Nutty Nationalists?

So today is St. George’s Day. The patron saint of England who remains less celebrated than his free drinking Irish counterpart. Great. Does this mean anything to the people of England now?  Is nationalism a thing of the past in what we are frequently reminded is a ‘multi-cultural’ society? To some extent, I think it is, and here is why.

The growing influx of migrants (of which lots has been said by all sides of the political spectrum) has, I think, impacted upon good old George. That communities in the larger towns and cities now incorporate people from all corners of the globe is not a bad thing, but I think that this does, naturally enough, lead to some sort of loss of identity. It is only to be expected that  with people from across Europe coming to  England, ties with St. George get weaker. They bring with them cultures, food, lifestyles. Some do want to become part of English life, saints days and all. Others don’t. The more St. George has to compete with, the more he will lose. St. Paddy, as alluded to at the start, is a more popular saints day in England because of the associations with Dublins famous brew. As St. George competes against various other festivals, he is, as I see it, becoming more marginalised. People seem to be a bit afraid of celebrating St. George. I think.

That does not though mean that nationalism is dead in the water. The trouble is that there are too few people in the middle ground. Either you have the extreme BNP style nationalists, wanting to exile anyone who wasn’t absolutely English. Or you have people who don’t care enough to show that they are proud to be English. From what I see, you do not have enough people who are willing to stand up and be counted as nationalists, without preaching death to all black people.

I cast my mind back three or four years to a piece on the radio. Scott Mills, the radio one DJ, had a piece with a guy who would stand up and put his hand on his heart whenever the national anthem was played. Mills and co found this hilarious, and were heard playing the first few notes of the anthem to see this guy shoot up like a jack-in-the-box. The effect that such public mockery has, I think, is to make people almost ashamed to be English. Almost ashamed to do patriotic things like stand up for the anthem.

Regardless of whether you are a tory, a labourite, or a lib dem, I cannot understand why being proud to be English is a bad thing. You might, for example, welcome our European connections, but still be proud to say you come from England. The two, I think, do not have to necessarily be incompatible.

For me, I am happy to say I’m English, rather than British. On forms when asked my ethnicity, I write English, if the option is not there already. This doesn’t mean I want to take a shotgun to the Polish people, or deport all Indian people. I recognise the good that most do for the country. But I do not want to be ashamed of calling myself English, of belting out the national anthem, or of celebrating St. George’s Day. Why should we be?