Ed, this is an outstanding essay. The allusion at the end to Boris retaining support despite obvious flaws and failures shows how powerful nationalism (im loathe to use that word) is to the everyday man/woman of this country who is far to often overlooked. I saw an image of Tony Blair taking office in ‘97 the other day, celebrating with a sea of British flags. Could you see any politician of the current left doing this today?
RR
Rocky Rhode
2 years ago
“…the prole’s apron that is the St George’s Cross…”
A very amusing phrase and one that perfectly sums up the disdain held by the elites for the ordinary love of one’s country.
HG
Howard Gleave
2 years ago
“They (the English) won’t put up with being ruled by those who openly despise them.” How very true. To the “elite’s” (no connotation of excellence) self-loathing must be added my loathing. And I am clearly far from alone. Those who genuinely hate this country and love all things to do with the EU, which is not synonymous with Europe, have an easy remedy. Emigrate. Mind you, they would then have to master another language. Or just shout.
“..the EU, which is not synonymous with Europe”. One of the most exasperating aspects of Brexit is having to parry the assumption, made by many Remainers, that all those of us who voted Leave did so because we “hate Europe”. Not so, I tell them, but I don’t think they are listening.
The thing that many Brexiteers and Remainers love about Europe is the variety/diversity of its component countries.
What many Remainers don’t yet comprehend is that the EU project is specifically designed to eliminate that wonderful richness.
Send then Daniel Hannan’s book “Why Vote Leave” which gives a clear picture of the destructive homogenisation of Europe by the EU.
If that doesn’t work, then give up.
A very good, and perceptive, article. A further danger of this loathe-our-country trend is that it discourages immigrants from becoming part of our society. Why would you want to join something which elite voices are denigrating? I recall an email circulating amongst my university lecturer colleagues which sneered at the ceremony conducted for new British nationals as ridiculous ‘flummery’. I also heard a colleague declaring he wouldn’t join in the singing of the National Anthem at our graduation ceremony (a practice now discontinued). What are new citizens, coming from societies where respect for symbols of national belonging and unity is seen as right and natural, to make of all this? This self-loathing preached by powerful voices will exacerbate ethnic and cultural divisions in our country, just when a healing unity is most needed.
This is the oath of Canadian citizenship:- “I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen.”
Never seems to be a shortage of people from all over the world willing to take the oath!
Surprised there is no mention of the Trudeau family in there in the oath.
LV
Lesley van Reenen
2 years ago
This phenomenon is not exclusively English. New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay was very recently ‘disturbed’ by people on Long Island flying American flags. The people should be able to separate ‘Americanness’ from ‘whiteness’. Shame. Who would have thought. https://nypost.com/2021/06/09/ny-times-defends-mara-grays-american-flag-comments/
By the way, at the time Mara Gay went on TV supporting the most **** tweet in the history of ***** tweets:
“Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads. The U.S. population is 327 million,” Rivas wrote. “He could have given each American $1 million and still have money left over. I feel like a $1 million check would be life-changing for most people. Yet he wasted it all on ads and STILL LOST.”
Haha! This reminds me of Andrew Neil and Portillo exposing Owen Jones’s misapprehension that the “millionaires” in the Cabinet all earned a million quid a year. It’s also redolent of Diane Abbott’s grasp of mathematics.
Someone has reported this post of mine regarding the Rivas tweet which is now flagged for moderation! Can’t make it up! Are there trolls on this site now? Time for me to contact Unherd again.
Last edited 2 years ago by Lesley van Reenen
MB
Matt B
2 years ago
It is odd to hear those, often with no more knowledge of the EU and its functioning than others, overlooking disturbing trends in Europe and beyond which far outstrip the mortal voting sin of Brexit, whilst remaining silent on China – to which some have the unquestioning arc of a fly serenely zapping into a UV trap. Well done Ed, for highlighting some such mental gymnastics akin to recovered memory or alien abduction episodes. Any argument that divides or frustrates will be seized upon by the aggrieved, it seems. This extends to hurrah-ing those – Iran, China, take your pick – where dissent means jail. Beyond that, a lot of people here seem to be coming together again quite well, realising that this really was a First-World fisticuffs, with divisions overplayed and post-Brexit inconveniences easily resolvable – where there’s a will.
Yes. I recently had occasion to remind me children, two of whom are the kind of leftist of this article, that it was unlikely we would be veering to the right after leaving the EU considering that there isn’t now and hasn’t been in my lifetime, a right wing movement in this country that had gained any popular support, whereas Europe is awash with them.
