Matt Wright asks if it’s OK to fly the English flag on 23 April.
Upon this charge Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George! is a line from William Shakespeare’s Henry V. Tradition has is that Shakespeare’s birthday is celebrated on the same date – 23rd April – as the saint’s day of England’s patron, St George. But both traditions had more or less died out, until interest in the Cross of St George (red stripes on plain white background) was recently renewed, partly by the Far Right fringe, partly by left-wingers such as singer Billy Bragg who think that the people of England need a new identity after losing out to successive waves of Irish, Welsh and Scottish nationalism, and partly by England football supporters simply looking for an emblem to call their own.
It seems sensible to suggest that Englishness is in need of some attention. Back in the days when Britain ruled the world, England was the dominant element in the United Kingdom, which meant that wherever the Union Jack was flying, it had ‘England’ written all over it.
But those expectations of England have gone the way of Empire – down and out. Conversely, subaltern nations such as Wales and Scotland have seized the opportunity to fly their flags, leaving Englishness all but invisible; hence the case for re-stating it, but in a new way.
It might not come easy, though. Possibly because the English tend to be reticent. But perhaps such reticence is a luxury we can no longer afford, now that the Empire is no longer there to make assertions seemingly on our behalf.
We English haven’t had to fight for the very survival of our culture, unlike the Scottish and Irish; nor are we as loud and verbose as the Americans in their sense of identity.
But you may well ask: if it requires so much effort to make St George’s Day mean something, why bother? The answer is simple: if we don’t, others will.
With the rise of the SNP and Celtic nationalism over the past few decades, governments in England have assumed that because English nationalism was so closely tied with British identity that they were one and the same. That the ‘English crisis’ didn’t need addressing. Well , as any working class Englishman can tell you, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Somebody was addressing the idea of English identity – and that was the Far Right.
While the mainstream moderates in Scotland and Wales were claiming their national flags, the Far Right, seizing an opportunity for growth left open by the mainstream political elite in England, has laid claim to the St George’s Cross.
So it is time for the moderates of England, the majority, to follow in the footsteps of the Celtic nations. As the Scottish adopted the Saltire to symbolise the whole nation, especially during the recent campaign for independence, so we should reclaim the Cross of St George as a symbol of inclusiveness and belonging – a flag for the many rather than the few.
When 23 April comes round, don’t assume that everyone waving the flag is also flouting their xenophobia. The Cross of St George could still be the symbol of a civic English nationalism – should we choose to make it so.