{"id":636,"date":"2021-03-04T22:04:36","date_gmt":"2021-03-04T22:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/?p=636"},"modified":"2021-03-04T22:04:36","modified_gmt":"2021-03-04T22:04:36","slug":"another-england-is-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/another-england-is-possible","title":{"rendered":"Another England is possible"},"content":{"rendered":"
Another England is possible: a Northern response to \u2018The English Question\u2019<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Paul Salveson, Hannah Mitchell Foundation<\/p>\n

This paper argues that the quest for a \u2018progressive English\u2019 politics that doesn\u2019t recognise the nation\u2019s regional diversity is a dead-end. It makes the case for an \u2018England of the Regions\u2019 with a new democratic settlement founded on regional assemblies elected by PR. It makes the case for developing new , progressive policy networks (\u2018ideas mills\u2019) which may be regionally-based \u2013 but which talk to each other and similar fora in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. These networks must have deep roots in their communities, reflecting regional distinctiveness. Keir Starmer\u2019s apparent tilt towards \u2018patriotism\u2019 is unlikely to win support in the North but could well lose members across the UK. There is an alternative, based around progressive regionalism which embraces the strong radical traditions in different parts of Britain.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Holy Grail of \u2018Progressive Englishness\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The quest for a \u2018progressive English politics\u2019 has become a growing trend recently amongst sections of the English Left. Recent articles in The Guardian<\/em> and Observer<\/em> suggest that \u2018re-capturing\u2019 English identity from the Right could be key to Labour re-building its popularity in a post-Brexit world. Writing in The Guardian<\/em> recently Andy Beckett suggests that the nature of Englishness matters \u2013 \u201cnot least because a less prickly and entitled version would be better for our neighbours. And it might even stop a lot of the English from feeling like foreigners in their own land.\u201d [1]<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s much to agree with Andy\u2019s arguments, which recognises that the nature of England has changed dramatically in the last few decades and our relationship with a potentially independent Scotland needs to be carefully defined so that a vindictive and reactionary nationalism doesn\u2019t take hold in England. In a subsequent piece in The Observer<\/em> [2]<\/a> Julian Coman is more specific about how a progressive Englishness could be articulated. Illustrated by a photo of \u2018quintessential England\u2019 – a rural English church with the flag of St George flying next to it – Julian takes us on an \u2018English Journey\u2019 which culminates in the idea of an English Parliament which would sit, comfortably we must assume, with devolved or independent governments for Scotland and Wales.<\/p>\n

Professor John Denham of the Centre for English Identity at the University of Southampton joins in, condemning \u2018the Left\u2019 for its neglect of English identity suggesting \u201cThat this more liberal Englishness still lags behind multicultural Britishness is in large part because the Left has shunned English identity or promoted reactionary caricatures of it (perhaps like the photo used in The Observer<\/em> story). Where British multiculturalism combined grassroots demands for inclusion with state endorsement, Englishness has had no such support. The surprise is not how little Englishness has changed, but how much. But it has too often been left to sports people \u2013 most recently Marcus Rashford, perhaps \u2013 to embody this developing Englishness. The engagement of political leaders and the state in shaping English identity \u2013 as Scotland\u2019s leaders have done with Scottish identity \u2013 is long overdue.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

To a limited extent they are right, though the deeply embedded conservatism within \u2018English\u2019 culture can hardly be blamed on the Left for failing to engage with it. It\u2019s inherently reactionary, reflecting England\u2019s \u2018great\u2019 imperial past and all that went with it. One of the strong slogans of the Leave campaign was \u2018take back control\u2019. But for most of us, we were never in control in the first place. It was England\u2019s ruling class that had control, and still largely does, though how \u2018English\u2019 it is in these days of global capitalism is questionable.<\/p>\n

The political conclusion of their arguments for \u2018progressive Englishness\u2019 is deeply worrying. A unitary English Parliament would stimulate what the Scots-born Irish republican James Connolly, in a different context, called \u201ca carnival of reaction\u201d. Not only would it even further institutionalise the political dominance of England\u2019s south and embolden a very nasty strain of right-wing Toryism, it would drive a very large wedge between us, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. \u00a0Any sort of federation between Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and a unitary England would inevitably be dominated by England, which numerically alone would vastly outweigh its would-be federal partners. It would re-inforce the current concentration of power in London and the south-east and leave the North of England even more marginalised and excluded. It would set in stone the supremacy of English Toryism at its worst. A \u2018left-wing\u2019, or even mildly progressive, English nationalism is fool\u2019s gold and will end in tears.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2018The Left\u2019 and questions of identity<\/strong><\/p>\n

