This is the passage in Michael Wills talk to the ippr yesterday that Guy blogged in OK - with the Minister's summary of the top line poll results on their opinion survey. He said the full survey material will be published shortly.
In January, the Ministry of Justice commissioned Ipsos-MORI to carry out a survey to explore what sources of identity gave people a sense of belonging. 2,000 people were asked in face to face interviews how strongly, if at all, they felt a sense of belonging to Britain, to England/Scotland or Wales, to their local area or neighbourhood, their own age group, their religion or faith and their ethnic group.
* 45% said they strongly felt a sense of belonging to their religion or faith
* 69% said they strongly felt a sense of belonging to their ethnic group
* 70% said they strongly felt a sense of belonging to their own age group
* 78% said they strongly felt a sense of belonging to their local area or neighbourhood
* 80% felt a strong sense of belonging to Britain
* 82% in England felt a strong sense of belonging to England
* 91%% in Scotland felt a strong sense of belonging to Scotland
* 95% in Wales felt a strong sense of belonging to Wales
Of course, there are variations from these national figures within sub-groups. For example, 81% in England felt a strong sense of belonging to Britain, compared with 87% in Wales and with 70% in Scotland and it's worth noting that, that for all the focus on the role on the Union in Scotland, 71% in London felt a strong sense of belonging to Britain, virtually the same percentage as in Scotland.
What emerges strongly from these findings is the strength of British identity as a source of belonging. And this is true across age, gender, region and ethnicity. 75% of black and minority ethnic respondents, for example, said they felt a strong sense of belonging to Britain.
And this feeling is resilient. Despite all the comment about the growth of national sentiment in England, Scotland and Wales and the detachment of minority groups, 54% said their sense of belonging to Britain had stayed the same over the last five years, 16% said it had become stronger and only 28% said it had become weaker. And again, there aren't significant variations across age, gender, region and ethnicity. 54% of whites, compared with 48% of black and minority ethnic respondents, for example, said their sense of belonging to Britain had stayed the same over the last five years.
Comments
"What emerges strongly from these findings is the strength of British identity as a source of belonging."
To whom? "2,000 people were asked in face to face interviews" What people were asked? Where were the interviews conducted? Having been a interviewer for Morgan Gallup poll, I can tell you that it is easy to "persuade" people to give the answer you want them to give. Sometimes I had to literally make people give me their own answer. Many people asked me, "well, what do you think?" Oh but of course, new labour would never do anything like this. *Er-hem cough cough*
"And this feeling is resilient"
How is it?
"Despite all the comment about the growth of national sentiment in England, Scotland and Wales and the detachment of minority groups, 54% said their sense of belonging to Britain had stayed the same over the last five years."
"What emerges strongly from these findings is the strength of British identity as a source of belonging"
According to this "survey", 82% in England feel a strong sense of belonging to England, 91%% in Scotland feel a strong sense of belonging to Scotland, and 95% in Wales feel a strong sense of belonging to Wales. So who feels British identity gives them a source of belonging? 54% of whom? "minority groups"? What constitutes minority groups? How many people represent minority groups? It appears that this "survey" is trying to mislead people. I gather minority groups means migrants and their descendents. Of course they are going to say that.
Recent migrants to England are going to say theyre British as new labour have indoctrinated them into thinking that way. New labour dont care if they really feel British or not, just as long as they dont feel English. Which is exactly why this "survey" has been produced.
What a coincidence. Do you expect anyone but the exceptionally naive to believe the results of this "survey"? A so-called survey initiated by the so-called Ministry of Justice, i.e. new labour.
Well I suppose there's still a little bit more time left for the British establishment to abolish England then.
There's still more time to flood Scotland with English money to make sure Scotland is in fine fettle for independence.
So we won't expect much change in anti-English policies by our Celtic cabal of a government ably supported by our quisling, snevelling sycophantic Anglo-Britsh MPs.
The English are so dozy they'll wake up one day with no country and no economy. Then they'll clear off to greener fields, provided their adopted country requires no fighting spirit.
The 71% of Scots having a strong sense of belonging to Britain would tie into the support for independence, which veers between the 30s and high 20s. Not that it won't stop the SNP talking about having the 'Scottish people' behind them, as opposed to 'Scottish nationalists'.
This is an extraordinary set of findings which contradict a great many other recent research in this area. One suspects that you get the answer you want with these things by how you frame the question. For example only in January the British Social Attitudes survey concluded that fewer people now describe themselves as British:
When asked to choose just one national identity for themselves, four in ten people (39%) in England say that they are British, down from over six in ten (63%) in 1992. Then three in ten (31%) said they were English; now nearly half (47%) do so. The main shift took place between 1997 and 1999, and so predates Scottish and Welsh devolution.
In 1974, three in ten people (31%) in Scotland said they were British, now half this proportion (14%) do so. The proportion choosing Scottish has gone up from 65% to 78%.
But when people are allowed to choose more than one national identity, seven in ten (68%) in England choose British, as do four in ten (43%) in Scotland.
The most subtle way of asking about national identity allows people to weigh up a 'national' identity (English or Scottish) against a 'state' identity (British). The survey asked this of those born and living in England or Scotland (or 'natives'). This shows that:
Few English or Scottish natives think of themselves as 'only' or 'mainly' British: 13% in England and 3% in Scotland.
Nearly half of English natives (46%) say that they are 'equally English and British'. One in five (21%) Scottish natives describe themselves as 'equally Scottish and British'.
The most popular response from Scottish natives is to describe oneself as being 'only' or 'mainly' Scottish, chosen by nearly three-quarters (73%) of people. Far fewer – 37% – English natives describe themselves as being 'only' or 'mainly' English.
It is pleasing that 75% of Black and Minority Ethnic respondents feel they have a strong sense of belonging to Britain, but I can't help but think that even more would identify with England if there wasn't such a concerted campaign to insist that those of us calling ourselves English must be some kind of crypto-racist throwback.
And I wouldn't describe the British feeling as "resilient" when so many more people describe themselves as "English", "Welsh" or "Scottish" than describe themselves as "British" - just the opposite if that is still the case after centuries of Union.
Of course, the only reason this is being discussed is because of the fallout from a Devolution process explicitly determined to turn the English into second-class citizens within their own country. Which is why, like so many of my fellows, I call myself "English" - but NOT "British".
It might seem like dog-in-the-manger stubbornness, but a 'sense of belonging' doesn't carry the same set of associations as 'sense of identity' or 'sense of nationhood'. I wonder how different the answers would be if the question had forced respondents to say which 'nation' they identified with most: England or Britain, Wales or Britain, etc. For instance, while 70% of the respondents living in Scotland said they felt a sense of belonging to Britain, in surveys that ask whether people feel more Scottish or more British, the former answer tends to come out way on top. By extension, if only 80% of people in England felt a sense of belonging to Britain (less than in Wales), this must mean that the percentage of those identifying more strongly with England than with Britain is also now pretty high (probably the majority), and is continuing to shift in favour of Englishness as the MORI survey also shows.
At a very minimal level, what this illustrates is that any attempt to impose a British national identity that suppresses English identity and aspirations towards political self-determination / devolution is likely to generate a great deal of resentment and a further retreat from Britishness - as, indeed, it has done already.
David, aka Britology Watch
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