#If English nationalism is on the rise, no one has told the English
##The rise of English identity is largely myth
*Apr 19th 2023*
Little happens on St George’s Day. There is no bank holiday on April 23rd to celebrate England’s dragon-slaying patron saint. Traditions are few. Morris dancing, an English folk dance with bells and flailing handkerchiefs, is mercifully rare. A politician may post a message against a backdrop of an England flag. Tedious liberals point out that St George was Turkish and dragons do not exist. Beyond that, England’s national day passes with no fanfare. England is absent.
Open a book, read a broadsheet newspaper or head to an academic conference, however, and England is everywhere. Britain is experiencing “a reawakening of English national consciousness”, argued Jason Cowley in “Who Are We Now: Stories of Modern England”. Englishness is “the motor force behind” ructions in recent British politics, say Alisa Henderson and Richard Wyn Jones, a pair of academics. Another author warns Britain “cannot survive English nationalism”. This is a genre fond of quoting G.K. Chesterton’s poetry: “Smile at us, pay us, pass us; but do not quite forget/For we are the people of England, that never have spoken yet.” According to the intelligentsia, the people of England are screaming.
If English nationalism is on the march, no one has told the English. Like the life of St George, the rise of English identity is largely myth, argues Sir John Curtice, a political scientist. Even after devolution of power to Scotland and Wales, Britain’s departure from the EU, the rise and fall of the uk Independence Party and four straight Conservative general-election victories, the proportion of British people who identify as predominantly or only English has barely budged. If anything, it has fallen. In 1999, 31% of people fell into this bracket, according to the British Social Attitudes survey, the most comprehensive snapshot of opinion. In 2020, 22% did.
Chroniclers of English nationalism leapt on the 2011 census, which showed that a whopping 58% of residents in England identified as English only. Skip forward a decade and this number plunged to 15%. What caused this shift? A botched survey. In 2011 “English” was the first option and “British” was the fifth; in 2021 “Britain” came top of the list. If the patriotism of Englishmen does not extend to the lower box of a census form, it may not run deep.
The new nationalism is just as hard to spot in Britain’s politics. It is often taken as a given that English nationalism was the driver of Britain leaving the EU. England makes up 85% of the country’s population and, lo, it contributed 87% of the Leave vote. But English votes were not enough to win the referendum in 2016. Leave-supporting Scots (38% of Scottish voters) were needed, too. A majority of voters in Wales voted to depart. The votes of the 44% of Northern Irish residents who plumped for “Leave” were as valid as those cast in Kent. Brexit was British.
England whispers during national elections. The general election of 2015, when the Conservative Party wrapped itself in an England flag, is portrayed as a breakthrough for English nationalism. Adverts showing Ed Miliband, the then Labour leader, in hock to Scottish nationalists were everywhere. But Labour increased both its vote share and the number of seats in England that election. It was collapse in Scotland that broke the party.
By contrast, under Boris Johnson, the Conservatives offered a vision in which England was barely mentioned. In 2019 the Tories duly won their largest majority in four decades. Oddly, one of the few people to notice the switch from English to British patriotism was Donald Trump, an idiot savant who remarked: “I asked Boris, ‘Where’s England? You don’t use it too much any more.’”
Resentful Englanders are supposedly jealous of devolved powers enjoyed by Scotland and Wales. It is strange, then, that support for an English parliament is still a minority pursuit. Only a fifth of English voters back one. A system called “English votes for English laws”, whereby English MPs vet legislation affecting only England, was passed with much fanfare in 2015. In theory the idea was popular. Yet it was quietly scrapped in 2021. Few noticed; fewer cared.
An obsession with the wants of English voters is understandable. At the last few elections, a minority of flag-waving, Leave-voting, stoutly English voters proved a significant group in some seats. Leaving the eu upturned half a century of British policy, so delving into the motivations of Brexit’s biggest fans made sense. But the British voter is large. He contains multitudes.
##These days, if you say you’re English, you’re thrown on telly
In truth, Englishness has a weak hold on Britain. This is no surprise when the concept is so poorly defined. In “England Your England”, George Orwell summed up the nation by reeling off sights common in any industrial country (“queues outside the labour exchanges”) and values shared by many (“reverence for law”). The result leaves England’s finest essayist sounding like Alan Partridge, a boorish fictional tv presenter who wrote a ridiculous poem about working-class life: “Giros, glue-sniffing, dogs on ropes/But I see people with dreams and hopes.”