PK
Prashant Kotak
2 years ago
“…Perhaps the abiding image of the campaign was Bob Geldof, do-gooder par excellence…”
Those of us who were teens in the 70s listening to the Boomtown Rats, look on in wonder at the rewriting people both individually and collectively have engaged in over the period, a kind of Complicity of Amnesia. I remember a Bob Geldof hit from the mid 70s, ‘Mary of the Fourth Form’ which even at the time I thought the lyrics a tad dubious (but entertaining), but if he were to put that song out now I have no doubt he would be cancelled on the spot. It’s so illustrative of how the contradictory social narratives of today can no longer be safely navigated by the very people who were complicit in creating those narratives, like Geldof (whose music I have always liked) whose personal sadness in life as a man, with wife (who left him) and daughter both dead, could now easily be turned on any moment by the very people he supports so vehemently, as a prime example of patriarchy. The very same phenomenon observable in the various Feminist movements, the older versions like Greer et al now being cannibalised by usurping new, even more radical, generations whom in fact they created and nurtured.
This book sounds excellent. Have you managed to obtain a hard copy version? I’ve only been able to find it available at Waterstones for £70 which is more than I can justify for a short book…
TT
Tony Taylor
2 years ago
Nothing pisses the people off more than being sneered at by the quality.
PM
patrick macaskie
2 years ago
good piece. Brings to mind Gerald Ratner, when he revealed that he despised the jewellery he sold. Or Hilary Clinton with her use of the word “deplorables”. Perhaps this vain tendency should be called Ratnerism.
CJ
Cheryl Jones
2 years ago
For all Boris’s flaws I think it would be hard to fake his apparent enthusiasm for this country and his glass half full approach. And though people may find it hard to believe there are things he seems to instinctively understand – for example if you go back to his essay about the burqa, if you *actually* read it, his comments about letterboxes and ninjas are not only funny (admit it), but TRUE. People do think they look like that and he acknowledges it before going on to defend wearing it as a freedom that is also British. The average Brit dislikes burqas on a visceral level because they represent an ideology that is the antithesis to British culture and our sense of gender equality. But we also have a live and let live approach. I’ll be fine with you if you’re fine with me. Every culture has its flaws and I think in Britain class is an entrenched one. I have noticed that when it comes to patriotism the working classes share it with the real upper classes, the aristocracy. How else to explain the affection between sections of the working class and Jacob Rees-Mogg, the ultimate old school gentleman toff?? They share something that transcends class….. love of country. It’s the middle classes that seem to shun it the most. And I wonder if it goes back to the industrial revolution when the aristocracy started to get challenged by the nouveau riche, the industrialists and mercantilists. The nouveau riche were not truly accepted because they possessed too many qualities of their more lowly roots and the nouveau riche tried to ingratiate themselves with the aristocracy by differentiating themselves from the proles. Perhaps the same with the academics and the intelligentsia. By apeing what they perceived to be high brow ideas they could elevate their own status. They weren’t proud of their lowly roots they despised them, disavowed them, *pretended they were better than them*. And I wonder if that is where some of this comes from.
Last edited 2 years ago by Cheryl Jones
CH
Charles Hedges
2 years ago
The land owners do not hate this coutry or families with long military and naval tradtions.
Lynton Strachey typifies inherited money which lacks the spirit which mafde this counry great.
Barnes Wallis said it was the individialism which made the British great inventors. Fletcher Bannister – The Architect, said the English were were hardy and enterprising race. Intellectuals are largely a product of mercantile urban inherited money who are too effete, ineffective, ineffectual and impractical to undertake constructive work; the type which creates civilisation. Consequently, they do not produce a F Nightingale, D Livingstone. E Shackleton, C Wren Brindley, Watt, B Wallis , RJ Mitchell, Watson Watt, etc . Being inferior and inadequate to those who made Britain great, out of malice they wish to bring everyone down to their level.
DS
David Simpson
2 years ago
Hooray for Ed! Spot on, and brilliant. I’m a reformed England-hater, now living in France which adds a little vinaigrette to all this. Today I felt a little ashamed of myself; I made a disparaging remark about England to a very nice French woman, to whom I was being very nice about France, and I only really meant the weather but I realised afterwards I just sounded like another England loathing haut bourgeois. Sorry Albion.
