strongly English who also believe that England is getting a raw deal from its membership of both the European Union and the current political settlement in the United Kingdom".
Richard Wyn-Jones, professor of politics at Cardiff and co-author of the report, was meanwhile quoted in the IPPR's press release. He said the Ukip phenomenon is more than anti-European or anti-politics. It is a "much broader transformation in attitudes", one that is "bringing England and Englishness to the fore as a political community and political identity... Ukip is surfing a wave of existential angst about England's place in world."
Almost simultaneously, Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University has produced a briefing paper for ScotCen (the Scottish Centre for Social Research), entitled Who Supports And Opposes Independence – And Why, using the 2012 Scottish Social Attitudes Survey. In part, this confirms what you might have guessed: 23% say they are "Scottish not British"; 30% identify themselves as "more Scottish than British".
So why isn't there 53% support for independence? Crudely put, because a Scottish identity is "a near-ubiquitous attachment that unites rather than divides most people in Scotland". Britishness is a different matter: "the more strongly British someone feels, the less likely they are to support independence". Among Scots generally, it is "how British they feel that divides them".
In short – this is my gloss – the SNP's task is not to encourage Scots to feel more Scottish, but to persuade them to feel less British. In that event, of course, a Farage will pop up, England's chosen voice, and accuse Alex Salmond of being anti-English. Nationalists will have to live with that.
One country wants to be independent of the other. The other, in this case, is England. The idea that the process will be amicable at every turn is naive. With Ukip on the scene and English nationalism resurgent, we probably haven't seen the half of it.
David Cameron calls Nigel Farage's Ukip a bunch of "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists". Mr Farage comes to Edinburgh and denounces demonstrators as racists after they accuse him of racism. He calls them scum, they call him a scumbag.
Having admitted before the English local elections that some of his candidates might be British National Party members, Mr Farage then draws the inference that some nationalists in Scotland are fascists, and scum, and anti-English racists. Gordon Brown recently likened Ukip's attitude towards immigrants to the provocations of Enoch Powell. Where does that leave the former Prime Minister on the crypto-fascist scale?
After his brush with a miniature version of the Edinburgh mob, Mr Farage asserted that he had never encountered such treatment before. That might be because elsewhere he has managed to present himself as the moderate, affable man in the pub who likes a laugh and a punitive immigration policy. Mr Farage's strategy is to portray Ukip as the mainstream party of "common sense". Some of us don't feel obliged to believe it.
Still, the speed with which Mr Farage translated jeers over immigration and homophobia into "anti-English racism" was mightily impressive. True, it appears that someone did suggest he could put his Union flag in a place where it would receive no salutes. True, someone else did demand that he should "Leave Scotland, go back to England", a sentiment your basic Ukip patriot wouldn't struggle to grasp.
But seriously: was there a row in the Royal Mile over the man or his policies? "Anti-English racism" has become the default position of a lot of right-wing folk trying and failing to import this or that piece of ideology. When all else fails – for surely the vote-winning policy can't be at fault – it becomes the only explanation they can grasp. Some even seem to find it congenial.
Let the sponging Scots go. Independence for England. Dissolve (this is one of Ukip's) the Holyrood Parliament. There's a lot of it about. According to some recent research, there has been a fascinating parallel increase in the numbers of people identifying themselves as English rather than British. One conclusion being drawn is that this might explain the Ukip phenomenon.
We are not short of racists in Scotland. We don't lack for those witless enough to believe that all their problems would be solved if "something was done" about immigration. There are handfuls of blood-and-soil types hanging around the fringes of nationalism. None of it has thus far amounted to anything. The BNP and its predecessors spent years trying to work out why they couldn't turn Scottish prejudices into support, even at football grounds.
Ukip has the same problem. Why won't proudly-British reactionary Scots flock to its cause? Mr Farage and his friends have a prejudice for every occasion. With barely a third of voters in the mood for independence, meanwhile, you can accuse a few dozen radicals on Edinburgh's High Street of being anti-English, if only as handy distraction, but it's a struggle to pin the label on the whole country.
