Ancestral CONFIDENCE In Culture & TRADITION - Listen/learn/Act English Experience - LESSON FOR CITIZENS OF OODUA An Extract of ERELUs Speech at an event in IN RURAL ENGLAND. Many UK migrants like myself are CITIZENS OF ENGLAND,does that make us English,in answering this question permit me to share my thoughts. What is Englishness? This is a question a lot of people may studiously avoid answering. Many cannot stand the kind of lists that are sometimes drawn up by people trying to define ‘the national character,of ENGLAND which always seem to come down to either a list of things that an English person should feel an attachment to (real ale, the countryside, David Beckham) or a list of ‘values (tolerance, democracy, love of queuing) to which no doubt English people feel equally committed. Whether or not Britain ‘breaks up in the political sense - it is clearly already breaking up in the cultural sense. Scotland and Wales today feel more Scottish and Welsh than they did ten years ago, whilst it appears to me an on looker that. The English, meanwhile are still struggling out from under ‘greater England,which the modern British identity.There is a historic confusion about the difference between Britishness and Englishness. Both are always reluctant in any case to explain and define themselves, most especially because of the impact of immigration and the resulting policy of ‘multiculturalism and of course FEAR of offending the descendants of migrants from AFRICA,ASIA.Sadly leaving the English confused about the need to CONFIDENTLY FLY THEIR ANCESTRAL FLAG. England seems to have something of a crisis on its hands. The confusion, and frustration, recently translated into votes for BNP during English and European elections,The BNP is most successful far right party in the history of ENGLAND -History records a number of groups including the National Front, instead of becoming a ‘respectable political parties THEY BECOME DEMONISED BY DESCENDANTS OF MIGRANTS in search OF EQUALITY just BECAUSE OF ACCIDENT OF BIRTH IN ENGLAND. The BNP is largely an English party, simply because the force which provides the need for the existence which are - immigration and ethnic tensions - is largely confined to England.The Any victory for ‘the English is against the combined forces of foreigners, non-white Britons, the cosmopolitan elite, Europe. It has been extremely hard for THE ENGLISH whose ancestors RIGHTFULLY FOUNDED ENGLAND to agree what ‘England actually is.England flag is the St George Cross flag within a disunited Kingdom it has to mean something too. In Britain today a growing number of people feel that the ‘English identity matters. But why? Why does it matter more than, say, our Britishness - or, come to that, common humanity? The answer to this lies in attachment of the ENGLISH to at least some aspects of the culture in which THEY GREW UP IN BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF THE IMMGRANTS from AFRICA,CARIBBEAN or ASIA. Englishness is a LEGITIMATE cultural identity. England is a nation - A nation is not simply a piece of land, IT IS a political construct of a random collection of people dwelling in the same place. A nation is a people who feel they are bound together by a culture, a history, a language, a homeland (in most cases) - in other words, a shared sense of self. Within any nation there is the cultural identity of that nation,so to me immigrants are not the historical source of CULTURAL DIVERSITY into either BRITAIN OR ENGLAND The theme of celebrating cultural diversity existed in BRITAIN before outsiders arrived. The nature of that diversity has changed over time, but the fact of it hasnt. ENGLISH WAS A DIVERSE NATION. Nevertheless, Englishness is - must be - still a recognisable cultural identity, or none of who are immigrants cannot say we CHOSE to come to ENGLAND based in Great Britain. Englishness has a cultural identity that many have to concede to.England is a multicultural nation One, that it cannot in itself be ‘multicultural. English identity must be by its nature exclusive, simply because all identities are. If you identity yourself as one thing you cannot be something else. However there are many English individuals with ‘multiple identities, English civic nationalism, sees Englishness not as a racial or ethnic identity (though there is what we might call an English ‘ethnic group, which makes Englishness as a wider identity) but something which is open to those who wish to be part of it. Nationalism has to be more openly and self-consciously English, in a cultural sense. Firstly, Englishness must surely involve a commitment and a sense of belonging to a place. If you have a sense of belonging to your dwelling place, the place where you live and were perhaps born, draws you into the English community, both in its present form and through the history of that place, whether it be an inner city or a rural village. By being in England, you become English. Anti-racist politics. Englishness, in my view can belong to those who choose to claim it as their own. If this is your home and you consider yourself to be English then you are, as far as Im concerned, English. Full stop. This who would seek to divide us along racial or ethnic lines need to be firmly and loudly resisted. ‘England for the English, under these circumstances, should perhaps be co-opted by those of us to whom the BNPs vision of our nation is a repulsive step backwards.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 23:06:00 +0000
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