![]() People in London who voted in 2016 to leave the European Union felt slightly more British than they did Londoner, with scores of 7.9 and 7.7 European scored 2.5.Įmbed from Getty ImagesLondon, however, is both a vital part of England, and yet is also atypical in its mix of people and politics. Londoner came top (7.7), followed by British (7.4), English (6.6), and European (4.9). These results were qualified by the question of how strongly they felt each of these identities on a scale of zero to ten-one not available hitherto for historic discussion of multiple identities. The Evening Standard of 10 October 2017 published the results of a study by Queen Mary College, University of London, based on a YouGov poll of 1,044 Londoners, which revealed that 46 per cent of those surveyed named ‘Londoner’ as their primary identity 25 per cent European 17 per cent British and only 12 per cent English. These multiple identities can be readily seen today, and were also manifested in the past. Part of the problem, but also the answer, is suggested by the nature and extent of multiple identities, by the beliefs and wishes they encompass, and by the degree to which these factors vary across time. Each approach is relevant and has its merits. The second approach is to look at a more recent foundation, as suggested above, one that reflects a decline in Britishness. So that is one history of English nationalism, a history made complex by the need to discuss, prior and subsequent to 1707, the consequences of being part of a larger realm. Moreover, from 1066 (as well as under the Romans and King Cnut), as part of a larger political realm, the English state continued until it ended with the merger of the English and Scottish parliaments in 1707. If statehood is the key issue, then the creation of the Old English (Saxon) monarchy in the tenth century is critical, as that produced an English state. This crystallisation of identity raises the question of how far back in time one can project a form of English nationalism. Irish nationalism was the first, but it was followed by those of Wales and, more prominently, Scotland. Moreover, nationalism, or at least a distinctive nationalism, has been precipitated, and, in part, forced upon England, by the development in the British Isles of strident nationalisms that have contested Britishness, and with much success. Despite the American tendency to refer to the ‘Queen of England,’ the monarch rules the United Kingdom.Įmbed from Getty ImagesThat, however, does not mean that England lacks an identity, or identities. Moreover, there is relatively little that is distinctive to England within Great Britain or the United Kingdom, and notably so since the relative decline in significance of the Church of England. ![]() There is no English passport, Parliament or currency, nor any immediate prospect of any. England is the largest and, by far, the most populous part of Britain and of the United Kingdom, but it is only part of the whole. Great Britain (Britain for short) itself is composed of England, Scotland, and Wales. It is the latter because there is currently no English state within the United Kingdom, which is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The contexts include geography, climate, culture, society, economics and politics, and the experiences and expressions of each of these.Įnglishness is an identity, a consciousness, and, at present, a proto-nationalism. ![]() These ‘deep histories’ are the understanding of the past that is central to identity as well as being an expression of this idea. It manifests powerful emotional elements as well as the interaction of the ‘deep histories’ of particular national, or would-be national, groups with the contexts and expressions of these ‘deep histories’ in specific circumstances. Nationalism is a feeling as much as a principle. ![]()
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