The Dis-United Kingdom

"The Rise of English Nationalism" by Robin Harris, in The National Interest (Winter 1998–99), 1112 16th St., N.W., Ste. 540, Washington, D.C. 20036; "Identity Crisis," in The Economist (Oct. 3, 1998), 25 St. James’s St., London SW1A 1HG.

For most of the United Kingdom’s 292year history, no clear distinction was made between being British and being English. But that may be changing. "Though most of the rest of the world has not yet grasped it, Britain is now Balkanizing," contends Harris, a freelance writer who served in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s government.

Consider the English football (soccer) fans. When the English national team played in the World Cup final in 1966, the stadium in London was a forest of waving Union Jacks, symbol of the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. During last summer’s Cup competition in France, however, it was the Cross of Saint George, the national flag of England, that was "streaming from giant banners, painted on the faces of lager-louts in a hundred English urban centers, finally worn by chanting mobs in the back streets of Marseilles." Higher on the social scale, Harris says, "grumbles about the Scots" are increasingly common.

The feelings are mutual. A survey last June showed that most Scots regard themselves as Scottish rather British, and believe an independent Scotland is inevitable. On May 6, Scots are to go to the polls to elect their own devolved parliament within the United Kingdom, the first such legislative body since 1707, when the independent parliaments of Scotland and England agreed to merge. The new parliament is the gift of Prime Minister Tony Blair, who hopes Scottish voters will opt for his Labor Party rather than the secessionist Scottish National Party.

The decline of empire and the extensive secularization of what was once a self-consciously Protestant state have weakened the bonds holding Britons together, Harris argues. In addition, political correctness has made suspect "all of the more recognizable features of Britishness—language, history, tradition, ethnic homogeneity." Last summer’s football hooligans no longer possessed, he says, "a sufficiently compelling British national identity, and they wanted to flaunt...a new identity that they had made their own."

But while English football fans may wave the flag of Saint George, the Economist points out, "they also love to belt out choruses of ‘Rule Britannia.’" The Londonbased newsmagazine cites a recent survey showing that while 84 percent of Britons identify very or fairly strongly with England, Scotland, or Wales, 78 percent also identify with Britain. "Those trying to create an alternative English nationalism to the muscular, xenophobic and racially exclusive variety," the Economist says, "take heart from this willingness to embrace a variety of national identities."