There is a marked rise in the number people who, without a second thought, would once have called themselves British, but now refer to themselves as English.
It could be because of the resentment at the aggressiveness of Scottish nationalism, or perhaps because of the various encroachments of the EU and indeed the cult of globalisation.
Over the last ten years or so, amongst commentators, academics and the media, deconstructing 'Englishness' became the order of the day, in a way which would not be tolerated by the Scots, say, or the Welsh, who have instead been encouraged at every turn to re-affirm their sense of identity.
This negative onslaught is the background to the new-found celebration of England.
The new celebration of England and Englishness will be more visible from now on simply because, in the minds of millions, it needs to be.
It is, they've concluded, the only way of being heard.
"Wake up England"
3 comments:
You see union jacks on English apples and English cheese but the saltire on Scottish produce and a dragon on Welsh. That's inconsistent and not really correct. I rather think it gives the impression that the English think the union jack stands for England and that the English appear to be hijacking the northern and western extremities of the islands of which they occupy only a part. It's probably just that nobody has given this much thought until now but it does get construed as arrogance. For the sake on consistency I hope St. George's flag will appear on food marketed as English food. The union jack might then be reserved to stand for Britain as a whole and not just the southern part of it.
(Of course the Welsh don't have a flag within the union jack but that doesn't make them not British, although some of them would shout me down. So by that argument the union jack doesn't stand for Britain and we haven't got a British flag. Anyway...)
Many foreigners think that England is the whole of Britain and they think Scotland and Wales are parts of England. They usually assume you're English if you say "British". Imagine how irritating that might get. Even people on the telly and radio talk of England when they mean Britain and vice versa. You notice these things if you start to look out for them. When people on the media don't appear to know basic facts and geography it's a bit bad. I suppose the more the smaller nations hear these things the more annoying it gets so the more they have feel the need to assert themselves over the years.
It kind of gets me when I hear people talk of 'British law'. There is no such thing. Even the BBC do this. There's the law of England and Wales and there's Scots law. They talk of 'UK law' too and again there's no such thing but it has come to be used to refer to the lawS of the UK as opposed to those that Brussels imposes on the UK.
Oh dear, is this a bit long ofr a comment?
I agree. The supermarkets are to blame for some of this. I read somewhere that Tesco had renamed English butter...British butter.
But still sell Irish butter, Daft.
This morning, looking on BBC i-player, you see a list of program categories...there is Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland. NO category for England and English programs.
You will also not find a country called England on eu maps.
Yes, that proves my point. It's like on the news when they have a Scotland correspondent but they don't have an England correspondent because they're saying well, Britain is England so we needn't mention it. Everyone's English unless stated otherwise.
Hmmm they have a north of England correspondent but they don't have a south of England correspondent. All English are apparently assumed to be southerners unless otherwise stated. It's this London bias thing. They talk of "the city". Which city? Don't need to name it, they think. Everybody's supposed to know and everybody's assumed to live in it.
Hooray to public holidays though. There aren't enough of those. I would love to see each nation getting a day off on its saint's day.
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