It used to be Russia questioning the sovereignty and territorial integrity of those in its self-decreed “near abroad”. That Macron, an opportunistic janus looking east and west, now uses such Russian threat tactics against the UK, a NATO ally, is quite a turnaround. Contrast France building warships for Russia ahead of Crimea with the UK recently having to deploy its navy to the Channel Islands – while retired french generals warn of civil war in France – and you get the extent of France’s unease ahead of its next elections. UK-bashing is a helpful distraction.
Last edited 2 years ago by Matt B
AS
Alyona Song
2 years ago
“In countries which have been trampled over by armies down the years an artist who disdained the ground where his ancestors had been starved or raped would be tiresome; in an island which had not endured foreign occupation or tyranny for centuries it’s indulged.” This is astonishingly true. Hailing from the former Soviet Union I can attest to that. Sadly, these “indulgent” views and attitudes have been acutely felt in Canada, precisely for the same reasons.
An excellent essay with so many good points. I’ll comment on just one: “Wanting to fly the flag is not exceptional; thinking the British above flag-waving is the exceptionalism.” I noticed this decades ago on Bastille Day. I’ll confess, it made me quite proud that Britain felt confident and comfortable enough with itself not to need such crude displays of nationalism. Everything has a good and a bad side, even the ironic hypocrisy of Britain’s elites, whose self-loathing contains an element of wishing to rise above nationalism and tribalism. An element now diluted to just a few molecules within currents of delusions about the EU.
Inevitably we criticise our own politics, politicians and political institutions, but to think the European versions of the same are superior and so don’t need holding to account behind the Brussels and Strasbourg fortresses is the great delusion that will first discredit and then destroy the British elite classes. Continuing the nasty culture war is the elites chosen response. The coming (very un-) civil wars in Europe as citizens, denied the democratic recourse offered to the British, counter the kafkaesque institutions that govern them with rising incompetence and authoritarianism with the only means available to them, will be the denouement of the Brexit Revolution as Britain once again stands alone, an island of calm off the coast of chaos.
Last edited 2 years ago by Jonathan Ellman
JJ
Judy Johnson
2 years ago
I really enjoy the articles and essays that give so much to think about!
SR
Stephen Rose
2 years ago
It is so horribly true. I don’t find the picture replicated abroad or in the opinion of others towards the English.
The fear of parocialism, is very strong amongst the English middle classes. I remember not so long ago they used to ape the style and manners of the working classes, the footballers, the actors, Caine, Finney etc. Working class people were authentic, easy in their skin, comfortable in their relationship to their body and their appetites. They made great music and art, full of animal charisma.
Abroad, I found that beyond the Watneys red barrel and fish and chips , they could make kinship with Dutch, German, Italian or Spaniard, with all those countries love of surreal excess. In fact it is the middle class who are most uncomfortable with bullfights, ocktoberfests, tomato fights and holy week festivals.
The middle classes are no fun, they never have been. They are reluctant to confer approval, unlike the working class, who are apt to tell you how clever you are and gently take the P**s,with them character is important and the ability to take a joke, for which they will reward you with friendship.
Now the middle classes have turned even more virtuous, cramped and conformist.They obsess about the definitive and authentic, a sure way of missing what’s important in life.Their sense of superiority has been supercharged by the progressives. In a culture where everyone aspires to similar markers like cars, clothes, holidays etc. Feeling that you’re aware of your privileges and your disgust with sexism and racism, confers humility and grace. Their piety distinguishes them from the rabble.
So three cheers for the strength, humour and truculence of the ordinary English man and woman, they are this country’s saviours. I voted remain, I’m very middle class, highly educated and in the arts and until recently thought I was a Liberal.
GD
Simon Coulthard
2 years ago
This is a great article though Salmen Rushdie could have been omitted – he’s got enough enemies already! It’s no doubt true that the middle class and elites see the working class as uncultured yobs and it’s not hard to find evidence to support this, even when compared to the working class on the continent
A brilliant essay. Thank you. I utterly despair of the class of person who, 5 years on still cannot come to terms with losing. The lack of self awareness amongst this group is astonishing too. Why did we end up with Boris Johnson as PM and a ‘hard’ Brexit? Because of their refusal to accept they lost the vote and then argue and build support for a compromise. Instead they arrogantly pursued the path of a second vote. Finally, the fortunes of the First Ministers of Scotland and Wales prove the point of your final paragraph. Has either run a good government? Certainly in Scotland the SNP’s record is poor (where I live.) However, both Sturgeon and Drakeford come across as loving their respective countries. Drakeford, in particular has batted away nationalism by being true to himself as a patriotic Welshman.