If Orwell stumbled, it is little surprise that today’s writers fail. Two visions of English nationalism are offered. One defines it as a bitter ideology that detests its European neighbours and resents its Celtic partners. The other offers a more benign version of civic nationalism, with Gareth Southgate, the eloquent and intelligent manager of the England football team, as its patron saint. Englishness becomes little more than a conspiracy of male writers, desperate to combine their love of football with a degree in English literature. Neither picture fits the facts.
English nationalism is absent because there is no need for it. Nationalism flourishes when people feel thwarted. But what England wants, England gets. England, usually, prefers a Conservative government and so Britain, usually, has one. England wanted out of the EU, and Britain did leave. Having your own way is not a recipe for resentment. So on St George’s Day, do the most English thing of all: forget about England. It still has not spoken yet. ■
One thing that’s funny is when people say St George is Turkish. Does anyone tell the Irish that St Patrick was a Roman-Brit?
And to think the last guy to suggest having a bank holiday for St George’s Day apparently hates the country.
Sounds like a lot of marketing. it’s odd how the government is pushing the Windsor agreement as a win for northern Ireland, but when voices from Scotland ask for the same package they get derision.
It feels like the next Brexit will be Scottish, and it could get nasty.
I mean, it can easily be on the rise even if its just people in charge and a vocal minority
It really is a shame how England is constantly fucked over. The devolved regions get self-determination, and a ton of subsidies, while all the English get is the bill for it all.
Not to mention that England has to put up with virtually all the immigration, and yet we get told we’re racist for simply existing. Any form of English patriotism has to be expressed in terms of “diversity”, and praise for every single culture except our native one.
English nationalism isn’t a thing, but it would be if people were aware of how much they’re being taken advantage of.
Within any system of identities, it is the duty of the identity group that has been designated as “privileged” to abandon all positive sentiments about that identity. Anyone unwilling to do this is seen as extremely sinister and worthy of scorn and condemnation.
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We have historically and always will be into our tribalism. Many people, especially in the north would rather associate themselves with their region than their country (scousers especially).
I always refer to myself as English, not British. It has always been controversial because I was born in Cornwall! I moved to the West Midlands, on the Welsh border, so it’s no longer frowned upon. I’m happy to be English!
I thought it was a good article until the last paragraph, and then I think it lost the plot a little bit.
It points out that there were large numbers of people in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland who agree with Brexit, then suddenly determines that England isn’t nationalist because… we got the Tory government that we apparently all wanted?
As a foreigner who has been in the UK for the last six years and soon to be a citizen I’ve gotta say I agree.
I find it terribly sad and a bit depressing that being proud of being English is seen as something racist. I’ve lived all over the world and this truly is the only one where it seems that most (at least young) people seem to be ashamed of their country. It’s like they want to be seen as anything BUT english.
I was applying for my British citizenship the other day and told a friend of mine who said to me ‘why the hell would you want to become British, I wouldn’t be advertising that around to be honest’
honestly it is something I think needs to change; a shared national identity surely is something that can bring people from all the different backgrounds of England together right?
It seems to work well for everyone else in the UK why not the English?
sigh
I don’t see English national pride. But I think there’s a lot more regional feeling than when I was younger. Cornish pride, the red rose flag flown on quite a few houses round here, the Northumberland flag flown in those parts. England is big and has many distinct regions, and I think people feel more for their region and possibly the UK than “England” as a concept.
I love the Economist but this is a trash article from them.
Firstly, English Nationalism ‘rising’ is not associated with it becoming more popular but it becoming more powerful. Specifically, British Politics being dominated by the English Nationalist movements of Brexit and the ex-conservative, ex-Unionist Tory Party that it consumed. We’re now coming up thirteen years of the Tories and seven years of Brexit (eight if you include the campaign leading up to it). Both still hold an autocratic hold on Westminster and will do until well into 2024.
Secondly, Orwell’s writing on Englishness and the English left’s failures around patriotism are truly excellent and immensely quotable. If Orwell ‘stumbled’, then the author of this opinion piece has managed to set himself on fire, step on a rake, fall backwards into a pit of vipers and get mauled by a pack of honey badgers.
If there’s one lesson the media has been teaching me all my life (nearly 43 years), it’s that Scottish nationalism good, British nationalism bad, English nationalism *really* bad.
