With Scottish independence and all that there's been focus on the idea of Britain, and what it means and all the rest of it.
There is a British identity, one which makes sense, with shared history and cultural values. The problem is that this Britain is ruled by, but doesn't culturally include, the English South East.
England just isn't a real country. The differences between northern England and Scotland or Wales are much smaller than the differences between northern England and the south east. The Russian dolls of identity make more sense as northern > British than English > British.
There's a natural brotherhood of the Scots, Welsh, Cornish, (Northern) Irish and Northern English. These guys all have loads in common. Landscape, sheep, post-industrial decline, an interest in folk and country music, tea, fish suppers, reserve, good humour, a shared hatred of London.
An independent Scotland would be sad for the rest of this Britain, but at least some of us will have got out. It's just a shame that it's the wrong bit going its way. That bit at the bottom, the England of Top Gear and Bake-Off and finance and media and royalty and morris dancing and London. We don't need that bit. Also, they hate us.
A nice Britain of 40million, with the capital in, say, York, would be lovely. We could just crack on being a medium-sized European country and relax. England-minor could go its way making money and being "global". Everyone would win.
We've really buggered up how we've organised this place.
ADDENDUM: I don't really know where the South-West fits in, or the Midlands. I'd like to take Birmingham with us but I guess it's up to them.
Agreed, little point pretending a thing is a thing when it isn't a thing. Genuine question - if SE England secedes and takes the whole media with it, how Ukip does Britain proper become?
ReplyDeleteThis phone is terrible, I can't edit once I've written anything, it's like a typewriter. By media I mean general luvvie BBC/Arts Council/drippy liberal culture complex. I'm NOT saying that northerners are all dyed in the wool racists but I want to know how things shake out culturally after the great divide.
ReplyDeleteNot sure - would be interesting, right? I think that UKIP's heartland is the East (Cambs, East Anglia, Lincolnshire), so it'd depend who got them in the divorce. Also, plenty of racists (by "racists" I mean people who suffer from immigration, rather than benefit - i.e. working class people) in Kent, Essex etc.
ReplyDeleteWhere would you say Somerset fits? Would they stick in a Southern England or go with a non-SE England?
True, sorry I phrased my question rather bluntly. I wonder if there is a baby in the obnoxious, self satisfied Guardianista bath water.
ReplyDeleteSomerset won't join the North. Maybe plague of both houses, but never with the industrial north. Look at labour performance in south west. There is an old grassed over fault line in uk politics between Romantics and liberal rationalists, I suspect the SW is an old remnant of the former
A metaphor popped into my head - the ugliest part of a chicken is its head, but it doesn't function very well without it. I don't know where that came from
ReplyDeleteNo, no, your question was fine. There's plenty of Guardianistas outside of London, and there's plenty of working class people in the south, it's just that they're not particularly represented.
ReplyDeleteFederal Britain with Somerset part of a south west state with Bristol as capital?
Oh, also, the chicken head thing - all countries hate their capitals a bit, but what's interesting now is how little people outside of the south east think of London as *their* capital. It feels completely alien. Imperialist, even. Luckily there are plenty of other decently sized cities in Britain. Enough to make it a viable country (if only we could get better transport links between them): Cardiff, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield, Glasgow, Edinburgh etc. What a country!
ReplyDeleteI would definitely like to become a citizen of Wessex.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, non-London Britain could be like Germany, aka the best country in the world, properly balanced across its different cities. Energy companies in Glasgow, media/advertising in Manchester, banking in Birmingham etc etc. Imagine if HS2 was used for something other than getting people to London quicker!
Do you know how far it is between Leeds and Manchester? About 40 miles as the crow flies, 50ish by road. How long does a train take? 1 hour 20 minutes. 30 miles between Liverpool and Manchester. 1 hour on the train. 1 hour!!
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