http://britologywatch.wordpress.com/2008/01/29/gordon-brown-and-the-appropriation-of-britain/ Resisting the efforts to impose a unitary British value system and identity Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:44:33 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 http://britologywatch.wordpress.com/2008/01/29/gordon-brown-and-the-appropriation-of-britain/#comment-1109 English Nationalism and Progressive Politics « Britology Watch: Deconstructing ‘British Values’ Mon, 26 May 2008 06:46:20 +0000 http://britologywatch.wordpress.com/?p=75#comment-1109 [...] One wonders what New Labour’s focus groups and private opinion polls have been revealing about the English public’s attitude to the Britishness crusade. Doubtless, people have been saying, ’stop hammering on about what it means to be British and get on with the real job, particularly sorting out the problems with the economy’. A very pragmatic response, indeed, to the rather un-English attempts to systematise Britishness and even to establish a new integral Nation of Britain. [...] [...] One wonders what New Labour’s focus groups and private opinion polls have been revealing about the English public’s attitude to the Britishness crusade. Doubtless, people have been saying, ’stop hammering on about what it means to be British and get on with the real job, particularly sorting out the problems with the economy’. A very pragmatic response, indeed, to the rather un-English attempts to systematise Britishness and even to establish a new integral Nation of Britain. [...]

]]> http://britologywatch.wordpress.com/2008/01/29/gordon-brown-and-the-appropriation-of-britain/#comment-951 Who does this country belong to, anyway? « Britology Watch: Deconstructing ‘British Values’ Tue, 26 Feb 2008 03:40:00 +0000 http://britologywatch.wordpress.com/?p=75#comment-951 [...] they had a transparent mandate, which they do not. As I have described this elsewhere, this is an appropriation (a mis-appropriation) of England and English democracy to Britain: England should belong to the people of England; but instead, it’s been made the property [...] [...] they had a transparent mandate, which they do not. As I have described this elsewhere, this is an appropriation (a mis-appropriation) of England and English democracy to Britain: England should belong to the people of England; but instead, it’s been made the property [...]

]]> http://britologywatch.wordpress.com/2008/01/29/gordon-brown-and-the-appropriation-of-britain/#comment-936 What are ‘English values’? « Britology Watch: Deconstructing ‘British Values’ Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:46:50 +0000 http://britologywatch.wordpress.com/?p=75#comment-936 [...] To summarise so far: pre-devolution, we had a unitary Britain dominated by England, in which the English and British identities were merged; post-devolution, we have a separating out of the identities of England and the ‘two Britains’ from which it had previously been indissociable: Britain in the sense of the other countries of the UK, and Britain in the sense of the unitary British state. That state, in the shape of the Labour government, took it upon itself to resurrect the rapidly disappearing unified British identity on which its legitimacy and power depended. Unable to reverse the devolution for which it was responsible, it could not re-establish Britishness by recreating the popular, organic sense of shared identity, history, family relatedness, and social solidarity and community encapsulated in a Britain with which the nations of the UK had all been to some extent happy to identify and belong: the English by seeing the other countries of Britain as an extension of England; and the other countries by seeing Britain as just another name for England, with which they were united in one kingdom. Labour’s only option was to take the formal values of the British state itself as the foundation of a new national-British unity - indeed, of a new Nation of Britain, as I’ve described it elsewhere. [...] [...] To summarise so far: pre-devolution, we had a unitary Britain dominated by England, in which the English and British identities were merged; post-devolution, we have a separating out of the identities of England and the ‘two Britains’ from which it had previously been indissociable: Britain in the sense of the other countries of the UK, and Britain in the sense of the unitary British state. That state, in the shape of the Labour government, took it upon itself to resurrect the rapidly disappearing unified British identity on which its legitimacy and power depended. Unable to reverse the devolution for which it was responsible, it could not re-establish Britishness by recreating the popular, organic sense of shared identity, history, family relatedness, and social solidarity and community encapsulated in a Britain with which the nations of the UK had all been to some extent happy to identify and belong: the English by seeing the other countries of Britain as an extension of England; and the other countries by seeing Britain as just another name for England, with which they were united in one kingdom. Labour’s only option was to take the formal values of the British state itself as the foundation of a new national-British unity – indeed, of a new Nation of Britain, as I’ve described it elsewhere. [...]

]]> http://britologywatch.wordpress.com/2008/01/29/gordon-brown-and-the-appropriation-of-britain/#comment-921 Robert Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:19:39 +0000 http://britologywatch.wordpress.com/?p=75#comment-921 Lets not mess about and leave England go it's own way, Wales Scotland and Ireland, Labour can call it what they like, but lets form our own governments, let Wales have Labour, England New Labour, and the rest decide by voters. But Wales at the moment re getting nothing out of this United Kingdom. Lets not mess about and leave England go it’s own way, Wales Scotland and Ireland, Labour can call it what they like, but lets form our own governments, let Wales have Labour, England New Labour, and the rest decide by voters. But Wales at the moment re getting nothing out of this United Kingdom.

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