Because there is very little difference between English identity and British identity. Most English people just say they feel British because Britain is just England with extra bits.
I love how the author waxes lyrical about George Orwell, a man firmly planted to the left and who marched into war against nationalists (fascists) on the side of anarchists.
It turns out that patriotism largely has little to do with wrapping yourself in a flag and screaming about how wonderful you are as you storm across the globe stripping innocent people of the means to support themselves. it’s more about being, or striving to be, good enough that you don’t have to tell a soul… they can see.
Its on the rise because of the protestors like extinction rebellion and other groups embarrassing themselves and disrupting things. They see people like that on the news they get pissed off and whether they align with it or not get pushed into “I dream for days of the empire that spanned the world group.” People become radical because they feel like the alternative is pointless. Coming to the table and discussing shit is pointless when you can just spout insults and names at them and people that are scared will side with you. Its what many Labourites do against Conservatives call them fascists, racists. Its what many Conservatives do to Labourites call them socialists, want something for nothing.
If you want shit to improve advocate for yourself to become an MP or just at the very least don’t vote for these 2 incredibly corrupt self centred parties of elitism.
>In truth, Englishness has a weak hold on Britain. This is no surprise when the concept is so poorly defined. In “England Your England”, George Orwell summed up the nation by reeling off sights common in any industrial country (“queues outside the labour exchanges”) and values shared by many (“reverence for law”). The result leaves England’s finest essayist sounding like Alan Partridge, a boorish fictional tv presenter who wrote a ridiculous poem about working-class life.
This is a slander on Orwell. “England Your England” is a remarkable essay. The writer has completely missed the point, and frankly the rest of the “analysis” in this article is so inane and descriptive that I wouldn’t be throwing stones if I’d written it. Orwell is absolutely correct to point out that the essence of Englishness isn’t to be found in grand speeches or political theory; we didn’t have a “Springtime of Nations” or a revolutionary anti-imperial nationalist tradition like, say, Poland or Italy. If English national identity is to be found, it is found in the mundane.
But just because it’s mundane and everyday, doesn’t mean that it’s weak or insignificant. It’s the inverse; the strength of the nation as a concept is because it attaches itself to small, everyday sights and becomes so ubiquitous that you barely think about it at all. This is a concept called [banal nationalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banal_nationalism), and the fact that Orwell picks up on it half a century before the term was coined in academia is proof of how insightul he is.
It would be nice if England got equality with the other nations and was given its own government and ability to make decisions to benefit the English. I think English identity is deliberately conflated with that of the British, so they can excuse themselves for not letting us have home rule.
The claims of rising English nationalism are a bit more nuanced than “ticked a box on a census”. The accusation is more a “Britishness” that is just a proxy for England. I mean we live in a country where the Church of England only legally represents England but is treated as a core constitutional part of the UK at large. A country where the British national anthem is basically dirt to anyone outside England because it is primarily associated with English sports teams.
Whether it is a fair charge or not, the number of tick boxes on a census doesn’t really highlight anything.
In a world 500 years ago, in a non globalised world, culture was much more of a monolithic concept. But now I feel it’s much less so, much more a slow changing and merging of cultures. The U.K. in particular because if it’s empire, because so many of its “Empire citizens” chose to move to the U.K. for a better life in the second half of the 20th century, can be viewed as the prime example of this concept. The problems arise when a subsection of people try to hijack the idea of a unique culture for political ends. Then anyone else like the author who tries to highlight the need to reclaim and highlight this culture, get lumped in with “far right nationalists and racists”. The results are polarising – there is an unspoken fear in celebrating being English on one side, and a hyper expression on the other from a small section of people. If anyone wants to see this in action, just go to NI.
British Nationalism and English Nationalism are the same thing for the most part and for many in England the words England, Britain and UK are synonymous.
You can observe this in the daily news
Yep. I’m sorry but that’s pretty much how I feel. Really don’t feel any ‘pride’ in being English (although how anyone can feel pride for being born in any certain country is beyond me, surely that’s just luck?), and I despise the national anthem, both for what it stands for, and due to the fact it celebrates us plebs being enslaved by a hereditary dynasty by the will of an imaginary deity.
Don’t really get nationalism and never have. Only reason I’m still here is because of my mortgage.
