English nationalism

Nationalism that asserts that the English are a nation

English nationalism is a nationalism that asserts that the English are a nation and promotes the cultural unity of English people. In a general sense, it comprises political and social movements and sentiment inspired by a love for English culture, language and history, and a sense of pride in England and the English people. English nationalists often see themselves as predominantly English rather than British. On the political level, some English nationalists have advocated self government for England such as the English Democrats. This could take the form either of a devolved English parliament within the United Kingdom or the re establishment of an independent sovereign state of England outside of the United Kingdom.

The history of English nationalism is a contested area of scholarship. The historian Adrian Hastings has written that: "One can find historians to date 'the dawn of English national consciousness' (or some such phrase) in almost every century from the eighth to the nineteenth".

Patrick Wormald has claimed that England was a nation by the time of the Venerable Bede, who wrote the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People) around 730. Wormald attributes Bede with a decisive "role in defining English national identity and English national destiny". Bede uses the label "English" to describe the Germanic peoples who inhabited Britain: Angles, Saxons and Jutes, and excluding Britons, Scots and Picts. In the final paragraph to the preface of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People Bede departs from the usual word "gens" and instead uses the word "natio" to describe the "historia nostrae nationis": the history of our own nation. This is the first verbal appearance of the English nation. The Anglo Saxon poem The Battle of Maldon described the said battle between the Anglo Saxon forces of Ethelred the Unready against a Viking invasion in 991. The poem praises the Anglo Saxons defence of "their land, the land of Ethelred the King, the place and the people" and Byrhtnoth, Earl of Essex, is attributed as saying: "Shall our people, our nation, bear you to go hence with our gold?" Both Hastings and James Campbell believe England was a nation state during late Anglo Saxon times. Campbell writes that by the Norman conquest of 1066, "England was by then a nation state".

The idea of the Norman yoke became increasingly popular amongst English radicals in the seventeenth century. They believed that Anglo Saxon England was a land of liberty but that this liberty was extinguished by the Norman conquest and the imposition of feudalism. John Milton, writing in the 1640s, used nationalist rhetoric: "Lords and Commons of England, consider what nation it is whereoff ye are" and on another occasion: "Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation raising herself like a strong man after sleep". In her widely cited book, Britons: Forging the Nation 1707 1837, Linda Colley argues for the formation of an English nation in the Stuart era.

There are few books which analyse English national identity. Liberal thinking has difficulty with English nationhood due to the association of Englishness with regressive and conservative values. Academics typically consider 'the English question' in a constitutional manner.

The English nationalist movement has its roots in a perception amongst many people in England that they are primarily or exclusively English rather than British, which mirrors the view in the other constituent countries. The perceived rise in English identity in recent years, as evidenced by the increased display of the English flag (particularly during international sporting competitions i. e. FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship), is sometimes attributed in the media to the increased devolution of political power to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The entanglement of nationhood and class in England means that nationalism is associated more with working class English people. England remains a place where 'hot nationalism' is avoided, which has an effect on expressions of national identity. This anomaly was addressed in 2015 using the English votes for English laws procedures to ensure that legislation affecting only England requires a majority vote of MPs representing English constituencies. Many contemporary English nationalist movements are associated with support for right of centre economic and social policies, but nationalists elsewhere in the UK tend towards a social democratic political stance, as evidenced by the policies of the Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru, and SDLP. English nationalism is also often linked with Euroscepticism and Brexit has been described as a symptom of English nationalism.

A MORI opinion poll in 2006 commissioned by the Campaign for an English Parliament indicated that support for the creation of an English Parliament with the same powers as the existing Scottish Parliament had risen, with 41% of those questioned favouring such a move. In the same month an ICM Omnibus poll commissioned by the Progressive Partnership (a Scottish research organisation) showed that support for full English Independence had reached 31% of those questioned. In November 2006, another ICM poll, commissioned by the Sunday Telegraph, showed that support for an English Parliament had reached 68% and support for full English Independence had reached 48% of those questioned. A study conducted for the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) in 2005 found that, in England, the majority of ethnic minority participants born there identified primarily as being British, whereas white English participants identified as being English first and British second. A YouGov survey for the BBC in 2018 found young people are less likely to feel proud to be English than older generations and the further someone lives from London, the more likely they are to identify with a particular part of England.