Mr Farage is not what you would call anti-nationalist. At the last General Election he stood for this ambition (from the Ukip manifesto): "No longer will our country have to grovel to the EU for permission to spend our own money to save our post offices, car plants or power stations, or to negotiate our trade deals and determine our destiny".
The Ukip leader's conceptual difficulty is one of those squaring-the-circle problems. He shares it with all those Tory MPs who are giving David Cameron such grief. Seeking "independence" from the European Union is a proud and noble ambition. Seeking independence from the UK is but one step away from anti-English racism. Embattled in Embra, Mr Farage said: "Clearly this is anti-British, anti-English. They even hate the Union Jack".
The elision from British to English was, as always, fascinating. But if a chap doesn't know the difference between the Union flag and the Union Jack he's probably beyond help. Mr Farage's real problem is two-fold. First, you might find yourself detested if your policies are detestable. Secondly, what he calls anti-English racism is better explained by Ukip's success in making itself a repository for English identity.
Don't take my word for it. The research mentioned has been carried out by the universities of Edinburgh and Cardiff – non-aligned observers, you might say – along with the Institute for Public Policy Research for a work called the Future of England Survey. The full results mined from the 2011 census have yet to be released, but there are preliminary conclusions.
For example: in the census "70% per cent of the English population identified themselves as either solely English or English in combination with some other national identity. Just 29% of respondents identified themselves as feeling any sense of British national identity". Fully 55% of Ukip's supporters said they were "English not British".
Equally, when people were asked: "Which party best stands up for English interests?", Ukip topped the list, scoring 21% to 19% for Labour and 17% for the Tories. Writing in the Spectator earlier this month, Guy Lodge, Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) associate director, commented that "it is exactly those voters who feel more strongly English who also believe that England is getting a raw deal from its membership of both the European Union and the current political settlement in the United Kingdom".
Richard Wyn-Jones, professor of politics at Cardiff and co-author of the report, was meanwhile quoted in the IPPR's press release. He said the Ukip phenomenon is more than anti-European or anti-politics. It is a "much broader transformation in attitudes", one that is "bringing England and Englishness to the fore as a political community and political identity... Ukip is surfing a wave of existential angst about England's place in world."
Almost simultaneously, Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University has produced a briefing paper for ScotCen (the Scottish Centre for Social Research), entitled Who Supports And Opposes Independence – And Why, using the 2012 Scottish Social Attitudes Survey. In part, this confirms what you might have guessed: 23% say they are "Scottish not British"; 30% identify themselves as "more Scottish than British".
So why isn't there 53% support for independence? Crudely put, because a Scottish identity is "a near-ubiquitous attachment that unites rather than divides most people in Scotland". Britishness is a different matter: "the more strongly British someone feels, the less likely they are to support independence". Among Scots generally, it is "how British they feel that divides them".
In short – this is my gloss – the SNP's task is not to encourage Scots to feel more Scottish, but to persuade them to feel less British. In that event, of course, a Farage will pop up, England's chosen voice, and accuse Alex Salmond of being anti-English. Nationalists will have to live with that.
One country wants to be independent of the other. The other, in this case, is England. The idea that the process will be amicable at every turn is naive. With Ukip on the scene and English nationalism resurgent, we probably haven't seen the half of it.
There is a Elephant in Englands Green and pleascent Land. Yet, how many English people notice anything unusual ? proberbly more than is realised.They say little for the time being.
ReplyDeleteYou see,hidden quango's seek to shape ourFuture politicians (Really Big Business)sneaky as they are continue to mislead and with hold vital Democratic information.We haven't seen the quarter of it, let alone half !
Interesting the reference to Enoch Powell. I don't know how much support he had in Scotland but he had overwhelming support in England. He only looked to the future and saw the logical consequences of what was happening. People did not want multiculturalism then, it has no grass roots support all over Europe and many - perhaps still the majority - have not changed their views.
ReplyDeleteToday we have witnessed another death that would never have happened if Enoch and Winston Churchill had had their way, another death down to Edward Heath.
