Walterp
Member
- Location
- Pembrokeshire
Capt E J Smith's famous last words, as he encouraged the Titanic's crew to stay on board. The White Star's MD, J Bruce Ismay, remembering that he was in fact English, swiftly found a place on a lifeboat, and left the patriotic Britisher to his watery fate. (Mr Ismay received so much stick for this, afterwards, that he went to live in Scotland).
A 'British' identity is a modern invention, arising from the Act of Union 1707; it held as little attraction for the English, then, as it did for Mr Ismay in 1912. The Empire changed everything - the English, Welsh and Scots tacitly agreed to 'layer' their national identities in order to share the lustre cast by Pax Brittanica. The Irish, perhaps less so.
If the British Empire was "crucial to the idea of a British identity and to the self-image of Britishness" (David Powell, 'The Nation State') then Imperial decline rekindled nationalist memories in more assertive ways - the Irish largely went their own way, the Scots and the Welsh have devolved governments, and a 'layered' identity these days includes being European. The new WAG offices in Carmarthen proudly flies Y Ddraig Goch, the Union Jack and the Golden Stars: the Welsh flag reminds me of my nationality, the British one of our past, and the European one of our future.
The English, however, look at things rather differently - since Victorian times 'Britishness' has, for them, meant the same as 'Englishness'. The terms are still, today, used interchangeably by English people, unconsciously referencing a past far more illustrious than their present. One of my heroes is Mr Gwynfor Evans, Plaid's famous lawyer-politician who became its first MP in 1966 (for Carmarthen, where his family still live - sut mae? Dafydd) and he said it best: "Britishness is a political synonym for Englishness which extends English culture over the Scots, Welsh and the Irish".
The British identity has been eroded further by mass immigration, and by the country joining the EEC - which, of course, neatly explains precisely why the English hate both immigrants and the EU.
It has caused a sense of identity crisis - the English can hardly become devolved from themselves, can they? So, instead, they hang onto the idea of 'Be British!' even though that particular concept has, like the brave but ill-fated Capt Smith, well and truly sunk below the waves.
A 'British' identity is a modern invention, arising from the Act of Union 1707; it held as little attraction for the English, then, as it did for Mr Ismay in 1912. The Empire changed everything - the English, Welsh and Scots tacitly agreed to 'layer' their national identities in order to share the lustre cast by Pax Brittanica. The Irish, perhaps less so.
If the British Empire was "crucial to the idea of a British identity and to the self-image of Britishness" (David Powell, 'The Nation State') then Imperial decline rekindled nationalist memories in more assertive ways - the Irish largely went their own way, the Scots and the Welsh have devolved governments, and a 'layered' identity these days includes being European. The new WAG offices in Carmarthen proudly flies Y Ddraig Goch, the Union Jack and the Golden Stars: the Welsh flag reminds me of my nationality, the British one of our past, and the European one of our future.
The English, however, look at things rather differently - since Victorian times 'Britishness' has, for them, meant the same as 'Englishness'. The terms are still, today, used interchangeably by English people, unconsciously referencing a past far more illustrious than their present. One of my heroes is Mr Gwynfor Evans, Plaid's famous lawyer-politician who became its first MP in 1966 (for Carmarthen, where his family still live - sut mae? Dafydd) and he said it best: "Britishness is a political synonym for Englishness which extends English culture over the Scots, Welsh and the Irish".
The British identity has been eroded further by mass immigration, and by the country joining the EEC - which, of course, neatly explains precisely why the English hate both immigrants and the EU.
It has caused a sense of identity crisis - the English can hardly become devolved from themselves, can they? So, instead, they hang onto the idea of 'Be British!' even though that particular concept has, like the brave but ill-fated Capt Smith, well and truly sunk below the waves.
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