Today is St George’s Day’ But it is a sad fact that few other countries ignore their national day as pointedly as the English. Greeks are fierce in celebrating March 26th the anniversary of liberation from Turkish rule; Americans make 4th of July into a fireworks-charged celebration; ten days later the French mark Bastille Day; an amazing number of non-Irish don the green with the Irish themselves to celebrate St Paddy.
Why not the English?
More malicious commentators (such as this blog) argue that it’s their own fault. By having a history whose glory was founded on empire, the passage of that empire over half a century ago has failed to find a cohesive substitute. The Commonwealth may remain a force for good, but it does pivot around England as top dog, the way the empire did. The attempt to find a role within Europe shattered on NBoris and his Brexit buddies. The “special relationship” with the USA is as delusional as the “Auld Alliance” with France was for Scotland half a millennium ago..
England’s identity problem dates from over 300 years ago. After a troublesome century that included a civil war, five enforced changes of Head of State, a plantation of Ireland, Jacobite rebellion and sundry religious wars and persecution, the English parliament was understandably looking for peace and stability. After the disastrous Darien expedition of the late 17th century had drained much of Scotland capital, it was a matter of opportunity and expediency to pay the largely aristocratic members of the Scottish parliament to vote themselves out of existence in 1707.
“The Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland are hereby united into one Kingdom by the name of Great Britain”—Union with Scotland Act, 1706
But, instead of acknowledging the equal nature of two states coming together in a union, the terms were to add 45 Scottish seats to the existing 513 English in the House of Commons and 16 Scottish peers (but no clergy) to the Hours of Lords. Virtually nothing else changed; it remained the English parliament in all but name.
This attitude was compounded by two further Jacobite rebellions and ongoing unrest in Ireland that convinced many people that England was the civilised core, while little distinguished the rest of Britain from colonies like Virginia or Jamaica—except that they were more trouble and less profitable. The result was a couple of centuries of “Scottish cringe”, during which Scottish nobility learned cut-glass accents to fit in “down South’, and generations of Scottish schoolkids had their ears boxed for daring to speak the vernacular.
That said, when Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution elevated Scots from peripheral poverty to globe-spanning riches in the Union which had swept French ambition aside over the next hundred years bore fruit. Both countries shared the spoils of the Pax Britannica, dominating the world over the following century. Nobody took umbrage at the backsliding restoration of “England” as ruler of the pink-painted fifth of the globe. But as the pink was painted out, the word “British” lost its lustre too.
“England expects every man to do his duty.”—Admiral Nelson at Trafalgar, October 1805
Nelson’s final signal gave scant national offense to 40 Scots among the battle-hardened tars below decks on HMS Victory. But the implication they might not do their duty did.
The first half of the 19th century was the era of integration as Scots tried to rebrand themselves as “North British”. Walter Scott orchestrated George IV’s garish tartan visit; streets were named after Melbourne, Pitt and Palmerston; Victoria fell in love with Deeside. But the once-wild Scots making themselves appear harmless just reinforced pseudo-colonial attitudes in London where “England” remained in common usage when referring to the United Kingdom.
This is hardly surprising. Much of the burgeoning wealth and power concentrated there. Blake’s “Jerusalem” became a stirring anthem for the UK as a whole. It was more than the Greenwich meridian that made London the centre of the world. Other countries refer to the UK as Angleterre…Inglaterra…Anglia. The parliament at Westminster remains de facto the English parliament, dominated by 533 English MPs. Should the other 59 Scottish, 40 Welsh and 18 Irish sever to find common cause, it could be massively outvoted.
The monolithic two-party system at Westminster rather clouds this issue, but since the Irish were hived off in 1922, we have lived a century where London remained the centre of its shrinking imperial world, with England its bailiwick. Whether discussing immigration or train strikes, water companies or Brexit, the debates are actually bout England but treated as if they were about Britain.
It is not just government that operates like this. BBC’s Radio 4 is supposedly UK-wide, but sounds like English National Radio. Cricket is treated as a major sport, with the Middlesex CC’s 160-year tenure of Lords treated as a national event. After the Jubilee and Elizabeth lines came Crossrail and now a debate about Heathrow’s third runway. Are any of these really UK issues?
The confusion arises because of deft consensus among all parties that “Britain” is the only word to be used. Yet the elephant in the room is the lopsided setup of the British state. Of the UK’s 67 million people, 56 million live in England. The other 11 million have three parliaments discussing their needs. But 84% of the British population has no such parliament, dedicated to their needs. Yet the UK parliament must find time between helping Ukraine, pacifying Gaza, dealing with global warming, etc. to worry about social crises, or declining education— issues immediately relevant to England. No wonder its eye drifts off the ball and the English feel hard-done-by.
No wonder England is now confused and anguishing about its identity. Sassenachs should be out celebrating your Englishness today. Tomorrow, berate your MP for doing two jobs badly. Tell him/her: England should have its own parliament—just like the Scots.
“There is no separate Parliament for England and it’s because devolution was more a case of making a bad arrangement less worse than trying to do it properly.”—Stephen Mawhinney
#1109—1,005 words
davidsberry 