Much is made in all three contributions about what is seen as a coherent view of \u2018the Left\u2019 assuming a coherent political movement embracing a particular set of attitudes, including hostility to \u2018England\u2019 and ignorant of \u2018place\u2019 and \u2018identity\u2019. I\u2019d argue that\u2019s mistaken in many ways. Hostility to \u2018English nationalism\u2019 doesn\u2019t have much theoretical underpinning, but is an understandable reaction to the re-emergence of a nasty form of right-wing Toryism. There isn\u2019t, and probably never has been, a cohesive \u2018Left\u2019 with an agreed set of values, ideas and assumptions, at least in England. Scotland and Wales do have their networks and institutions which are developing some exciting approaches to their national political debates, such as Common Weal in Scotland and the Bevan Foundation in Wales. But what of England itself? \u00a0Perhaps the Communist Party came nearest to providing it but that has long gone as a serious political force. \u00a0E.P. Thompson, Christopher Hill, A.L. Morton and others celebrated the radical strand within English history which sat comfortably with progressive traditions in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. [4]<\/a><\/p>\n

The Labour Party itself has never really cared for intellectuals, still less a cohesive grouping of them that might influence policy. The Independent Labour Party tried to develop that role but its decision to ostracise itself from the mainstream in the early 1930s consigned it to irrelevance. Subsequently, groups around The New Reasoner <\/em>(former CP\u2019ers like E.P. Thompson, John Saville and others) did good work in developing a \u2018British\u2019 democratic socialism in the late 1950s but its influence didn\u2019t stretch very far. The same goes for the work of intellectuals such as Perry Anderson and Robin Blackburn in the early days of New Left Review<\/em>. Both were highly scathing of the narrowness of \u2018British Labourism\u2019.<\/p>\n

Today, what thinking there is amongst socialists tends to revolve around those bastions of London-based middle-class progressivism, The Guardian<\/em> and The Observer<\/em> as well as New Statesman<\/em>. And there are some talented writers, including Paul Mason, Andy Beckett, Julian Coman and others.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s very much a \u2018metropolitan Left\u2019 centred around London and its social networks.\u00a0 There\u2019s not much else; you\u2019d struggle to think of a left-wing magazine in England that isn\u2019t published (and largely written) from London. As Marx said, your material being – including where you live! \u2013 determines your consciousness.<\/p>\n

What often strikes me about much of this London-based Left is its general lack of understanding and knowledge of the country in which they live, outside of the capital. This was evident during the referendum on Scottish independence and subsequent attempts to rebuild Labour support in Scotland, typified by Starmer\u2019s very poor speech on devolution recently, which seemed entirely about winning back support north of the border. In a way, London political commentators (of the Left Centre or Right) have at least as limited an understanding of England as they do of Scotland, Wales and Ireland.<\/p>\n

This lack of understanding or empathy with the English regions runs deep and isn\u2019t compensated by pleas from some London-based political writers about their \u2018Northern\/Scottish\/Welsh\u2019 (delete as applicable) roots. They exemplify what has been termed by David Goodhart as \u2018people from nowhere\u2019, counter-posed to \u2018people from somewhere\u2019, who had a real identity with their place. [5]<\/a>Goodhart overstates his case by equating \u2018people from somewhere\u2019 too closely with Leave voters \u2013 reality is and was more complex. But he has a point.<\/p>\n

Much of the media reporting of the North by the London media is often a condescending and stereotypical\u00a0 \u2018day return journalism\u2019 with writers doing their best to spend as little time as possible away from home. The demise of most \u2018regional correspondents\u2019 in the national media has been a further nail in the coffin of balanced and intelligent reporting of the North and other English regions. Patronising and stereotypical views of \u2018The North\u2019 remain entrenched and acceptable within a London media culture that would think twice before patronising black or gay people. The North of England, as well as Scotland and Wales, remains \u2019fair game\u2019. We are seen as Leave-voting, socially conservative born-again Tory voters, grovelling amidst the ruins of the \u2018red wall\u2019 (see below).<\/p>\n

