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This Julian Coman Observer piece calls on the English left to engage with English identity, which I welcome as it is overdue. But a foundational premise of the piece - choose British or English - rather misses how most people think about these identities. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/17/proud-to-be-english-how-we-can-shape-a-progressive-patriotism
See this data, crunched by PA, reported in many local outlets.
The left v.slow to notice rise of English identity since 1999
Much of commentariat now missing a rise in British identity. (Maybe partly 'balancing', indeed 'thermostatic', in my view) https://twitter.com/britishfuture/status/1349273704736436224
The left v.slow to notice rise of English identity since 1999
Much of commentariat now missing a rise in British identity. (Maybe partly 'balancing', indeed 'thermostatic', in my view) https://twitter.com/britishfuture/status/1349273704736436224
This is PA reporting on the English and British identity shifts since 2016, in the Annual Population Survey
The local patterns vary - as the local headlines using the PA data shows. @JYDenham and I both note this reflects both the inter-generational sociology and other nuances of how both identities interact
https://www.google.com/search?safe=off&rlz=1C1GCEA_enGB887GB887&biw=1422&bih=678&tbm=nws&sxsrf=ALeKk029hXXoICKMgAaudOiR2BTmjXoztw%3A1610902842662&ei=Om0EYMD2J82agQbl_ZqoDA&q=British+English+identity&oq=British+English+identity&gs_l=psy-ab.3...7208.10402.0.10524.24.21.0.0.0.0.293.2406.7j8j3.18.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..6.12.1291...0j33i10k1.0.aioSP7h4Oco
https://www.google.com/search?safe=off&rlz=1C1GCEA_enGB887GB887&biw=1422&bih=678&tbm=nws&sxsrf=ALeKk029hXXoICKMgAaudOiR2BTmjXoztw%3A1610902842662&ei=Om0EYMD2J82agQbl_ZqoDA&q=British+English+identity&oq=British+English+identity&gs_l=psy-ab.3...7208.10402.0.10524.24.21.0.0.0.0.293.2406.7j8j3.18.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..6.12.1291...0j33i10k1.0.aioSP7h4Oco
There are many factors in the ebb and flow (political cues & different responses; the impact of cultural events) but these are shifts within both/and identities for many people, while minorities have made a one or other choice. This is @policyatkings study of polarisation
My advice to left would be to understand the everyday nature of the both/and & 'equally both' national identities of large groups. Otherwise, the v.anxious engagement of the liberal-left with recognising, 'reclaiming' and reforging national identities has an artificial volatility
Growing engagement with identity would be good
I'm sceptical about a topsy-turvy Good/Bad swingometer
British = xenophobic (1980s)
British = civic (1990s), Doubts about Eng = xenophobic
Now, British = xenophobic (Brexit, Johnson/Farage), so lets reshape English = civic instead
I'm sceptical about a topsy-turvy Good/Bad swingometer
British = xenophobic (1980s)
British = civic (1990s), Doubts about Eng = xenophobic
Now, British = xenophobic (Brexit, Johnson/Farage), so lets reshape English = civic instead
If you want to *choose* the more civic of the 2, British is more liberal/civic. Yet English is increasingly civic (in a slightly different way), though less recognition/engagement with it
But, NB, very few people think about their own national identities in this kind of way.
But, NB, very few people think about their own national identities in this kind of way.
More evidence of balancing of English + British identity in England. (Significant rise in English identity over 25 years now balanced again by rise in British identity + 'equally both' in last 5 years). Commentators, still catching up with the first, have mostly missed the second
6 out of 10 people in England identity as English &
6 out of 10 people in England identify as British.
Many of the English-British hold both 'national' identities (or a national identity & a civic citizenship identity): seeing it as a tug-of-war between the two is unlikely
6 out of 10 people in England identify as British.
Many of the English-British hold both 'national' identities (or a national identity & a civic citizenship identity): seeing it as a tug-of-war between the two is unlikely