25 comments
*Article Text*
#If English nationalism is on the rise, no one has told the English
##The rise of English identity is largely myth
*Apr 19th 2023*
Little happens on St George’s Day. There is no bank holiday on April 23rd to celebrate England’s dragon-slaying patron saint. Traditions are few. Morris dancing, an English folk dance with bells and flailing handkerchiefs, is mercifully rare. A politician may post a message against a backdrop of an England flag. Tedious liberals point out that St George was Turkish and dragons do not exist. Beyond that, England’s national day passes with no fanfare. England is absent.
Open a book, read a broadsheet newspaper or head to an academic conference, however, and England is everywhere. Britain is experiencing “a reawakening of English national consciousness”, argued Jason Cowley in “Who Are We Now: Stories of Modern England”. Englishness is “the motor force behind” ructions in recent British politics, say Alisa Henderson and Richard Wyn Jones, a pair of academics. Another author warns Britain “cannot survive English nationalism”. This is a genre fond of quoting G.K. Chesterton’s poetry: “Smile at us, pay us, pass us; but do not quite forget/For we are the people of England, that never have spoken yet.” According to the intelligentsia, the people of England are screaming.
If English nationalism is on the march, no one has told the English. Like the life of St George, the rise of English identity is largely myth, argues Sir John Curtice, a political scientist. Even after devolution of power to Scotland and Wales, Britain’s departure from the EU, the rise and fall of the uk Independence Party and four straight Conservative general-election victories, the proportion of British people who identify as predominantly or only English has barely budged. If anything, it has fallen. In 1999, 31% of people fell into this bracket, according to the British Social Attitudes survey, the most comprehensive snapshot of opinion. In 2020, 22% did.
Chroniclers of English nationalism leapt on the 2011 census, which showed that a whopping 58% of residents in England identified as English only. Skip forward a decade and this number plunged to 15%. What caused this shift? A botched survey. In 2011 “English” was the first option and “British” was the fifth; in 2021 “Britain” came top of the list. If the patriotism of Englishmen does not extend to the lower box of a census form, it may not run deep.
The new nationalism is just as hard to spot in Britain’s politics. It is often taken as a given that English nationalism was the driver of Britain leaving the EU. England makes up 85% of the country’s population and, lo, it contributed 87% of the Leave vote. But English votes were not enough to win the referendum in 2016. Leave-supporting Scots (38% of Scottish voters) were needed, too. A majority of voters in Wales voted to depart. The votes of the 44% of Northern Irish residents who plumped for “Leave” were as valid as those cast in Kent. Brexit was British.
England whispers during national elections. The general election of 2015, when the Conservative Party wrapped itself in an England flag, is portrayed as a breakthrough for English nationalism. Adverts showing Ed Miliband, the then Labour leader, in hock to Scottish nationalists were everywhere. But Labour increased both its vote share and the number of seats in England that election. It was collapse in Scotland that broke the party.
By contrast, under Boris Johnson, the Conservatives offered a vision in which England was barely mentioned. In 2019 the Tories duly won their largest majority in four decades. Oddly, one of the few people to notice the switch from English to British patriotism was Donald Trump, an idiot savant who remarked: “I asked Boris, ‘Where’s England? You don’t use it too much any more.’”
Resentful Englanders are supposedly jealous of devolved powers enjoyed by Scotland and Wales. It is strange, then, that support for an English parliament is still a minority pursuit. Only a fifth of English voters back one. A system called “English votes for English laws”, whereby English MPs vet legislation affecting only England, was passed with much fanfare in 2015. In theory the idea was popular. Yet it was quietly scrapped in 2021. Few noticed; fewer cared.
An obsession with the wants of English voters is understandable. At the last few elections, a minority of flag-waving, Leave-voting, stoutly English voters proved a significant group in some seats. Leaving the eu upturned half a century of British policy, so delving into the motivations of Brexit’s biggest fans made sense. But the British voter is large. He contains multitudes.
##These days, if you say you’re English, you’re thrown on telly
In truth, Englishness has a weak hold on Britain. This is no surprise when the concept is so poorly defined. In “England Your England”, George Orwell summed up the nation by reeling off sights common in any industrial country (“queues outside the labour exchanges”) and values shared by many (“reverence for law”). The result leaves England’s finest essayist sounding like Alan Partridge, a boorish fictional tv presenter who wrote a ridiculous poem about working-class life: “Giros, glue-sniffing, dogs on ropes/But I see people with dreams and hopes.”