Good and bad nationalism<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s step back a bit and compare different \u2018nationalisms\u2019. I\u2019ve some sympathy for the classic Marxist analysis which drew a clear distinction between the nationalism of \u2018oppressed, colonial nations\u2019 (good) and the nationalism of the colonising nations (bad). Crude maybe, but not wrong.\u00a0 England, not by any means a small country with a population of 56 million, has spent centuries dominating and robbing other countries, including its immediate neighbours. The sun may have finally set on the British Empire but many of the attitudes, and racial stereotypes that went with them, are still very much alive. They were given a fresh airing during and after the Brexit campaign and have not gone away. Its politics is right-wing English nationalism and its institutional expression would ultimately be found within an English Parliament. We already see the visceral hatred of the SNP and the hatred of Nicola Sturgeon by the Anglo Right.<\/p>\n

It will get much worse. For progressives within England, the last thing we should do is to help with this demonization of Scottish nationalism. [6]<\/a>If Scotland wants to become an independent nation, that is for Scotland (and not the UK as a whole) to decide. But we can have a view \u2013 mine would be that many of the advantages of independence \u2013 and more – could be gained by a confederal British Isles with each part of the federation being equal. That would mean the English regions having separate representation, but clear protection for Scotland, Wales and Ireland who would otherwise be outvoted by \u2018England\u2019 in its regions. In reality, the Northern regions may decide to align more closely with Scotland and Wales than the southern English regions. Who knows, but I suspect there is more sympathy for Scotland across the North than we often assume.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

Nobody is saying England is awful (but it could become so)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like many northern regionalists, I love many aspects of England including its rich diversity and radical history which includes but goes well beyond London. The North can take credit for much of what was and often still is good about England, but by no means all of it: the beauty of its landscape, its ingenuity and industry; its music, painting, architecture, science, literature and engineering. Many of these achievements were not seen as specifically \u2018English\u2019 so much as part of a Great Britain and an empire which had emerged triumphant but drastically weakened in its war against fascism.<\/p>\n

A strong British economy with major centres of industry in the North of England, South Wales and the central belt of Scotland compensated for the structural inequalities, including the centralisation of political power, between London and the rest of the UK. When that traditional industrial base collapsed, from the 1980s, it marked the beginning of the end for \u2018Great Britain\u2019, at least as we know it. The end of Britain, whether we mourn it or not, does offer real opportunities, with a very different \u2018England\u2019 working positively with Scotland, Wales and Ireland (north and south, but re-unification is beginning to look like a serious possibility) as well as Europe.<\/p>\n

We must not succumb to an England of the stereotypes \u2013 of the village green and the quaint church with the flag of St George flying high. That awful term \u2018quintessentially English\u2019 has no room for the North, nor for urban, multi-cultural London and Birmingham. And a \u2018North\u2019 which is patronisingly referred to, in lower case, as \u2018the north\u2019, the land of what was \u2018the red wall\u2019 (but never really was, except in the imagination of London journalists. [8]<\/a><\/p>\n

We need to create a new England which is re-balanced, with the historic exploitation of its regions reversed. The germ of a decentralised, progressive England is already there and it has been highlighted \u2013 perhaps clumsily \u2013 by the proponents of \u2018progressive Englishness\u2019. Here I can agree with Andy Beckett and Julian Coman. Another England is possible, but it\u2019s an England of the regions.<\/p>\n

An England of the Regions<\/strong><\/p>\n

What could an \u2018England of the regions\u2019 mean in practice? The alternative to a unitary, centralised English Parliament should be a new, de-centralised England which reflects the regional diversity of the country and sits comfortably with its neighbours. [9]<\/a> Could \u2018English regionalism\u2019 be just as reactionary as English nationalism? Experience from elsewhere in Europe, suggests not. [10]<\/a><\/p>\n

Regionalism tends to be inclusive and socially progressive, with no imperialist baggage. \u00a0When I was campaigning for the small regionalist party Yorkshire First (now The Yorkshire Party) I found that regional identities were predictably strong in white working class communities but also in working class South Asian communities. Regional identity can be a very unifying force.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s \u2018identity\u2019 which is key. We need to re-think the \u2018regional\u2019 map of England and not take the post-war regional boundaries (through the standard planning regional structure) as given. People\u2019s identities are as important as what works economically. Some English regions form an obvious shape \u2013 Yorkshire and its neighbour the North-East being perhaps two of the most obvious. Others, including the North-West, don\u2019t. We should be careful of drawing arbitrary distinctions which ignore people\u2019s strong sense of identity \u2013 which is one of the biggest cards that regionalism has to play. And there\u2019s no doubt that \u2018identity\u2019 is a tricky thing, with people having identities that are national, regional, local and neighbourhood; as well as \u2018European\u2019 and wider.<\/p>\n