GA
Graeme Archer
2 years ago
Great writing.
KK
Kristof K
2 years ago
People will often put up with being ruled by people who cheat them, or lie to them, or who mismanage the country — as recent polls illustrate. But they won’t put up with being ruled by those who openly despise them.
—Ed West
Surely people who lie to you and cheat you must despise you? What I trust will soon cease to amaze me is that Boris Johnson’s disdain for the people is so persistent in successfully hiding in plain site!
LO
Liam O'Mahony
2 years ago
There is, surely a sensible level of self criticism for both individual and nationally? And yes, going beyond point is overdoing it. There is much to criticise in any nation’s history and current behaviour but also surely, some things to celebrate.
I do however, have a problem with the use of the word “nation”. Do the inhabitants of a given country automatically become a nation? I think not. Perhaps in days of yore before migation became commonplace but not so, surely in recent decades? My country, Ireland and most specifically ROI was very much an old style nation with the overwhelming majority being of Irish decent for many, many generations: all white, all RC with only a tiny minority of “others”. But that was not the case with England (in particular: less so with the other ‘nations’) with its original Celts, Angles, Saxons, Picts, Romans, Norsemen and uncle Tom Cobley an’ all since forever. So England cannot be a “nation” then in any real sence of the word?
Of course if a nation is a collective view of itself then that’s a different matter. But what is that collective view? To many it’s the white Anglo-Saxon type and therefore excudes a large proportion of England’s current inhabitants!
I’m not sure if we Irish and Scots who’ve lived in England for generations are considered by the English to be English? In football of course the answer is Yes (eg Rooney, Farrell etc.) but when it gets down to it? We who call ourselves Irish and Scots would, in any event, be appalled at such a suggestion!
So a re-think is needed. Personally, I abhor nationalism for it’s racism, xenophobia and warmongering. A person’s so-called Nationality is of zero concern to me in all but cultural terms and that person’s individuality if what counts. It is hardly a coincidence that the less intelligent, the less educated the more nationalistic! Not only am I very happy to be European I’m even happier to be a member of the human race and that is “nation” enough for me.
CW
Chris Wheatley
2 years ago
The writer repeatedly confuses English and British; people in England feel that this is just a small matter but it is very important and this confusion is the source of the decline of Britain.
There is no self-loathing elite in Scotland or Wales – why is that? It is because the governments of those areas are not shy of doing things and saying things like, “We are all proud to be Scottish/Welsh.” If the governments/television/newspapers/magazines actually emphasised the importance of Britishness instead of being shy about it, more people in the UK would copy the idea and there would be no need of Scottishness or Welshness. The actors like Emma Thompson would be forced to shut up and then we would have some kind of proper country.
So, do not copy this writer but understand that Britishness is important, not Englishness. Get it right instead of muddling through.
(Sport is different. Sport is sport.)
I beg to differ about the elite in Scotland and Wales. They are on the same page in pursuit of globalisation in the shape of Europhilia. Their environmental catastrophism, and strident advocacy of identity politics is another example. Their approach to Covid 19 reveals the preferences of control freaks Sturgeon and Drakeford and their public health advisers. Like the MSMThey hate the people and their habits. As a left libertarian i find as many if not more reasons to be suspicious of governing elite in the devolved nations as in England.
I think you have not read the essay above but have just expressed your political opinion. The essay is not really about political leaders; it mentions Bob Geldof, Emma Thompson and other ‘elite’ people meaning I suppose – celebs.
I agree with you, that Drakeford and Sturgeon think too much of themselves and are manipulative so as to pursue their own agendas (all politicians do this) but the point rests on the cultural leaders. They are the ones who despise their own culture.
I concede that Scotland and Wales are small and it is much easier in a small community to have ideas in common. But England suffers badly from the split between the southeast and the rest. An English culture does not exist – think of the thatched cottages around village greens in Suffolk and compare it to Bolton or Blackburn.
My argument is that there is no real ‘Englishness’ so you have to focus on Britishness as a fall back.
In short: we need a revolution? Now, where would we look for a good example we would want to follow? The least bloody examples I can think of are Cuba or East Germany, maybe Iran, and neither really sounds like a good role model.
Well, face covering has already become a religious precept, so Iran seems to be the natural example to follow. Now then, should we invite the Revolutionary Guard over for consultative advice, and whom should we make Supreme Ayatollah?
