Labour 'too reluctant' to talk about English national identity

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

Oh Dave, I mean, Ed, you'll do anything to raise your profile and gain some easy populist support (hate the use of 'identity' poilitics, BNP and EDL being prime examples. It's really just the politics of ethnicity and nationailty that, ironically, are more divisive than unifying).

Ed Miliband is to suggest that Labour has been "too reluctant" to talk about Englishness and the issue of national identity should not be a "closed book".
In a speech in London, the Labour leader will argue that his party has been "nervous" to talk about what it means to be English and celebrate it.
Expressing national identity should strengthen the case for the United Kingdom not undermine it, he will add.
However, he will say calls for an English Parliament are "simplistic".
The excitement around the recent Diamond Jubilee celebrations and the Olympic Games later this summer mean it is a good time to "reflect on who we are as a country", the Labour leader will say.
In his most direct attempt since becoming opposition leader to address the future of the UK - and drawing heavily on his own family history - Mr Miliband will say those seeking to break up the union are offering a "false choice" and a "narrow view" of national identity.

(More at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18344832)

[hatzel]

In his most direct attempt since becoming opposition leader to address the future of the UK - and drawing heavily on his own family history - Mr Miliband will say those seeking to break up the union are offering a "false choice" and a "narrow view" of national identity.

This alone makes me a little bit interested to know exactly what he's going to say. I mean considering 'his own family history' is Polish-via-Belgium Jewish asylum seekers...well, you'd think that a reasonable approach to what it means to 'be English and celebrate it' in light of such a history would have to involve dismantling the idea of Englishness, of England for the English, and a very obvious and pronounced step away from nationalistic tropes. Though I assume it will - at the very best - just collapse into some kind of wishy-washy 'well diversity and tolerance is good! We can have the English and the Scots living together, hand-in-hand! That's what it means to be English' with no real substance...

[Agathor]

This alone makes me a little bit interested to know exactly what he's going to say. I mean considering 'his own family history' is Polish-via-Belgium Jewish asylum seekers...well, you'd think that a reasonable approach to what it means to 'be English and celebrate it' in light of such a history would have to involve dismantling the idea of Englishness, of England for the English, and a very obvious and pronounced step away from nationalistic tropes. Though I assume it will - at the very best - just collapse into some kind of wishy-washy 'well diversity and tolerance is good! We can have the English and the Scots living together, hand-in-hand! That's what it means to be English' with no real substance...

And Dave comes from a sect of Britain which is about as insulated as Orthodox Jewry. The idea that either of them can express the national identity is pretty funny.

I have a feeling that 'talking about English National Identity' is a spin-phrase for 'talking about filthy islamopolish job snatchers'.

[Hit The North]

They're even more reluctant to talk about social class :thumbdown:

[DrZaiu5]

I suppose I haven't had much respect for the Labour party for a long time now and this certainly doesn't do anything to change my mind. Personally I view the Labour party as similiar to all other mainstream parties, in that they really don't care about the working class and that they are only interested in power.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

I actually think he's right. We should talk about English national identity, in particular how English nationalism was used as a pretext for violent conquest and imperialism, and how the jingoistic nationalism of today mirrors the jingoistic nationalism of the Imperial era. In that respect, talking about English national identity as an ideological construct which supports the bourgeois state is very important.

On the other hand, I don't think that's what HE meant :cool:

[GerrardWinstanley]

First it's 'too reluctant to talk about national identity'

Then it's 'too reluctant to talk about immigration'

And then 'too reluctant to talk about multiculturalism'

Labour for a long time has unwittingly adopted (or in Blair's case, consciously embraced) the chauvinist discourses of the British National Party. Sometimes by proxy from the Conservatives and at other times, even actively pre-empting the Tories on race politics to make themselves look 'tough'. Ed Balls is one such example (who was once likened by David Cameron to Alf Garnett).

It invariably backfires since the question of who is best placed to override any pretense of cultural sensitivity or respect for the rights and liberties of those outside the fold of good, middle class 'British values' for the sake of a ruthless immigration policy is an argument Labour cannot hope to win. This plays into the hands of extreme parties.