If Orwell stumbled, it is little surprise that today’s writers fail. Two visions of English nationalism are offered. One defines it as a bitter ideology that detests its European neighbours and resents its Celtic partners. The other offers a more benign version of civic nationalism, with Gareth Southgate, the eloquent and intelligent manager of the England football team, as its patron saint. Englishness becomes little more than a conspiracy of male writers, desperate to combine their love of football with a degree in English literature. Neither picture fits the facts.
English nationalism is absent because there is no need for it. Nationalism flourishes when people feel thwarted. But what England wants, England gets. England, usually, prefers a Conservative government and so Britain, usually, has one. England wanted out of the EU, and Britain did leave. Having your own way is not a recipe for resentment. So on St George’s Day, do the most English thing of all: forget about England. It still has not spoken yet. ■
One thing that’s funny is when people say St George is Turkish. Does anyone tell the Irish that St Patrick was a Roman-Brit?
And to think the last guy to suggest having a bank holiday for St George’s Day apparently hates the country.
Sounds like a lot of marketing. it’s odd how the government is pushing the Windsor agreement as a win for northern Ireland, but when voices from Scotland ask for the same package they get derision.
It feels like the next Brexit will be Scottish, and it could get nasty.
I mean, it can easily be on the rise even if its just people in charge and a vocal minority
It really is a shame how England is constantly fucked over. The devolved regions get self-determination, and a ton of subsidies, while all the English get is the bill for it all.
Not to mention that England has to put up with virtually all the immigration, and yet we get told we’re racist for simply existing. Any form of English patriotism has to be expressed in terms of “diversity”, and praise for every single culture except our native one.
English nationalism isn’t a thing, but it would be if people were aware of how much they’re being taken advantage of.
Within any system of identities, it is the duty of the identity group that has been designated as “privileged” to abandon all positive sentiments about that identity. Anyone unwilling to do this is seen as extremely sinister and worthy of scorn and condemnation.
[removed]
[deleted]
We have historically and always will be into our tribalism. Many people, especially in the north would rather associate themselves with their region than their country (scousers especially).
I always refer to myself as English, not British. It has always been controversial because I was born in Cornwall! I moved to the West Midlands, on the Welsh border, so it’s no longer frowned upon. I’m happy to be English!
I thought it was a good article until the last paragraph, and then I think it lost the plot a little bit.
It points out that there were large numbers of people in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland who agree with Brexit, then suddenly determines that England isn’t nationalist because… we got the Tory government that we apparently all wanted?
As a foreigner who has been in the UK for the last six years and soon to be a citizen I’ve gotta say I agree.
I find it terribly sad and a bit depressing that being proud of being English is seen as something racist. I’ve lived all over the world and this truly is the only one where it seems that most (at least young) people seem to be ashamed of their country. It’s like they want to be seen as anything BUT english.
I was applying for my British citizenship the other day and told a friend of mine who said to me ‘why the hell would you want to become British, I wouldn’t be advertising that around to be honest’
honestly it is something I think needs to change; a shared national identity surely is something that can bring people from all the different backgrounds of England together right?
It seems to work well for everyone else in the UK why not the English?
sigh
I don’t see English national pride. But I think there’s a lot more regional feeling than when I was younger. Cornish pride, the red rose flag flown on quite a few houses round here, the Northumberland flag flown in those parts. England is big and has many distinct regions, and I think people feel more for their region and possibly the UK than “England” as a concept.
I love the Economist but this is a trash article from them.
Firstly, English Nationalism ‘rising’ is not associated with it becoming more popular but it becoming more powerful. Specifically, British Politics being dominated by the English Nationalist movements of Brexit and the ex-conservative, ex-Unionist Tory Party that it consumed. We’re now coming up thirteen years of the Tories and seven years of Brexit (eight if you include the campaign leading up to it). Both still hold an autocratic hold on Westminster and will do until well into 2024.
Secondly, Orwell’s writing on Englishness and the English left’s failures around patriotism are truly excellent and immensely quotable. If Orwell ‘stumbled’, then the author of this opinion piece has managed to set himself on fire, step on a rake, fall backwards into a pit of vipers and get mauled by a pack of honey badgers.
