If there really is a rise in English Nationalism (and I can't see it, not least because it has now peaked everywhere else), then England will presumably acquire political phenomena as odd as those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Plaid Cymru, a coalition of hardline middle-class Leftists and Arthurian restorationists.
The SNP, a coalition of hardline middle-class Leftists and people who wear tartan trews on a daily basis.
The DUP and Sinn Féin, not one but two of the most peculiar political movements in the world.
The comparable strands in English culture and society do of course exist. Most people in England are not remotely like that. But then, most people in Wales are neither hardline middle-class Leftists nor Arthurian restorationists. Most people in Scotland are neither hardline middle-class Leftists nor wearers of tartan trews on a daily basis. And most people in Northern Ireland are neither Marxist guerrillas with visions of Brian Boru, nor subscribers to the local franchise of Bob Jones University and all that comes with it.
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"And most people in Northern Ireland are neither Marxist guerrillas with visions of Brian Boru, nor subscribers to the local franchise of Bob Jones University and all that comes with it".
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely correct. But of course the majority of people who actually vote support them. I could of course quibble about the extent that Marxism has influenced SF-IRA....as its foundation in late 1969 was specifically anti-Marxist. Richard English, Brian Feeney and indeed my own Dissertation covered this point.
As we all know the difference betwee a Provo and a Sticky (Official IRA) was that one went to Mass weekly and the other on Feast Days.
Yes we have all worn the Ernesto Che Guevara Lynch t shirt (indeed some of us still do) but its a fashion statement as is SF-IRA "Marxism".
Most of us owe our "marxism" to our Church teaching.
Well, what else have they been given to vote for?
ReplyDeleteLots of Italian Communists, for example, used to turn up to Mass on Feast Days.