Speaking up for an English identity should form part of Labour’s new conservative narrative.
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Two things caught my eye last week: Ed Miliband’s speech on Englishness and a comment piece in The Guardian explaining why the working class vote conservative. Both are connected.
Last Thursday, Miliband put the left on nervy terrain by using the Queen’s diamond jubilee to talk about English identity.
Perhaps not the best occasion, considering this was a celebration of a British, not English, monarch, with all of Britain decked out in union jack flags and stirrings of British pride coming to the surface.
Yet with the fight for Scottish independence now under way, Miliband banked on this being the perfect time to speak up for those south of the border, increasingly calling for their own distinct voice.
As he rightly pointed out:
“This debate about nationhood and identity should not simply be confined to one part of our country.”
He went on to talk about the left’s uneasiness in addressing this issue:
“We in the Labour Party have been too reluctant to talk about England in recent years. We’ve concentrated on shaping a new politics for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
“We should embrace a positive, outward looking version of English identity. Finally, we should also proudly talk the language of patriotism.”
This shouldn’t be difficult to talk about, but for a number of reasons the left has tied itself in knots trying to (not) deal with it. On identity, it has mistakenly sought to (over)intellectualise, where the right have effortlessly made overtures to the non-quantifiables; human instincts such as loyalty and patriotism.
For too long, the left’s hesitation, its half-hearted commitment, partly borne out of a never-ending battle with Empire guilt and partly down to not wanting to give oxygen to the far right (which we ended up doing anyway), has allowed the right to colonise (so to speak) this issue.
Whether exaggerated or not (in particular, in the early days of New Labour), every time someone felt they were being denied the right to fly the St George’s cross (a story always gleefully picked up by the right wing press), or express their love for being English, simply nudged them further to the right, and into the arms of the less desirables. Usually, but certainly not exclusively, the case for working class Labour voters.
• Ed Miliband: The future of the UK is ‘too important’ to be decided only by Scotland 7 Jun 2012
• Momentum builds for Scotland’s ‘Yes to Independence’ campaign 28 May 2012
Which brings me on to Jonathan Haidt’s column in The Guardian about the way the working class vote. Author of the recently published ‘The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion’, he uses this comment piece to explain why the political right (from all over the world) have managed to cleverly convince blue-collar voters to ally themselves with them even when it appears to be against their own interests.
For Haidt, this represents a victory for the right in its appeal to heart over head. Whilst the left monopolises care, compassion and welfare, the right have gone straight for the gut. For them, politics is all about:
“A moral vision that unifies a nation and calls it to greatness than it is about self-interest or specific policies. In most countries, the right tends to see that more clearly than the left.”
In some respects, the right have (over) simplified politics. There’s no need for detailed explanation when you have symbols and powerful rhetoric, steeped in a sense of morality:
“One reason the left has such difficulty forging a lasting connection with voters is that the right has a built-in advantage – conservatives have a broader moral palate than the liberals (as we call leftists in the US)”
The right are comfortable enough to weigh in on cultural issues, such as identity, with the left playing catch up.
Whilst national identity isn’t as much of an issue on the other side of the Atlantic (proving your patriotism is par for the course for any American politician), it seems to be in constant flux over here. This is no doubt due to historical and cultural reasons more than anything else but that doesn’t mean it’s not a valid concern for some.
Economic uncertainty, spending cuts, downsizing the welfare state, which Labour admits it would have had to do (at some point) itself, mean less tangible issues come to the fore.
People are scared, they feel vulnerable. They want a sense of unified purpose, a feeling of belonging. This is why Ed Miliband has chosen to tackle English identity a full three years before the general election. He knows that the left is more trusted on the NHS and in looking after society’s most needy, but the fact that 4-5 million working class voters have abandoned the party since 1997 proves that this isn’t enough.
A rediscovery of its conservatism – family, order and community – as articulated by one commentator; ‘rescuing conservatism from the conservatives’, according to another:
“Many people harbour deeply conservative views on matters of value, but not on matters of justice – [this] represents both an intellectual challenge, and a political opportunity, for left-wing parties.”
Speaking up for an English identity should form part of Labour’s new conservative narrative. You can do all this whilst also standing up for a strong, nurturing, state. In the words of one writer, time for a “nostalgia of the left, based on community, social solidarity and public service”.
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77 Responses to “The Left, “Englishness” and voting conservative”
Anonymous
So basically, you’re NOT British, you class it as an enemy state. Thanks for that clarification.
Peter Dow
The people institute republican states to overthrow judges who threaten constitutional rights, such as freedom of expression. Yes it is fair. Everyone gets the same basic constitutional rights. It’s the president’s job to enforce those rights and it’s the people’s job to impeach and remove a president who fails to do his / her job.
I am arguing against the people remaining powerless and at the mercy of a royalist judicial dictatorship, the status quo in this kingdom.
Here in Scotland, only the lawyers and their political lackeys believe in “Scots law” the phrase they prefer to “common law”.
However, there is no “Scots law” and I suspect there is no “English common law” either but I will leave the English to argue that one out.
What there is, in Scotland, is an anti-Scottish Queen’s law, which oppresses the people here in Scotland and the equivalent in England, an anti-English Queen’s law which oppresses the people.
By this I mean, even laws which the words of the statute read, are laws which appear to defend the people can’t be relied upon because the courts defy the law, misinterpret, ignore or turn upside down the meaning of the law when it suits them, or whoever is paying their fees.
Of course, the rotten laws, willingly given royal assent, which would violate any democratic constitution, such as the libel and defamation laws, and the contempt of court laws, are enthusiastically implemented by the judges because such bad laws give the judges power to impose a dictatorship.
It is time to repeat Cromwell’s action and “off with the monarch’s head” – that is, if the royals don’t go quietly into exile or come to another peace with republicans.
Peter Dow
I AM British. I have made that clear.
I ask again. Did you not listen to me speaking in this radio phone in to the BBC Radio Scotland where I support the flying of the union flag and state that I consider myself both Scottish and British?
Peter Dow (on radio) re: Union flag in Scotland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYWC2qdYjAk
So basically, you can’t be arsed listening?
Also my website is a Scottish National Standard Bearer website but I do have one pro-British page,
http://scot.tk/threatswithinUK.htm
Welshman Bryn Terfel sings Rule Britannia broadcast by the BBC from the Royal Albert Hall and simultaneously heard by crowds at Hyde Park, Glasgow Green and Singleton Park on the Last Night of the Proms.
Shirley Bassey singing James Bond theme songs. What more do you want?
More? OK, I run these channels on YouTube.
British Flag Bearer http://www.youtube.com/user/BritishFlagBearer
British Republican http://www.youtube.com/user/BritishRepublican
Pro-American Briton http://www.youtube.com/user/ProAmericanBriton
I am a British REPUBLICAN. I am also Scottish and also a Scottish republican.
This means I oppose the ANTI-BRITISH United Kingdom state.
The UK is the enemy state which opposes our democratic rights as Britons to elect our own head of state, a British President of a British republic.
The UK is not Britain. The UK is the United Kingdom, it is the enemy of Britain.
I am British. What I am not, and what you appear to be, is “UK-ish”.
Anonymous
No, I don’t listen to BNC rallies either, without tactical reasons to do so.
You’re advocating the violent overthrow of the state. You’re an enemy of Great Britain.
Anonymous
Scots law is a unique legal tradition which blends elements of common and civil law. But hey, don’t let reality stop you.
You are, as usual, trying to criminalize dissent from your viewpoint, and threatening violence or “exile” against the majority in your crusade.