Allister Heath:
Nobody should feel embarrassed about being English – and not just because of the football
Soon after I moved to the UK 23 years ago, a friend took it upon himself to explain the difference, as he saw it, between Britishness and Englishness. “It’s simple,” he said. “Immigrants can become British, but never English.” Of Indian descent, he was born in the UK and loved this country, which had given him great opportunities. His family’s story was one of rags to riches, all executed in an astonishingly short period, something that couldn’t have happened in a less economically liberal society.
But he – and almost all others like him – saw Britishness as the way in, the inclusive identity that allowed him to belong to this country. Englishness had nasty racial undertones at the time, conjuring up images of fascist parties or football hooligans: English teams were banned from Europe at one point, and in February 1995 a match against Ireland was cancelled after English fans rioted in Dublin.
Even football supporters often waved the Union Jack, not the St George’s cross: that is what makes pictures of England fans at Euro 96 look so dated. This wasn’t confined to football, of course. When Tony Blair was elected in 1997, his supporters waved Union Jacks on the road into Downing Street (paradoxically perhaps, given that his backing for devolution was one of the factors that ended up diminishing Britishness). Those were the days of Cool Britannia, not Cool Anglia; Geri Halliwell of the Spice Girls wore a Union Jack dress at those famous Brit Awards, not one adorned with the cross of St George.
Fast forward almost a quarter of a century and nearly everything has changed. I talked to my friend briefly yesterday. He had been celebrating England’s victory against Colombia, like everybody else. I asked whether he and his children now feel British or English. “The latter,” he replied, with no hesitation (in fact, he claims to have no recollection of our conversation all those years ago, and cannot remember when he switched his identification). My friend is hardly the only one: attitudes towards Englishness are becoming much more positive across all ethnic and religious groups, and not just because of the football.
The fundamental change is that Englishness, post-scottish and Welsh devolution, is being shorn of its racial and even class undertones, becoming as inclusive as Britishness was by the mid-1990s. The football is merely the manifestation of that transformation, including the many wonderful scenes of ethnic minority England supporters cheering on their team. Nish Kumar, the comedian, has recounted his surprise – and happiness – at seeing Muslim girls in hijabs and England shirts high-fiving and singing Three Lions with other supporters on a train on Tuesday night. A video of East London Bengali men waving England flags in the street, and being joined by a passing group of white women, went viral on social media. The message of such scenes is hugely uplifting. Englishness is coming into its own: it is modern, optimistic and multiracial, a glue that increasingly binds our otherwise fractured country.
Writing on Twitter this week, Sunny Hundal, the editor of Barfi culture, a site that reports on South Asians in the West, explained why he now describes himself as English. “Some say you can’t be English if you’re not white. Others say Englishness is a racist identity. I say both are outdated attitudes. It’s time to celebrate Englishness, and our football team is the best symbol we have.”
British Future, run by Sunder Katwala and which conducts work on identity, migration and integration, has published a series of polls chronicling our changing perceptions. Perhaps the most important of its findings – all of which predate the World Cup – relates to the evolving reaction to seeing an England flag flying in someone’s home, car, shop or pub. Just 11 per cent of the public now see a worrying expression of English nationalism; the majority believe it to be “a healthy expression of national pride”, according to a Survation market research poll for the think tank. Those on the Left who still see the cross of St George as a narrow, xenophobic symbol are hopelessly out of touch. In fact, 61 per cent of the public now think that the England flag should be flown more often, according to an ICM survey.
No fewer than 74 per cent of people – including the same share of ethnic minorities and 75 per cent of Muslims – say that the England football team is “a symbol of England that belongs to people of every race and ethnic background in England today”, according to a separate Survation poll for British Future. Vile racists on the one hand and hard-left, anti-patriotic follow Allister Heath on Twitter @Allisterheath; read more at telegraph.co.uk/ opinion cultural Marxists on the other are now in a small and shrinking minority.
These shifting attitudes are a work in progress: young people are often ambivalent and don’t understand Englishness. More than half of people now call themselves English, with no difference between white and non-white respondents, but that is less than the proportion who, north of the border, identify as Scottish.
Yet the rise of Englishness need not herald the end of the UK. If other countries can embrace multiple identities, so can we; and one of the most striking developments of the past two years is how the Brexit vote has drastically reduced Scottish support for independence. The referendum also showed the Welsh and the English just how similar they are politically.
But this new, inclusive and perhaps in time more assertive Englishness does reflect how the union has changed and must evolve further. The old centralised model died in 1997; we are now in an irrational halfway house where Scottish MPS have a say on English issues but the English don’t have a say on Scottish ones. The UK will need to become a full federation, binding together the English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish.
We are becoming more like the US Canada or Australia; our national identities are now best seen as an idea and citizenship as a club that is relatively easy to join, as long as certain rules are adhered to and conditions met. Ethnicity no longer enters into it, so there is no reason for the middle classes and the political Left to feel embarrassed by displays of patriotism. In fact, we should celebrate our rediscovering Englishness more. The occasional football tournament is not enough: we need to become flag-wavers all year around.