Robert Jenrick, MP for Newark and front-runner in the Conservative Party leadership contest, recently bemoaned “the dismantling of our national culture, non-integrating multiculturalism and the denigration of our identity.” Writing for the Daily Mail on 19 September 2024, he went on to claim that the “metropolitan establishment” had “put the very idea of England at risk.” His sentiments are shared by many within his target audience.
National identity is a somewhat artificial construct, based upon ethnicity, culture, religion, economics, politics, and many other factors, and then spiced up by national myths. It is easy to define in monocultural nations, but less so in the England of today. Before the second half of the 20th century, English identity was subsumed within a wider British national identity, England being the dominant partner among the ‘Four Nations’ of the United Kingdom. At that time, England was a predominantly White nation, owing allegiance to such state institutions as the monarchy, the Anglican Church, and Parliament. The English, along with other British people, took pride in its Empire and its colonies and in their collective history, together with their impressive contributions to art, literature, education, science, and industry. From the 1950s onwards, just as Britain’s global status began to decline, English identity has come under threat from Celtic nationalism (Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru, Sinn Fein); from the devolution of power to Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland in 1999; from the impact of mass multi-ethnic immigration; and from an allegedly “woke” post-colonial discourse which seeks recognition and restitution for the past excesses of the British Empire.
English people were first recognised as a distinct entity during the eighth century. The union of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, which had formed in the ninth century, was to follow in the tenth century, helping define the English nation. The new ‘Englalond’ had Teutonic roots, being derived from Angles, Jutes, and Saxons. At the outset, English identity was cemented by the Roman Catholic Church, and by a common vernacular Anglo-Saxon or Old English language. Following England’s Union with Wales (1536) and then Scotland (1707), a British identity began to emerge, driven by growing international trade, colonial expansion, and a mission to ‘civilise’ and convert heathens around the world.
In time, the British people came to share a set of norms, values, and traditions. A national character emerged. Emblems, flags, monuments, rituals, customs, ceremonies, and patriotic songs solidified this developing identity. At the same time, strong regional identities also developed in some regions, especially in Cornwall, Yorkshire, and Tyneside.
The insular island-dwellers of England were widely considered to be patriotic, law-abiding, self-disciplined, fair-minded, and perseverant, people, possessed of community spirit and a sense of duty, tea drinkers and beer guzzlers, and also lovers of animals and sport, yet subject to a rigid and hierarchical class-structure, and capable of xenophobia at times. Such stereotypes, including references to a stiff upper-lip and the fabled bulldog spirit, were only partly true, at best, and have been in steady decline ever since.
In today’s England, many established institutions are rapidly losing their lustre. Church membership and attendance continue to fall, just as Islam has become the fastest growing religion in the land. Support for the monarchy is at an all-time low. Changes in behaviour and attitudes are readily observable in day-to-day life. People are frequently less considerate to one another, disinclined to form orderly queues or give up their seats in buses or trains to more deserving people, and prone to bouts of entitled behaviour. Civic responsibilities are often neglected, and litter is casually dumped in the streets, while fly-tipping continues to disfigure neighbourhoods. Formal dress codes of the past have been replaced by informal work attire, tattoos are on wide display, and spoken English has been modified by slang and patois. England’s past indeed belongs to ‘a different country.’
People from a previous generation, nostalgic for their disappearing way of life, have rose-tinted memories of tranquil and bucolic villages and urban islands of orderliness, where people looked out for one another. They feel particularly left behind in the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and increasingly disorderly England of today.
The problem with national identity is it that it cannot be defined in a way that is agreed upon by its many scholars and students. Individual perceptions of identity also vary, as demonstrated by the wide range of answers in response to questions about what it means. However, Jenrick’s remarks on English identity are likely to touch a chord with his audience and can be guaranteed to boost his quest to become the next leader of His Majesty’s Opposition.
Ashis Banerjee