Saying you are English is racist, claims TV’s Laurence
Dandyish Changing Rooms presenter Laurence LlewelynBowen is proud of his Welsh roots. however, the interior designer seems less keen on being associated with England.
‘i don’t often use the term “England” because i think it’s racist,’ says LlewelynBowen (below). ‘Whereas “British” can be used in the way that “To be Roman” didn’t mean coming from Rome at all.
‘i like that . . . and this is me speaking as a Welshman — an aborigine of the island. i’m very pleased to welcome you all in, obviously.’
The BBC TV presenter expressed his views on Englishness after being asked by the magazine Cotswold Life to name his favourite things about the scenic area.
Llewelyn-Bowen, 52, was himself born in London and owns a 17th-century manor house in Gloucestershire, where he lives with his wife, Jackie, and daughters, Cecile and hermione. They own another house in Cornwall, where they run a gift shop.
suggesting he associates England with anglosaxons, rather than Celts, he adds: ‘ you have to understand that the English all come from just outside amsterdam, which is why they tend to be ginger and tall.’
an old friend of the TV presenter once claimed he was born plain old Laurence Bowen. Llewelyn was actually his surgeon father’s middle name, and Laurence adopted it. Englishness has become a term fraught with politically correct difficulties. in 2011, iTV executive producer Brian True-May was suspended after saying Midsomer Murders was the ‘last bastion of Englishness’ which relied on an ‘English genteel eccentricity’. he suggested the detective drama would not work if there was racial diversity in the village.
and former newsnight reporter Paul Mason, who is now a prominent Jeremy Corbyn supporter, said he did not want to be English.
speaking in 2015, he claimed: ‘i predict all attempts to create an Englishness that can encompass Wigan and henley will fail, for the same reasons that Gordon Brown’s “Britishness” initiatives failed.
‘ One person’s Englishness is another’s racism.’