I think this is an outstanding essay. Insightful and sad. Well done, Ed West.
I struggle to find a sentence I disagree with.
Interesting
Ed, this is an outstanding essay. The allusion at the end to Boris retaining support despite obvious flaws and failures shows how powerful nationalism (im loathe to use that word) is to the everyday man/woman of this country who is far to often overlooked. I saw an image of Tony Blair taking office in ‘97 the other day, celebrating with a sea of British flags. Could you see any politician of the current left doing this today?
“…the prole’s apron that is the St George’s Cross…”
A very amusing phrase and one that perfectly sums up the disdain held by the elites for the ordinary love of one’s country.
“They (the English) won’t put up with being ruled by those who openly despise them.” How very true. To the “elite’s” (no connotation of excellence) self-loathing must be added my loathing. And I am clearly far from alone. Those who genuinely hate this country and love all things to do with the EU, which is not synonymous with Europe, have an easy remedy. Emigrate. Mind you, they would then have to master another language. Or just shout.
“..the EU, which is not synonymous with Europe”. One of the most exasperating aspects of Brexit is having to parry the assumption, made by many Remainers, that all those of us who voted Leave did so because we “hate Europe”. Not so, I tell them, but I don’t think they are listening.
The thing that many Brexiteers and Remainers love about Europe is the variety/diversity of its component countries.
What many Remainers don’t yet comprehend is that the EU project is specifically designed to eliminate that wonderful richness.
Send then Daniel Hannan’s book “Why Vote Leave” which gives a clear picture of the destructive homogenisation of Europe by the EU.
If that doesn’t work, then give up.
..
A very good, and perceptive, article. A further danger of this loathe-our-country trend is that it discourages immigrants from becoming part of our society. Why would you want to join something which elite voices are denigrating? I recall an email circulating amongst my university lecturer colleagues which sneered at the ceremony conducted for new British nationals as ridiculous ‘flummery’. I also heard a colleague declaring he wouldn’t join in the singing of the National Anthem at our graduation ceremony (a practice now discontinued). What are new citizens, coming from societies where respect for symbols of national belonging and unity is seen as right and natural, to make of all this? This self-loathing preached by powerful voices will exacerbate ethnic and cultural divisions in our country, just when a healing unity is most needed.
This is the oath of Canadian citizenship:- “I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen.”
Never seems to be a shortage of people from all over the world willing to take the oath!
Surprised there is no mention of the Trudeau family in there in the oath.
This phenomenon is not exclusively English. New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay was very recently ‘disturbed’ by people on Long Island flying American flags. The people should be able to separate ‘Americanness’ from ‘whiteness’. Shame. Who would have thought.
https://nypost.com/2021/06/09/ny-times-defends-mara-grays-american-flag-comments/
By the way, at the time Mara Gay went on TV supporting the most **** tweet in the history of ***** tweets:
“Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads. The U.S. population is 327 million,” Rivas wrote. “He could have given each American $1 million and still have money left over. I feel like a $1 million check would be life-changing for most people. Yet he wasted it all on ads and STILL LOST.”
Haha! This reminds me of Andrew Neil and Portillo exposing Owen Jones’s misapprehension that the “millionaires” in the Cabinet all earned a million quid a year. It’s also redolent of Diane Abbott’s grasp of mathematics.
Err no, that would cost him $327 trillion, which I’m fairly sure he doesn’t yet have.
Someone has reported this post of mine regarding the Rivas tweet which is now flagged for moderation! Can’t make it up! Are there trolls on this site now? Time for me to contact Unherd again.
It is odd to hear those, often with no more knowledge of the EU and its functioning than others, overlooking disturbing trends in Europe and beyond which far outstrip the mortal voting sin of Brexit, whilst remaining silent on China – to which some have the unquestioning arc of a fly serenely zapping into a UV trap. Well done Ed, for highlighting some such mental gymnastics akin to recovered memory or alien abduction episodes. Any argument that divides or frustrates will be seized upon by the aggrieved, it seems. This extends to hurrah-ing those – Iran, China, take your pick – where dissent means jail. Beyond that, a lot of people here seem to be coming together again quite well, realising that this really was a First-World fisticuffs, with divisions overplayed and post-Brexit inconveniences easily resolvable – where there’s a will.
Yes. I recently had occasion to remind me children, two of whom are the kind of leftist of this article, that it was unlikely we would be veering to the right after leaving the EU considering that there isn’t now and hasn’t been in my lifetime, a right wing movement in this country that had gained any popular support, whereas Europe is awash with them.