I did read that British blacks like the perpatrator of this crime were increasingly switching to Islam so we assume this death will not be the last as Islam becomes the major religion in this country. It has echoes of the murders of those in the Netherlands who spoke out against islamification and paid the ultimate price. It also has echoes of the murder of PC Blakelock except he had his manhood removed rather than his head . I'm not sure if he was still alive at the time. My initial reaction was not anger but despair. What will the reaction of Edgbaston man be if this is followed by a summer of rioting? And finally could we have a comment from Baroness Warsi who has links to a certain terrorist group? A Norwegian academic has just labelled those in his country who are opposed to mass immigration as suffering from a mental illness. I'm not sure if he has got not got that the wrong way round.
No doubt that Norwegian academic will still maintain his point of view even if it turns out that some of his fellow citizens were about to be blown out of the skies over London today. I wonder how the person who might have tampered with the engines ending up in BA maintenance? I don't think he would have been called Tom Smith.
DeleteEnough of the Scottish-English stuff! Let's just leave Scotland alone and get on with our own patch - which isn't much then a corner of the South coast of England at the moment. And how about a statement from Robin about the horror in Woolwich? How about a robust condemnation of the political and business elite who would like to see even more immigration from fundamentally culturally incompatible countries? How about a statement calling for no more mosques?
ReplyDelete"Enough of the Scottish-English stuff!". Yes. At least Scottish nationalism is a force to be reckoned with, while English nationalism has yet to get its boots on.
DeleteBy a "corner of the South coast of England" is presumably meant Kent where the EDs performed dismally in the local elections (as it did in the Eastleigh by-election). If the South East is the ED's "own patch", then the party doesn't have a "patch" to "get on with". The EDs can pour all the resources at the party's command into the South of England and still won't turn it into fertile ground for the Party.
The murder in Woolwich was not entirely unexpected in the multicultural city state known as Londonistan.
The "political and business elite" is itself rootless without national loyalty which is why it is so keen to see increasing immigration from countries whose cultures clash with the indigenous English culture.
What! No more mosques to be built in Londonistan? You must be joking.
More words of wisdom form Ian Bell - "Better off out of it: [the UK, that is] a slogan whose time has finally come"
ReplyDelete"What troubles me most is not the future of Scotland, but the future of a UK with Scotland still attached.
Now there's a real basket case heading pell mell towards another financial sector calamity. 'Better Off Out Of It' feels like a slogan whose time has come. The demand would include the pound, if anyone's asking."
He sees a failing UK economy, and a failing pound, dragging Scotland down with it.
'Better Off Out Of It' feels like a slogan whose time has come for England too.
Sorry I have just read that PC Blakelock was decapitated and his head was paraded around on a pole. Sadly, you can take the people out of the third world but you can't take the third world out of the people. There is a bit more left of England than the south coast still. However, Ian Hislop said on Have I got news for you with regard to the census results that White Britain was now confined to the Celtic Fringe. He then spoke of black clouds drifting over Britain. I don't know how he got away with it; but he is right, whatever barriers you erect the clouds just seem to drift over the top. I wonder when they will drift into his bit of Sussex and what his reaction will be then.
ReplyDeleteI would like to have a comment from that American working in the City of London about events in Woolwich, the one who spoke of London as being a first-rate city now; so much better than the cockney capital of yesteryear no doubt. Perhaps he will have to start looking over his shoulder; especially if he is Jewish. I wonder which politician is now going to say Enoch was right, not even Mr Griffin has come out with than one yet. And I don't think Mr Farage will either. I wouldn't try it Robin it will be political suicide even if it is the truth. I would just like somebody to put up posters on every street corner with Enoch's face on them and that slogan and see the reaction of parliament and the media.
ReplyDeleteNice to know we are not alone, from Norway there has been praise from the muslim community for the butchers of Woolwich. And in Sweden according to Russia Today but not a mention here you notice, especially today, there have been three days of riots and burning by their well-integrated immigrants.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't need to write that elongated article Robin, you could have said all that in one short sentence. '' I, Robin Tilbrook, am envious of the success of UKIP''.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine why any English nationalist would be envious of the confused Ukip
Delete