If there’s one lesson the media has been teaching me all my life (nearly 43 years), it’s that Scottish nationalism good, British nationalism bad, English nationalism *really* bad.
Because there is very little difference between English identity and British identity. Most English people just say they feel British because Britain is just England with extra bits.
I love how the author waxes lyrical about George Orwell, a man firmly planted to the left and who marched into war against nationalists (fascists) on the side of anarchists.
It turns out that patriotism largely has little to do with wrapping yourself in a flag and screaming about how wonderful you are as you storm across the globe stripping innocent people of the means to support themselves. it’s more about being, or striving to be, good enough that you don’t have to tell a soul… they can see.
Its on the rise because of the protestors like extinction rebellion and other groups embarrassing themselves and disrupting things. They see people like that on the news they get pissed off and whether they align with it or not get pushed into “I dream for days of the empire that spanned the world group.” People become radical because they feel like the alternative is pointless. Coming to the table and discussing shit is pointless when you can just spout insults and names at them and people that are scared will side with you. Its what many Labourites do against Conservatives call them fascists, racists. Its what many Conservatives do to Labourites call them socialists, want something for nothing.
If you want shit to improve advocate for yourself to become an MP or just at the very least don’t vote for these 2 incredibly corrupt self centred parties of elitism.
>In truth, Englishness has a weak hold on Britain. This is no surprise when the concept is so poorly defined. In “England Your England”, George Orwell summed up the nation by reeling off sights common in any industrial country (“queues outside the labour exchanges”) and values shared by many (“reverence for law”). The result leaves England’s finest essayist sounding like Alan Partridge, a boorish fictional tv presenter who wrote a ridiculous poem about working-class life.
This is a slander on Orwell. “England Your England” is a remarkable essay. The writer has completely missed the point, and frankly the rest of the “analysis” in this article is so inane and descriptive that I wouldn’t be throwing stones if I’d written it. Orwell is absolutely correct to point out that the essence of Englishness isn’t to be found in grand speeches or political theory; we didn’t have a “Springtime of Nations” or a revolutionary anti-imperial nationalist tradition like, say, Poland or Italy. If English national identity is to be found, it is found in the mundane.
But just because it’s mundane and everyday, doesn’t mean that it’s weak or insignificant. It’s the inverse; the strength of the nation as a concept is because it attaches itself to small, everyday sights and becomes so ubiquitous that you barely think about it at all. This is a concept called [banal nationalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banal_nationalism), and the fact that Orwell picks up on it half a century before the term was coined in academia is proof of how insightul he is.
It would be nice if England got equality with the other nations and was given its own government and ability to make decisions to benefit the English. I think English identity is deliberately conflated with that of the British, so they can excuse themselves for not letting us have home rule.
The claims of rising English nationalism are a bit more nuanced than “ticked a box on a census”. The accusation is more a “Britishness” that is just a proxy for England. I mean we live in a country where the Church of England only legally represents England but is treated as a core constitutional part of the UK at large. A country where the British national anthem is basically dirt to anyone outside England because it is primarily associated with English sports teams.
Whether it is a fair charge or not, the number of tick boxes on a census doesn’t really highlight anything.
In a world 500 years ago, in a non globalised world, culture was much more of a monolithic concept. But now I feel it’s much less so, much more a slow changing and merging of cultures. The U.K. in particular because if it’s empire, because so many of its “Empire citizens” chose to move to the U.K. for a better life in the second half of the 20th century, can be viewed as the prime example of this concept. The problems arise when a subsection of people try to hijack the idea of a unique culture for political ends. Then anyone else like the author who tries to highlight the need to reclaim and highlight this culture, get lumped in with “far right nationalists and racists”. The results are polarising – there is an unspoken fear in celebrating being English on one side, and a hyper expression on the other from a small section of people. If anyone wants to see this in action, just go to NI.
British Nationalism and English Nationalism are the same thing for the most part and for many in England the words England, Britain and UK are synonymous.
You can observe this in the daily news
Yep. I’m sorry but that’s pretty much how I feel. Really don’t feel any ‘pride’ in being English (although how anyone can feel pride for being born in any certain country is beyond me, surely that’s just luck?), and I despise the national anthem, both for what it stands for, and due to the fact it celebrates us plebs being enslaved by a hereditary dynasty by the will of an imaginary deity.
Don’t really get nationalism and never have. Only reason I’m still here is because of my mortgage.