“Just then they came in sight of thirty or forty windmills that rise from that plain. And no sooner did Don Quixote see them that he said to his squire, “Fortune is guiding our affairs better than we ourselves could have wished. Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho, thirty or forty hulking giants? I intend to do battle with them and slay them. With their spoils we shall begin to be rich for this is a righteous war and the removal of so foul a brood from off the face of the earth is a service God will bless.”
“What giants?” asked Sancho Panza.
“Those you see over there,” replied his master, “with their long arms. Some of them have arms well nigh two leagues in length.”
“Take care, sir,” cried Sancho. “Those over there are not giants but windmills. Those things that seem to be their arms are sails which, when they are whirled around by the wind, turn the millstone.”
—Part 1, Chapter VIII. Of the valourous Don Quixote’s success in the dreadful and never before imagined Adventure of the Windmills, with other events worthy of happy record.
It is St George’s day today, but UNESCO has also declared it to be the International Day of the Book, since 23rd April 1616 was the date of death and possibly anniversary of birth of both William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes. So we may tilt at windmills as well as attempt to slay a dragon or two. Readers may decide for themselves which is which.
I was intrigued to see that according to a new poll, its press release no doubt timed to coincide with our patron saints day, The Future of England Survey 2012 states that seven out of ten people living in England (73%) want St George’s Day (today) to be a public holiday.
The release describes the survey as a joint initiative between IPPR and the Wales Governance Centre (Cardiff University) and the Institute of Governance (Edinburgh University).”
Why, I wondered, was the leading ‘progressive’ ‘thinktank’ in the UK doing working with a Scottish and a Welsh university in defining the future of England? For the Welsh, at least one can see some relevance. There is no significant resistance in Wales to the umbilical relationship between English largesse and its Welsh consumers. But Scotland? With a referendum in Scotland next year on whether it should remain in the Union surely it’s the last place any survey should give credence to. Are there no longer universities in England who could conduct an unbiased survey?
As to IPPR, its Director is Nick Pearce, the former head of the Number 10 Policy Unit from 2008 to 2010, and its ‘Chair’, a new progressive, but non sexual term for the role formerly known as a Chairman, is the former Labour cabinet minister, Lord Adonis.
The full survey is to be released later this year, but as a teaser, presumably timed to coincide with St Georges day it has released some high lights from its findings.
I’m always intrigued by such figures, especially when they have been ‘weighted’, that is, adjusted, to you and me, from a sample of 3,600, to be ‘representative of all English adults’. How have they been weighted? Do we know what makes them representative? The downright subjective and unacademic manipulation and misuse of data by other ‘progressive’ organisations like the University of East Anglia’s climate change gurus to give the required result comes to mind when the tool of weighting is applied. So, the necessary pinch of salt duly applied, let us slip the IPPR’s taster on our tongues.
IPPR claims that the new polling shows Englishness is a growing political force and an identity that politicians can no longer ignore. Well, that’s no surprise to, say, UKIP and other libertarians.
Nick Pearce writes that the survey “… shows the continued emergence of an English identity that British political parties ignore at their peril. … English identity is becoming politicised: that is, the more strongly English a person feels the more likely they are to believe that current territorial arrangements treat England unfairly. The English are increasingly likely to support reforms which give England greater formal recognition in our political system. Those that choose to prioritise their English identity, and who feel most strongly about the case for reform, are an increasingly important constituency in English political life. Responding to this rising English sentiment would strengthen the United Kingdom, not weaken it”.
Presumably it’s the reason why public figures as disparate as ‘Call me Dave ’ and Fiyaz Mughal, Director of ‘ interfaith’ group Faith Matter –or is it an anti-fascist organisation? have been laying claim to St George and Englishness today.
“…As patron saint for England, St George is there for everyone living in England. Too often he has been hijacked and used as a symbol of triumphalism and division by those on the extreme Right. St George needs to take his rightful place as a national symbol of inclusivity rather than a symbol of hatred…”
Mr Mughal is a representative of one of a number of such groups ensconcing themselves under the umbrella of Christian muslim forum which signed a declaration today, looking to ‘reclaim’, or to be correct, claim St George as their own.