“…Perhaps the abiding image of the campaign was Bob Geldof, do-gooder par excellence…”
Those of us who were teens in the 70s listening to the Boomtown Rats, look on in wonder at the rewriting people both individually and collectively have engaged in over the period, a kind of Complicity of Amnesia. I remember a Bob Geldof hit from the mid 70s, ‘Mary of the Fourth Form’ which even at the time I thought the lyrics a tad dubious (but entertaining), but if he were to put that song out now I have no doubt he would be cancelled on the spot. It’s so illustrative of how the contradictory social narratives of today can no longer be safely navigated by the very people who were complicit in creating those narratives, like Geldof (whose music I have always liked) whose personal sadness in life as a man, with wife (who left him) and daughter both dead, could now easily be turned on any moment by the very people he supports so vehemently, as a prime example of patriarchy. The very same phenomenon observable in the various Feminist movements, the older versions like Greer et al now being cannibalised by usurping new, even more radical, generations whom in fact they created and nurtured.
Excellent essay. My only quibble with the author Ed West is (1) It’s not self-loathing: the British elites are nation- and people-loathing. They don’t loath themselves; in fact, they have a grandiose view of themselves. (2) The elites’ loathing of their countries and common people is not unique to Britain, but is characteristic of U.S. and French elites as well. See the new book, Political Populism in the 21st Century: We the People (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2021).
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352212739_Chapter_7_Revolt_Against_the_Elites_Political_Populism_in_the_Twenty-First_Century_We_the_People_Newcastle_Upon_Tyne_UK_Cambridge_Scholars_Publishing_2021_pp_129-153
This book sounds excellent. Have you managed to obtain a hard copy version? I’ve only been able to find it available at Waterstones for £70 which is more than I can justify for a short book…
Nothing pisses the people off more than being sneered at by the quality.
good piece. Brings to mind Gerald Ratner, when he revealed that he despised the jewellery he sold. Or Hilary Clinton with her use of the word “deplorables”. Perhaps this vain tendency should be called Ratnerism.
For all Boris’s flaws I think it would be hard to fake his apparent enthusiasm for this country and his glass half full approach. And though people may find it hard to believe there are things he seems to instinctively understand – for example if you go back to his essay about the burqa, if you *actually* read it, his comments about letterboxes and ninjas are not only funny (admit it), but TRUE. People do think they look like that and he acknowledges it before going on to defend wearing it as a freedom that is also British. The average Brit dislikes burqas on a visceral level because they represent an ideology that is the antithesis to British culture and our sense of gender equality. But we also have a live and let live approach. I’ll be fine with you if you’re fine with me. Every culture has its flaws and I think in Britain class is an entrenched one. I have noticed that when it comes to patriotism the working classes share it with the real upper classes, the aristocracy. How else to explain the affection between sections of the working class and Jacob Rees-Mogg, the ultimate old school gentleman toff?? They share something that transcends class….. love of country. It’s the middle classes that seem to shun it the most. And I wonder if it goes back to the industrial revolution when the aristocracy started to get challenged by the nouveau riche, the industrialists and mercantilists. The nouveau riche were not truly accepted because they possessed too many qualities of their more lowly roots and the nouveau riche tried to ingratiate themselves with the aristocracy by differentiating themselves from the proles. Perhaps the same with the academics and the intelligentsia. By apeing what they perceived to be high brow ideas they could elevate their own status. They weren’t proud of their lowly roots they despised them, disavowed them, *pretended they were better than them*. And I wonder if that is where some of this comes from.
The land owners do not hate this coutry or families with long military and naval tradtions.
Lynton Strachey typifies inherited money which lacks the spirit which mafde this counry great.
Barnes Wallis said it was the individialism which made the British great inventors. Fletcher Bannister – The Architect, said the English were were hardy and enterprising race. Intellectuals are largely a product of mercantile urban inherited money who are too effete, ineffective, ineffectual and impractical to undertake constructive work; the type which creates civilisation. Consequently, they do not produce a F Nightingale, D Livingstone. E Shackleton, C Wren Brindley, Watt, B Wallis , RJ Mitchell, Watson Watt, etc . Being inferior and inadequate to those who made Britain great, out of malice they wish to bring everyone down to their level.