Within \u2018The North\u2019 regional identity is often strongest at a lower level than \u2018The North\u2019. As Ian Martin has argued: \u201c…it is important to recognise that for many people in Yorkshire, their primary sense of identity is not Northern or English, but Yorkshire. English parliament supporters often point to the 2011 census and use it to suggest increasing numbers of people in Yorkshire feel primarily English. In reality however, the census doesn\u2019t give people in Yorkshire a fair opportunity to identify with identities other than \u2018English\u2019 or \u2018British\u2019. When the option to identify as Yorkshire is given, as described by Pete Woodcock[11]<\/a>, the overwhelming majority identified as \u2018Yorkshire\u2019 with only a smaller proportion identifying as \u2018English\u2019 as well. The most common identity was \u2018more Yorkshire than English\u2019 and around 15% of residents surveyed rejected the idea of English identity completely.\u201d<\/p>\n

My gut feeling is that a similar response would come from Lancashire (including some of \u00a0those parts which are now in Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cumbria), if people were asked. The mayor of \u2018North of the Tyne\u2019, Jamie Driscoll, captured a sense of regional versus \u2018English\u2019 identity in the North-east when he said recently \u201cUp here, we talk about defending the North-east. Bringing up the union \u2013 well, that\u2019s a reminder of the Establishment down south, isn\u2019t it?\u201d[12]<\/a><\/p>\n

So perhaps a revived and enlarged \u2018Lancashire\u2019 alongside Merseyside and Cumbria would be an option instead of a \u2018North-West\u2019 region which few people identify with. The obvious solution is to ask people, using citizens\u2019 assemblies and other grassroots participative approaches rather than the blunt instrument of a referendum which would easily be swayed by the media, as we saw in the North-East in 2004 (still held up by centralists as a reason why \u2018regional democracy\u2019 is not wanted).<\/p>\n

Re-balancing Britain<\/strong><\/p>\n

England, and its creation \u2018The British State\u2019, will take some shifting. The catalyst will be Scottish independence, which will result, by default, with what is essentially an \u2018English Parliament\u2019 with Wales as a perhaps unwilling appendage. Cracks are already beginning to show in the North, with the emergence of small regionalist parties and most recently the new \u2018Northern Independence Party\u2019 (NIP) which is essentially a civic nationalist party based around a national identity (\u2018Northumbria\u2019) which currently doesn\u2019t exist. \u00a0But as we know, \u2018nations\u2019 are created and perhaps in the future a \u2018Northumbrian\u2019 identity will emerge. There\u2019s a very long way to go. In the long-term, an independent \u2018North\u2019 might happen. For now, it seems a very long way off, but if NIP can snap at the heels of Labour and push it towards a more pro-Northern approach, fine. For the foreseeable future, I could live with the idea of a \u2018federal England\u2019 within a confederation which includes Scotland, Wales and the North of Ireland \u2013 with hopefully the Republic as a close friend and ally.<\/p>\n

A confederal Britain could emerge as an alternative to the complete break-up of the UK. But it should be a \u2018confederation\u2019 of nations and regions\u2019, not a supposed federation in which Westminster remains in ultimate control. [13]<\/a><\/p>\n

For the time being, Labour, with the Lib Dems and Greens, should get behind the idea of regional democracy and move beyond the city-region mayoral model. It\u2019s undemocratic and unaccountable; only the figurehead is elected, a step back even from the days of the metropolitan county councils. The role of cross-party regionalist groups such as Hannah Mitchell Foundation and \u2018Same Skies West Yorkshire\u2019 are particularly important in winning broad support as well as developing new ideas and different ways of thinking\/doing stuff.<\/p>\n

The North needs its own \u2018left\u2019 that can develop new approaches to regional politics and culture, but a very inclusive \u2018left\u2019 that goes beyond just the Labour Party. The Hannah Mitchell Foundation is an example of one attempt to do that, Same Skies (in Yorkshire) another. It\u2019s about collaboration and learning from elsewhere \u2013 the civic nationalism of Scotland and Wales, but also progressive regionalism in other parts of the world. London itself, with its vibrant culture and socially liberal politics, should be a positive partner \u2013 but not an over- dominant one \u2013 in a re-alignment of progressive politics. We need to talk to each other more, even if it\u2019s by zoom.<\/p>\n

