Radio
Stop agonising
Michael Vestey
Who'd be left wing? There's so much to worry about in the world. Why, even being English is a source of shame and guilt that requires counselling to come to terms with. In north London a group of left-wingers meets to try to cope with the problems they have in being English. 'To be English is to be anti-somebody else,' a woman told Gavin Esler in his three-part Radio Four series Brits (Monday), an examination of the British, post-devolution.
Comically, it seems that she and her companions were particularly upset by the slave trade and the British Empire. Do people still agonise about these things? Why can't they look on the positive side? It was Britain that helped end the slave trade and it voluntarily gave up its empire. One might as well be ashamed of witch-burning and Henry VIII's marriage guidance policy. Actually, what the poor darlings of north London needed was counselling about being left wing rather than English.
Those on the right and centre have no problems with Englishness. We know who we are, just as much as any Scotsman or Welshman knows who he is. We do not have an identity crisis triggered by Scottish and Welsh devolution. If anything, many Welsh and Scottish people have more difficulty with their nationality as they told this pro- gramme that they did not not regard them- selves as being British any more. It would also seem that some BBC presenters and producers might need counselling about their own identities. Ester and his team have been roaming the British Isles with tape recorders asking earnestly, 'Who are we? Or, rather, who do we think we are?'
Devolution has got many commentators excited about the break-up of the United Kingdom. Some of those, in the long histo- ry of English intellectuals who hate the nation state, can't wait for Wales and Scot- land to look to Europe instead of London. Others, according to this programme, worry about the affect this will have on the English. Sir Roy Strong told Esler that the British were unprepared for what is to come. An historically illiterate government had, by introducing devolution, taken Britain back to the divisions of the 17th century. Over the centuries, said Strong, governments had stressed what we had in common with each other but now there had been a profound reverse with people thinking only of their differences. Simon Heifer was concerned that there will be growing resentment when the English realise, probably in the next Parlia ment, not this, that Scottish votes will be needed to get English business through Westminster. William Hague said he'd noticed a rise in English consciousness with more and more flags of St George flying than ever before. The Home Secretary Jack Straw revealed some old prejudices, when he said, in his now much quoted remarks, 'The English are potentially very aggres- sive, very violent, of course, and we've used that propensity for violence first of all to subjugate Ireland, Wales and Scotland . . . then in Europe and with our empire.'
He thought the three small nations of the UK had been 'under the cosh of the English'. And yet later in the programme he says, 'We should stop apologising for the fact that we are English' and should celebrate the huge achievements of this country. What does he mean? The high quality and durability of our coshes, per- haps? Well, people like Straw can apolo- gise for being English but most of us don't feel the need to. As these programmes wore on — there's another next week — I began to feel that Esler's concern for the English was misplaced, something dis- cussed by the chattering classes and no one else.
It seems to me that the English don't really care what happens to the Welsh or the Scots. Far from wailing about the break-up of the United Kingdom many would actually welcome it. The wonderful 'forces of conservatism' would survive for- ever in an independent England. As long as England remains outside EMU and contin- ues to be self-governing, I don't suppose for one minute that the English would mind the Scots and Welsh being governed by Brussels. If anything, it would serve them right. And one day the Westminster Parliament will be in a position to tackle the only really serious problem facing the English, the over-representation of Scots and Welsh MPs.
I suppose there will be many more pro- grammes like this as the cliché grows that Britain is disintegrating and what are we to do with the poor English? It's all nonsense, of course. Neither the Welsh nor Scots want full independence and even if, one day, they decide they do it can only be to England's advantage.
'Miss, when's the ad break?'
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