David (Cambridge, Britology Watch): One of a number of themes that came out in the comments on Anthony Barnett’s First thoughts after Labour’s Debacle, was whether the leader of the opposition is, and whether he himself regards himself as, English or British.
I actually wrote to David Cameron and a number of other political leaders, and asked them whether they felt more English or more British (or more Scottish or more British as appropriate), and DC to his credit was the only one who replied - through his assistant. What she said was, “David was born in England so, if you are asking whether he is Scottish, English or Welsh - he is English. However, he likes to think of himself as British”. A typically ambiguous politician’s response, you might well say.
In the Telegraph article a few months back that discussed the English Question, he was equally equivocal about his national identity but implied strongly that, in sporting matches, he would support England. To me, both these answers suggest that his ‘real’ (personal, emotional) national identity is English; but his politically expedient, formal identity is British.
Sure, many people have dual nationalities of one sort of the other. But my contention is that the British identity is always (or in the great majority of cases) ‘really’ the second(ary) identity, and English / Welsh / Scottish / Irish / Cornish (pace Philip) is the primary one. That is, it’s the culture / place / people they most strongly identify with and regard as ‘home’, even if they won’t admit to it for political or other public reasons; or, even if they do indeed think of themselves as ‘British first and foremost’, which paradoxically is usually an expression of their very Englishness (or status as anglophile Scot or Welsh) - Britain having historically been the proxy-English state and civic nation.
I mentioned my nationality research briefly in a recent Britology Watch piece, Regional governance and the English parliament. I tried to contact the PM, Alastair Darling, Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne. I did get replies from the people answering NC’s and CH’s email. CH’s assistant asked me to send contact details, presumably so he could check out my ID; NC’s assistant was someone in his Sheffield office, who forwarded the query on to his London office - but I didn’t hear back.
