In Actual Fact…

Thanks for the link, much appreciated. Truth be told I’d rather not be an English nationalist because people tend to scoff and assume you have swastikas tatooed on your arm. However, I’m now in my seventh year of being an English nationalist - I was living up in Scotland when the Scottish parliament was born - and I must admit that I rather enjoy being on the opposite side of the fence to Blair, Prescott, Hain, Reid, Darling, Byers, Mandelson etc. It gives me apple opportunity to vent my spleen at their hypocrisy, it’s almost therapuetic.

Since I’m here I’d just like to say that I do enjoy the German for Beginners aspect to this site. I lived in Frankfurt for six months a few years back and attended a night school to help me learn the lingo. Unfortunately though I managed to pick up a fairly good vocabulary the grammar was practically inpenetrable to me. Lord knows how you manage with those compound words of theirs. Keep up the good work.

Hmm. I believe that one of the amazing strengths of ENGLAND is its lack of need to be all flag-waving. It’s strong how it is, without requiring others to recognise that. This is also symbolic for our ability - with time - to take on other cultures, and to develop through learning from them. This is probably a tough concept for plenty of people to get to grips with. Any organisation with an Old English name and desiring ‘equality’ with Scotland etc has already not really understood how England works, I would suggest.

Politically, I think it would be cool if we were divided into federal states along the lines of the ITV regions. The people of the North-East thought otherwise, though. It’s the way they tell ‘em.

Who’s flag waving? Not me, I don’t go in for it.

Why should England not have it’s own parliament when every other country does? That’s the question that you have to answer. I can’t see how having a parliament makes us any more or any less hospitible to other cultures, or any less open to new experiences.

Any organisation with Old English name? Any organisation incorporating such words as ‘Welsh’, ‘bonfire’, ‘honeymoon’, ’shire’ or ‘parish’? Regardless, yours is something of a ‘moot’ point because we chose the word Witanagemot because it is old English for a gathering of wise men rather than as an attempt to be seen as anglo-saxon revivalists, which we are not. I think you miss the point of both the club and of England.

Little Man: Seeing as I was quite belligerent in my first comment, I probably deserve some of that.

I think England already has a parliament: the last time I looked, the English MPs at Westminster were a clear majority.

Perhaps it has something to do with the balance of power, but it seems to me - and I might be wrong - that a politically humble England is required for the successful continuation of the United Kingdom.

Anyway, what is this ‘England’ you speak of? I personally feel that I have more in common socially and economically with much of Scotland rather than with people in the south of England. (I’m from Yorkshire.) I don’t want more ties with southerners. I wish they’d understand this point, but they never really get it.

Anyway, I suppose we can’t accuse each other of not understanding England. We just have different views.

Not a single MP in westminster is tasked with representing the interests of the Nation of England. Working with constituents is one thing but it has everything to do with local representation and nothing to do with a national one. That is why you get more expensive education, heating for the elderly etc. in England than you do in Scotland for instance.

It also has nothing to do with having something in common with another person or group of people. National representation remember. Our politicians say that we should be proud of our diversity and then they say this is one of the reasons they wish to deny us a political existence. Well, thanks very much but that simply isn’t going to wash anymore. Remember, England does not exist in political or governmental terms. Go take a look at the encyclopedia britannica.

Don’t get me wrong David, I’m not suggesting that we don’t have a lot in common with Scotland. I have no wish to stop being British, I just want my country - England - to have the same democratic right to self-determination as any other country. The UK constitution is unfair and prejudiced against the people of England, who have less rights than those in Wales, and less still than those in Scotland.

My family too are from Yorkshire (my mum from Halifax and my dad from Scarborough), although I am from Burton on Trent, and I and they all feel English first and British second. I don’t care for people that try to define a nationality and tell others how they should feel, or what identity they should have. I know that I am English not British. That’s all that needs to be known. The government has made it clear, in legal terms no less, that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are distinct from the rest of the UK - so what does that leave us with? It leaves us with England; my nation, a nation governed in its entirity by the UK government. But why is my nation not afforded the same rights as the others? Why is the collective democratic wish of English MPs overturned by Scottish and Welsh MPs that have no accountablity to the people of England (on all issues devolved to their nations), and are unnaccountable to their own constituents on those very same issues?

Nationalist is maybe an unfortunate word, I wasn’t a nationalist until devolution to Scotland and Wales. Calling me a democrat and a proud Englishman would be more apt. I want to see accountability, fair governance and democracy restored to England. After that, if people want deveolved regional governance for Yorkshire (I would suggest that they do not) then it can be a matter for an English government to decide upon - I would suggest that the first thing an incoming English government should do is relocate the English civil service to provincial towns around England rather than have the whole machinery of the UK state based in London.

Is it a bad thing to be an English Nationalist? If so why?

Toque, devonboy: Re “Nationalism”. I’d chosen the word deliberately and written quite a long piece about it before we had a minor power cut here, which deleted everything and I couldn’t be bothered to re-type anything after the portion that was auto-saved. What I was interested in was examining my views when I’d first gone to university in Glasgow. I’d had/have a similar outlook to David, that I have more in common with Scots than people from the south of England. I completely understood why people there after the 1992 election thought that they were being run by a government in London that they didn’t vote for.
Now, I want to know why Scottish nationalism is seen as being almost a positive force, whereas English nationalism is seen as dangerous and unwanted (we’ll do German nationalism next week). Devonboy, I’d rather rephrase your question as “Is it a good thing to be a Scottish Nationalist?” To pick up on the quote from the Witanagemot Club, I’m pissed off with the assymetrical cack-handedness of those crazy imbeciles at Westminster, although I’m tending towards a different descriptor than “crazy imbeciles”.
That said “pissed off” is the best way to describe how I feel, I’m not filled with hate and animosity towards the Scots, Northern Irish, not even the Welsh, I just can’t see why the idea of being English is so unnacceptable.

David: ITV regions. It’s not going to work. Where my parents now live they could receive Granada, Central and Yorkshire TV. It can only lead to some Bosnia-style (and there are better words than Bosnia to explain why nationalism isn’t necessarily a good thing) disaster at a later date.

“if you are pissed off with the assymetrical cack-handedness of those crazy imbeciles at Westminster who deny England parity with the other nations of the UK”. There is no need to be English to be pissed off in just this way.