In a 'green and pleasant land,' English nationalism stirs

A recent survey found that 23 percent of people wanted a separate parliament for England and 43 percent believed only English MPs should be allowed to vote on English issues in parliament.

"England must have its parliament returned to it," says Steven Uncles, who was standing as a candidate for the British parliament in a by-election on Thursday for a small party, the English Democrats. "Ten years ago, I was happy to be British really. But ever since Scotland and Wales got devolution, I want England to have the same."

(For those still confused, Britain includes Scotland, Wales, and England; the UK includes Britain plus Northern Ireland.)

Mr. Uncles says that Englishness "got somewhat lost while we were being Great Britain" and calls for a revival of traditional values: "fair play, decency, being part of a society where you contribute.

"To love your country is a natural thing; to act as if you want to be embarrassed about it, especially when it has done so many good things in the world, is wrong," he adds.

This leads to another favorite gripe of English nationalists: that the state encourages minorities to celebrate their culture but frowns on the majority English population cherishing its own culture.

Robin Tilbrook, who helped found English Democrats four years ago, criticized a decision by London authorities to spend £100,000 ($1,827) on a St. Patrick's Day parade because, he says, not enough was done to mark St. George's Day. "There is an element of official discouragement there, a degree of political correctness."

But when it comes to speaking about who they represent, English nationalists are less coherent. The England football team is supported by immigrants and second- and third-generation immigrants as well as the indigenous people. So who are the English?

Mr. Tilbrook says his party agitates for anyone living in England. His notion of Englishness is akin to American notions of "Americanness" – that you can be from any ethnic background and still wrap yourself in the flag. Others aren't so sure. The Commission for Racial Equality survey found that immigrants from Asia and the West Indies did not identify themselves as English, which they took to mean indigenous white people.

Whitehouse tends to agree. His magazine laments the demise of the "green and pleasant land" echoed in English literature and art through the ages, and harks back to an almost mythical golden age of deference, village cricket, cucumber sandwiches, and stiff upper lips. It's a landscape familiar to older English generations, but not necessarily to newcomers.

"The new people coming in don't have the same experiences as the English," he says. In fact, there are far more readers of his magazine in far-flung corners of the old empire, in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, than among British immigrants. "In some ways these expatriates are more English than the English."

The new English nationalists are still a small movement. This England boasts a circulationof only 150,000. The English Democrats secured around 130,000 votes at the 2004 European elections. If England loses to Portugal Saturday, a lot of the St. George flags may disappear. But questions of who the English are, who should govern them, will not.

Page: 1 | 2