I wanted to write a small message today especially because it was St. George's Day - here we are again, England's national day, and were it not for a few newspaper articles that mention it, I think it would be hardly noticed. The articles I have read however I have found myself largely agreeing with. The shame to celebrate one's nationality because of the fear of being called a racist, or politically incorrect, whilst other member countries of the UK do so with pride, thus personifying England as the one "who asked for this," really struck me. I took these kinds of views from the newspapers as a bit "Little England" but I was further surprised to find myself agreeing slightly with them. I would be the last to call myself a Little Englander, but it has occurred to me today that this shame that we feel to celebrate being English, as we also now do British, is ridiculous.
Something does indeed have to change. This is about identity. And I have sensed for a long time the gradual loss of identity in the UK and the loss of cohesion between its peoples. What I believe is that any people should not feel ashamed to express how they identify themselves - or, should not be ridiculed for doing so, especially if it is about a national identity. After all, the nation state is the dominant form of government of the world, and England has become the land that has gone from a state of voluntary patriotism to downright loss of knowing what holds us together.
We talk about values but then we cannot express them in an environment of zealous political correctness. We are right to celebrate all of the saints days of the UK, but come on it is better to have no St. George's Day at all I think than to carry on this situation. I think that people for years haven't known what it means to be English simply because our identity became since 1707, that of Great Britain and thus British. With the Union ever increasingly under threat since the days of devolution, this is the source of the English identity problem. Let's either find a way to define Englishness and celebrate St George. Or leave the whole day altogether in history, and reassert our correct place and identity in the Union.
Either way, let's not be ashamed to express something of what we are because of political correctness. That is the greatest danger to us all. I feel that we are British and one nation, but should the future hold a separation for the Union, we must allow it, for as Scotland freely decided to join the Union it must freely be allowed to leave. Wales must also be respected should it make the same choice, and Northern Ireland should it change its mind about remaining in the Union.
This is of course the worse-case scenario, for I am today above all British and proud of the Union and the one country we have achieved together. But the English must be prepared to either commit itself to the Union without fear, or should the Union break, be ready to stand on its own two feet once more.