In turn, a regional Left needs to feed in to regional consciousness through very practical means, through regional institutions including parties, unions, voluntary sector and universities. This is a contemporary take on the Italian Marxist philosopher, Antonio Gramsci, and his idea of \u2018the organic intellectual\u2019. In his case, the organic intellectual was the Party which brought together the industrial working class and the intelligentsia, with political theory translated directly into the party\u2019s practice. It wasn\u2019t a particularly democratic model \u2013 but we could make it so.<\/p>\n

The threat of an English Parliament is real. As Ian Martin of Same Skies said \u201cwe must take every opportunity to build our capacity now so that we are prepared for the day when an English Parliament refuses to look our way.\u201d Fair point Ian, but we must do our best to prevent that happening at all. This means arguing strongly against the lurch towards English nationalism which Keir \u00a0Starmer appears to be toying with. As Jamie Driscoll commented, \u201cthere\u2019s no way he can do that flagwaving better than the likes of Nigel Farage.\u201d Labour can appeal to the so-called \u2018red wall\u2019 constituencies in the North, but attempting to cloak itself in the Union Jack will be seen as opportunistic and slightly ridiculous. Yet the North has its own strong progressive traditions based around co-operation, community solidarity and a distinct form of \u2018ethical socialism\u2019 which is waiting to be interpreted for the 21st<\/sup> century.[14]<\/a><\/p>\n

In the North, we need to develop a regional culture and consciousness\u00a0 which includes an alternative body of thinking that is progressive and inclusive. In effect, a kind of collective \u2018organic intellectual\u2019 which is part of a regional community\/ies and not dependent on the patronage of London-based media. Less a \u2018think tank\u2019, more an \u2018ideas mill\u2019. The North \u2013 and the regions within it \u2013 are slowly starting to wake up and the recent spat between Andy Burnham and Boris Johnson, and the huge groundswell of support which Burnham generated, shows that a regional consciousness is starting to stir. As yet, it struggles to find a political expression but it\u2019s there for Labour to grasp. If it doesn\u2019t , others will. The journey might just end with an independent Northumbria. A big part of me hopes it doesn\u2019t, but I\u2019d love a confederal British Isles.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Guardian<\/em>, January 8th<\/sup> 2021<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Julian Coman \u2018Proud to be English: How can we shape a progressive patriotism?\u2019 The Observer<\/em> January 17th<\/sup> 2021<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> John Denham, Guardian<\/em> January 12th<\/sup> 2021<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> E.P. Thompson The Making of the English Working Class<\/em>, 1963. The title itself is revealing, so too A.L. Morton\u2019s A People\u2019s History of England<\/em>, 1938). Thompson had an acute understanding of regional distinctiveness and his book is strongly based on working class struggles in the North, particularly Lancashire and the West Riding.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> David Goodhart People from Somewhere<\/em> 2019<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> See the thoughtful piece by Neal Lawson https:\/\/www.prospectmagazine.co.uk\/politics\/scottish-independence-labour-party-union-future<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Following the independence referendum there was some on-line polling which showed a lot of support amongst people in the North of England for the North to merge with Scotland! Probably not the right answer to the North\u2019s problems, but interesting all the same.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> See Paul Salveson in Chartist<\/em>, April 2020\u00a0 https:\/\/www.chartist.org.uk\/whats-all-this-red-wall-stuff\/<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> See Paul Salveson Socialism with a Northern Accent<\/em> \u2013 radical traditions for modern times<\/em> 2012. More recently, Alex Niven in New Model Island<\/em> (2019) has argued for progressive regionalism.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> See Ian Martin A Journey that ends\u00a0 in Northumbria<\/em>, 2021<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> https:\/\/theconversation.com\/cornwall-and-yorkshire-show-regional-identities-run-deep-in-england-too-41322<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> Quoted in The Guardian<\/em> February 3rd<\/sup> 2021<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> See https:\/\/www.diffen.com\/difference\/Confederation_vs_Federation<\/a> for basic differences between a confederation and a federation<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> See my Socialism with a Northern Accent \u2013 radical traditions for modern times <\/em>2012<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another England is possible: a Northern response to \u2018The English Question\u2019 Paul Salveson, Hannah Mitchell Foundation This paper argues that the quest for a \u2018progressive English\u2019 politics that doesn\u2019t recognise the nation\u2019s regional diversity is a dead-end. It makes the case for an \u2018England of the Regions\u2019 with a new democratic settlement founded on regional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":637,"href":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions\/637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lancashireloominary.co.uk\/index.html\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}