“…The Far Right do not realise that St George was part Greek and his mother came from the city of Lydda in Palestine. He actually epitomises what Britain now is, a vibrant multi-community country and Christians and many Muslims in the Middle East value the symbolism of St George. So we all have to reclaim it from the hatred, anger and violence of Far Right groups like the EDL who do not even know what it symbolises.”
Mr Mughal and his co-signatories make no mention of St George, nor that the churches dedicated to him in Lydda were twice destroyed by muslims. Nor does he seek to reinforce his message of peace by any apology for the many current genocidal muslim attacks on Christians in the middle east. Still, if the progressive secular leaders and clergy of the murdered are content to see a Christian martyr and icon adopted by their muslim counterparts, who are we to quibble at this latest ideological assault on our heritage and values?
But back to the IPPR survey.
One can understand 7 in 10 people wanting a public holiday on St George’s day. But wanting a day off is not in itself an indication of any growing feeling of Englishness. And whether people want it as an addition to existing holidays, or as a substitute for say the socialist May Day holiday, might also have been an interesting question generating different results. As ever, it’s not what you ask that counts, but how and of whom you ask it.
What people did IPPR define as English, one wonders? Were they of English, Scottish, Irish, Pakistani, Indian, West Indian or other Commonwealth origin? Of those people living in England who ‘strongly agree’ that St. George’s Day should become a public holiday (43% overall), UKIP supporters show the strongest support (with 60% strongly agreeing), then Conservative supports (47%), then Labour (44%), with Lib Dem supporters in England less likely to strongly agree than the national average (32%).
The survey argues that mainstream political parties need to embrace Englishness, take it seriously, and find new ways of giving it political expression. As it argues that Englishness is not something to be feared or abandoned “to those on the margins of right wing politics” I wondered whether and to what extent the IPPR’s press release had been time to coincide with the attack on the right from the Christian Muslim forum. My suspicions were increased when the report says that the longer this debate is ignored, or worse, denied, the more likely we will see a backlash within England against the UK.
According to the survey 39% of people living in England say they are ‘equally English and British’ (39%) but more than twice as many say they are ‘more English than British’ (20%) or ‘English not British’ (15%) than those who say they are ‘more British than English’ (10%) or ‘British not English’ (7%).
The survey varies from the most recent Census, which showed that 70% of the English population identified themselves as either solely English or English in combination with some other national identity (10 per cent), with just 29 per cent of respondents identified themselves as feeling any sense of British national identity. The survey varies, with 46% of people living in England feeling ‘very proud’ to be English, compared to 38% who they feel ‘very proud’ to be British (38%) – although overall, a similar number say they feel proud of Britain and of England. Interestingly seven out of ten people who identify as ‘English not British’ don’t trust the UK Government to work in the English interest – which is 30% of us. And, given the discrimination and lack of democracy to which we are routinely subjected by our government, is it any wander?
Apparently people living in England express stronger pride in seeing the Union Jack than they do when they see the St George’s flag. Almost 8 out of ten (78%) say they are either ‘very proud’ or ‘a bit proud’ when they see the Union Jack, compared to 62% for the St George’s flag. The survey argues that, with a clear majority of English voter expressing pride in the St George’s flag, that it has become an accepted part of English national culture. Will that continue should the Union Jack cease to exist if Scotland votes for independence? Though today I found it difficult to decide whether it was Wee Alec or our own George who was playing Don Quixote
And what are we to make of the finding that, when asked which nationality they would like inscribed on their passports, 51% of people living in England said ‘British’ while 40% said ‘English’? Is it habit, or the usurious cost of replacing an old British passport with a new English one? And what about the missing 9%? Do they care? Do they not travel? IPPR argues that this clearly demonstrates a strong commitment to Britain and British identity, but when you consider that ‘British’ is what people already have inscribed on their passports, and is what they are used to, the number opting for changing to ‘English’ is significant.
One wonders if Mr Mughal and his Muslim colleagues from the Forum would be considered to be English for the purposes of the survey and whether they are slaying English dragons or tilting at windmills.