Hooray for Ed! Spot on, and brilliant. I’m a reformed England-hater, now living in France which adds a little vinaigrette to all this. Today I felt a little ashamed of myself; I made a disparaging remark about England to a very nice French woman, to whom I was being very nice about France, and I only really meant the weather but I realised afterwards I just sounded like another England loathing haut bourgeois. Sorry Albion.
It used to be Russia questioning the sovereignty and territorial integrity of those in its self-decreed “near abroad”. That Macron, an opportunistic janus looking east and west, now uses such Russian threat tactics against the UK, a NATO ally, is quite a turnaround. Contrast France building warships for Russia ahead of Crimea with the UK recently having to deploy its navy to the Channel Islands – while retired french generals warn of civil war in France – and you get the extent of France’s unease ahead of its next elections. UK-bashing is a helpful distraction.
“In countries which have been trampled over by armies down the years an artist who disdained the ground where his ancestors had been starved or raped would be tiresome; in an island which had not endured foreign occupation or tyranny for centuries it’s indulged.” This is astonishingly true. Hailing from the former Soviet Union I can attest to that. Sadly, these “indulgent” views and attitudes have been acutely felt in Canada, precisely for the same reasons.
And Australia and NZ.
An excellent essay with so many good points. I’ll comment on just one: “Wanting to fly the flag is not exceptional; thinking the British above flag-waving is the exceptionalism.” I noticed this decades ago on Bastille Day. I’ll confess, it made me quite proud that Britain felt confident and comfortable enough with itself not to need such crude displays of nationalism. Everything has a good and a bad side, even the ironic hypocrisy of Britain’s elites, whose self-loathing contains an element of wishing to rise above nationalism and tribalism. An element now diluted to just a few molecules within currents of delusions about the EU.
Inevitably we criticise our own politics, politicians and political institutions, but to think the European versions of the same are superior and so don’t need holding to account behind the Brussels and Strasbourg fortresses is the great delusion that will first discredit and then destroy the British elite classes. Continuing the nasty culture war is the elites chosen response. The coming (very un-) civil wars in Europe as citizens, denied the democratic recourse offered to the British, counter the kafkaesque institutions that govern them with rising incompetence and authoritarianism with the only means available to them, will be the denouement of the Brexit Revolution as Britain once again stands alone, an island of calm off the coast of chaos.
I really enjoy the articles and essays that give so much to think about!
It is so horribly true. I don’t find the picture replicated abroad or in the opinion of others towards the English.
The fear of parocialism, is very strong amongst the English middle classes. I remember not so long ago they used to ape the style and manners of the working classes, the footballers, the actors, Caine, Finney etc. Working class people were authentic, easy in their skin, comfortable in their relationship to their body and their appetites. They made great music and art, full of animal charisma.
Abroad, I found that beyond the Watneys red barrel and fish and chips , they could make kinship with Dutch, German, Italian or Spaniard, with all those countries love of surreal excess. In fact it is the middle class who are most uncomfortable with bullfights, ocktoberfests, tomato fights and holy week festivals.
The middle classes are no fun, they never have been. They are reluctant to confer approval, unlike the working class, who are apt to tell you how clever you are and gently take the P**s,with them character is important and the ability to take a joke, for which they will reward you with friendship.
Now the middle classes have turned even more virtuous, cramped and conformist.They obsess about the definitive and authentic, a sure way of missing what’s important in life.Their sense of superiority has been supercharged by the progressives. In a culture where everyone aspires to similar markers like cars, clothes, holidays etc. Feeling that you’re aware of your privileges and your disgust with sexism and racism, confers humility and grace. Their piety distinguishes them from the rabble.
So three cheers for the strength, humour and truculence of the ordinary English man and woman, they are this country’s saviours. I voted remain, I’m very middle class, highly educated and in the arts and until recently thought I was a Liberal.
This is a great article though Salmen Rushdie could have been omitted – he’s got enough enemies already! It’s no doubt true that the middle class and elites see the working class as uncultured yobs and it’s not hard to find evidence to support this, even when compared to the working class on the continent
Do you have in mind St Emily Thornberry?
A brilliant essay. Thank you. I utterly despair of the class of person who, 5 years on still cannot come to terms with losing. The lack of self awareness amongst this group is astonishing too. Why did we end up with Boris Johnson as PM and a ‘hard’ Brexit? Because of their refusal to accept they lost the vote and then argue and build support for a compromise. Instead they arrogantly pursued the path of a second vote. Finally, the fortunes of the First Ministers of Scotland and Wales prove the point of your final paragraph. Has either run a good government? Certainly in Scotland the SNP’s record is poor (where I live.) However, both Sturgeon and Drakeford come across as loving their respective countries. Drakeford, in particular has batted away nationalism by being true to himself as a patriotic Welshman.
