And when the Archbishop, Stephen Cottrell, rails against a certain narrative in the media that sneers at England-outside-London, dismissing it as backwards and bigoted, he is also right.
The most striking example is Brexit. In the five years since the referendum, much of the press has collaborated in painting a false picture of the political economy and geography of the event. In reality, Leavers were more likely to live in the south of England than the north, and more likely to see themselves as middle class than working class. And this trite trope digs much deeper than that one vote.
Read much of the tabloid press, and you might think that England is a nation of small-minded bigots lurching between moral panics about anyone who challenges the precarious social hierarchies in which they stand.
Read much of the liberal press, and you will find hectares of misery about this same supposed phenomenon, as well as an endless seesaw between those who want progressive politicians to capitulate to the confected bigotry of some imagined Middle England, and those who choose to mock it.
In the nearly 20 years that I’ve had regular forays into every corner of the country to talk to people about politics, I’ve found – as anyone with any sense would expect – a much more complex picture. As polling bears out, in England as across the Western world, most people’s instincts are broadly progressive, even though they are bound together with strands of racism and sexism.
Yes, some people booed England’s footballers for taking the knee. But most supported them. Racism colours how all of us see the world, but most of us also yearn to free ourselves of it. And working-class people – who tend to identify as English – are certainly no more racist than their ruling class, who more often see themselves as British.