Guy Aitchison (London, OK): IPPR hosted Michael Wills, Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice, this morning for a seminar on the politics of national identity as background to the Citizens Summit he is the lead for on a British Statement of Values. His talk will be published tomorrow. He produced some polling data published today by IPSOS MORI on the question of what identities give people a sense of belonging. I haven’t been able to find the data online yet but will provide the link as soon as it becomes available. From my notes: 80% of people polled have a “strong” sense of belonging to Britain, 82% of the English have a strong sense of belonging to England, 91% of the Scots to Scotland, and 95% of the Welsh to Wales. The conclusions that Wills drew from the data won’t surprise anyone: Britishness still matters. People still feel a shared sense of identity, he said, and there is a need, fuelled by globalisation and rapid social change, to belong to a “moral community”. The nation state is still the primary focus for this “yearning to belong”. What gives Britishness its strength according to Wills is that it is very much a pluralistic identity: it is compatible with Scotishness, Welshness, and – whisper it quietly – Englishness.
Many at the seminar welcomed the bravery of the government in opening up the conversation, Liz Forgan suggested it might be politically suicidal though she seemed to be applauding the spirit of the venture. There were concerns that they are emphasising Britishness at the expense of other identities. Wills dodged a direct question by Anthony on why the government doesn’t just offer the English a referendum on an English parliament inside a British Union, which, after all, would seem to be the logical outcome of an emphasis on the need for both identity and public participation. We hope to have more on this once the polling data has been found and digested.
Comments
We won't willingly get a referendum because we will vote overwhelmingly for an English Parliament and if three quarters of the work of hte British government is devolved we won't need over 650 British MPs. You don't expect the turkey's to vote for Christmas do you?
The only thing the British nationalists in Westminster are interested in is protecting their jobs.
Actually, I wonder whether we would (yet) get a yes vote for an English parliament, depending on how long the referendum campaign was allowed to be, providing the opportunity to inform the public about the inequities of the present set up. It might be the smart move for Unionists to go for it now, as support for an EP will only continue to increase the more they ignore the English Question. Can't see No-Bottle Brown going for it, though, now that the Britishness train is starting to run away with itself.
David, aka Britology Watch
[...] From the audience the English Question was posed and ignored: Wills dodged a direct question by Anthony on why the government doesn’t just offer the English a referendum on an English parliament inside a British Union, which, after all, would seem to be the logical outcome of an emphasis on the need for both identity and public participation. Share This [...]
[...] From the audience the English Question was posed and ignored: Wills dodged a direct question by Anthony [Barnett] on why the government doesn’t just offer the English a referendum on an English parliament inside a British Union, which, after all, would seem to be the logical outcome of an emphasis on the need for both identity and public participation. [...]
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