Great writing.
—Ed West
Surely people who lie to you and cheat you must despise you? What I trust will soon cease to amaze me is that Boris Johnson’s disdain for the people is so persistent in successfully hiding in plain site!
There is, surely a sensible level of self criticism for both individual and nationally? And yes, going beyond point is overdoing it. There is much to criticise in any nation’s history and current behaviour but also surely, some things to celebrate.
I do however, have a problem with the use of the word “nation”. Do the inhabitants of a given country automatically become a nation? I think not. Perhaps in days of yore before migation became commonplace but not so, surely in recent decades? My country, Ireland and most specifically ROI was very much an old style nation with the overwhelming majority being of Irish decent for many, many generations: all white, all RC with only a tiny minority of “others”. But that was not the case with England (in particular: less so with the other ‘nations’) with its original Celts, Angles, Saxons, Picts, Romans, Norsemen and uncle Tom Cobley an’ all since forever. So England cannot be a “nation” then in any real sence of the word?
Of course if a nation is a collective view of itself then that’s a different matter. But what is that collective view? To many it’s the white Anglo-Saxon type and therefore excudes a large proportion of England’s current inhabitants!
I’m not sure if we Irish and Scots who’ve lived in England for generations are considered by the English to be English? In football of course the answer is Yes (eg Rooney, Farrell etc.) but when it gets down to it? We who call ourselves Irish and Scots would, in any event, be appalled at such a suggestion!
So a re-think is needed. Personally, I abhor nationalism for it’s racism, xenophobia and warmongering. A person’s so-called Nationality is of zero concern to me in all but cultural terms and that person’s individuality if what counts. It is hardly a coincidence that the less intelligent, the less educated the more nationalistic! Not only am I very happy to be European I’m even happier to be a member of the human race and that is “nation” enough for me.
The writer repeatedly confuses English and British; people in England feel that this is just a small matter but it is very important and this confusion is the source of the decline of Britain.
There is no self-loathing elite in Scotland or Wales – why is that? It is because the governments of those areas are not shy of doing things and saying things like, “We are all proud to be Scottish/Welsh.” If the governments/television/newspapers/magazines actually emphasised the importance of Britishness instead of being shy about it, more people in the UK would copy the idea and there would be no need of Scottishness or Welshness. The actors like Emma Thompson would be forced to shut up and then we would have some kind of proper country.
So, do not copy this writer but understand that Britishness is important, not Englishness. Get it right instead of muddling through.
(Sport is different. Sport is sport.)
I beg to differ about the elite in Scotland and Wales. They are on the same page in pursuit of globalisation in the shape of Europhilia. Their environmental catastrophism, and strident advocacy of identity politics is another example. Their approach to Covid 19 reveals the preferences of control freaks Sturgeon and Drakeford and their public health advisers. Like the MSMThey hate the people and their habits. As a left libertarian i find as many if not more reasons to be suspicious of governing elite in the devolved nations as in England.
I think you have not read the essay above but have just expressed your political opinion. The essay is not really about political leaders; it mentions Bob Geldof, Emma Thompson and other ‘elite’ people meaning I suppose – celebs.
I agree with you, that Drakeford and Sturgeon think too much of themselves and are manipulative so as to pursue their own agendas (all politicians do this) but the point rests on the cultural leaders. They are the ones who despise their own culture.
I concede that Scotland and Wales are small and it is much easier in a small community to have ideas in common. But England suffers badly from the split between the southeast and the rest. An English culture does not exist – think of the thatched cottages around village greens in Suffolk and compare it to Bolton or Blackburn.
My argument is that there is no real ‘Englishness’ so you have to focus on Britishness as a fall back.
dl
This is why you lost.
dl
In short: we need a revolution? Now, where would we look for a good example we would want to follow? The least bloody examples I can think of are Cuba or East Germany, maybe Iran, and neither really sounds like a good role model.
dl
Well, face covering has already become a religious precept, so Iran seems to be the natural example to follow. Now then, should we invite the Revolutionary Guard over for consultative advice, and whom should we make Supreme Ayatollah?
-11 seems very harsh for a ‘dl’.
and what does it mean, anyway?
What happened?
Probably change of heart, a crisis of belief, he’s decided it’s all off, and he’s heading to a monestary in Tibet. No biggie, it happens.